Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Violence and talks coincide: “Fighting raged around key cities in Ukraine on Monday as the country’s first talks with Russia since last week’s invasion concluded with no immediate breakthrough. Even as Moscow said officials negotiating at the border had ‘heard’ each other, Ukraine said its second-largest city was coming under attack from heavy Russian shelling.”
* On a related note: “Russia hit residential areas of Ukraine’s second-largest city with heavy shelling Monday, according to Ukrainian officials, an apparent escalation of the Kremlin’s assault just as officials from both sides met for peace talks.”
* These sanctions isolate Russia in dramatic ways: “The United States is expanding sanctions on Russia’s central bank in a move that will block Americans from doing any business with it and freezing any assets it holds in the U.S. In a statement Monday, the Treasury said the decision would apply to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation.”
* The sanctions matter: “Widening Western sanctions roiled the Russian economy Monday, forcing its currency, the ruble, to crater…. Worried Russians stood in line near ATMs for hours amid fears of worsening inflation.”
* I’m not sure the folks who’ve been talking up a no-fly zone have fully thought through the implications: “Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told NBC News he supports the Biden administration’s decision not to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine. ‘It would invariably require our aircraft to come into contact with Russian aircraft. The possibility of miscalculation or deliberate confrontation would be very serious,’ Reed said on Monday.”
* The weekend’s big news: “President Vladimir Putin took ‘unprecedented’ post-Cold War action Sunday by ordering his nuclear deterrent forces to be on alert as international tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine spiraled.”
* The climate crisis: “Climate change is no longer a far-off threat — it’s an ongoing disaster that is already endangering humans and natural environments around the world, according to an urgent new report from the United Nations that says the world is running out of time to stave off the most devastating consequences of global warming. The report, released Monday by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, outlines the increasing risk that climate change poses to human health, infrastructure, the stability of food and water resources and the biodiversity of the planet’s ecosystems.”
* A historic break with the Swiss’ generations-long neutrality: “Switzerland, a favorite destination for Russian oligarchs and their money, announced on Monday that it would freeze Russian financial assets in the country, setting aside a deeply rooted tradition of neutrality to join the European Union and a growing number of nations seeking to penalize Russia for the invasion of Ukraine.” * SCOTUS: “Members of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Monday questioned the scope of the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate carbon emissions from power plants, suggesting that the court could deal a sharp blow to the Biden administration’s efforts to address climate change.” * Compelling evidence: “Scientists released a pair of extensive studies over the weekend that point to a large food and live animal market in Wuhan, China, as the origin of the coronavirus pandemic.” See you tomorrow.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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