"How lovely to think that no one need wait a moment, we can start now, start slowly changing the world!" 

- Anne Frank

"With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts."

-Eleanor Roosevelt

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence."

- Helen Keller

Spirit of America is a "not neutral" NGO. 

Spirit of America is very active in providing support into Ukraine. We are working primarily with US embassy personnel (mil and State) relocated from Kyiv to Poland. Our focus is on non-lethal assistance to Ukrainian armed forces and civilian volunteers, including medical supplies, comms gear, body armor and helmets. We placed our first order - for $4mm - on Friday. It will arrive in Rzeszow by Thursday and be in Ukraine the next day. We have the pieces in place - procurement, logistics, shipping, "last mile" - to significantly scale our assistance. This is the moment - the fight to defend freedom - that Spirit of America was built for.

This is the time to "take a side" which is what being "not neutral" means. Spirit of America always takes the side of America and its allies.

You can help: The SOA online donation page is: https://spiritofamerica.org/project/defend-ukraine-freedom

(Note: I am a member of the SOA Board of Advisors).

• Russian forces spent the past 24 hours largely regrouping and preparing to renew offensive operations around Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Mykolayiv.
• The Ukrainian General Staff reports the presence of a large concentration of Russian forces west of Kharkiv that it assesses will launch a wide offensive southwest toward the Dnipro River, although no such offensive has begun as of this publication.
• Russia violated two Russian-Ukrainian ceasefire agreements, collapsing efforts to establish a humanitarian corridor to help evacuate civilians from Mariupol and Volnovakha on March 5 and 6.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has not demonstrated any willingness to de-escalate with Ukraine or the international community, nor has he provided reasonable demands that would lay the groundwork for de-escalation or negotiations.
• The Kremlin is likely laying the domestic information groundwork for a declaration of martial law in Russia should Russian President Vladimir Putin decide that mass mobilization and conscription are necessary to achieve his objectives.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin allowed for the confiscation of assets belonging to “corrupt” Russian officials on March 6, likely to acquire new revenue streams at the expense of alienating some supporters.
• The Kremlin is attempting to deter US or European bans on Russian oil exports by claiming that a ban would devastate world oil markets.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin compared Western sanctions to a “declaration of war” on March 5 as the Kremlin began to retaliate against foreign businesses.

• Ukraine’s Framing: Multiple Ukrainian officials claimed Russian attacks in Mariupol on March 5 and 6 closed the humanitarian corridor.[4] Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko and Mariupol Deputy Mayor Serhiy Orlov said Russian forces were “still bombing Mariupol“ on March 5 and called off evacuation efforts.[5] The head of Ukraine’s Donetsk Region administration, Pavlo Kirilenko, said in a Facebook post on March 6 that the second attempt to evacuate Mariupol residents failed.[6] Kirilenko claimed “the Russians began to regroup their forces and resumed heavy shelling of the city.”[7] Ukrainian Interior Ministry advisor Anton Gerashchenko and Ukrainian Minister for Reintegration Iryna Vereshchuk blamed Russian shooting along parts of the corridor between Mariupol and Zaporizhzhia for the failure to safely establish humanitarian corridors.[8]
• Russia’s Framing: Russian officials and Kremlin-supported media outlets claimed the Ukrainian government is disinterested in helping its citizens and said Ukraine blocked its citizens from evacuating Mariupol on March 5 and 6. Russia’s Ministry of Defense claimed Russian forces followed the ceasefire order and accused “Ukrainian forces and national battalions of taking advantage of the declared [ceasefire] to regroup on defensive positions.”[9] Head of the National Center for Defense Control of the Russian Federation Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev stated on March 5 that “a catastrophic humanitarian situation had developed” in most of Ukraine and falsely claimed “the Nazis blocked thousands of Ukrainians and foreigners” from evacuating. Russian Defense Ministry Representative Major General Igor Konashenkov said on March 5 the Russian military went ahead with its offensive operations at 6:00 am Moscow time “due to Ukraine's’ unwillingness to influence nationalists or extend [the ceasefire].”[10]

• Russian forces spent the past 24 hours largely regrouping and preparing for renewing offensive operations around Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Mykolayiv.
• The Ukrainian General Staff reports the presence of a large concentration of Russian forces west of Kharkiv that it assesses will launch a wide offensive southwest toward the Dnipro River, although no such offensive has begun as of this publication.

• Main effort—Kyiv (comprised of three subordinate supporting efforts);
• Supporting effort 1—Kharkiv;
• Supporting effort 1a—Luhansk Oblast;
• Supporting effort 2—Mariupol; and
• Supporting effort 3—Kherson and advances westward.

• Russian operations northwest of Kyiv may resume attacks on the city and/or attempts to encircle it to the west in the next 24-48 hours;
• Russian forces east of Kyiv may resume their drive likely intended to envelop Kyiv from the east;
• Russian forces may attempt amphibious landings anywhere along the Black Sea Coast from Odesa to the mouth of the Southern Bug in the next 24-48 hours.

Instead of serving up a pack of lies, the Kremlin would have done better to have ordered its conscripts, and itself, to read War and Peace. On the eve of Borodino, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky says war is not chess; “success never depends . . . on position, on equipment, or even on numbers, and least of all on position”. “On what, then?” someone asks. “On the feeling that is in me and him . . . and in each soldier.” Leo Tolstoy, who had seen war close up, was right. Which is why, in the end, the Russian conquest of Ukraine will also be Putin’s abysmal defeat.

Putin has strong incentives to prosecute the war, even as Ukraine evolves into a major, unanticipated proxy war with the West. Putin’s rule at home and reputation abroad rests on his image of toughness and iciness. He needs to reverse last week’s humiliation. He also needs the Chinese to know they have backed a winner. On the Ukrainian side, there is growing confidence that they might fight the war to a stalemate, and therefore need not accede to Putin’s demands. Both sides are looking for a battlefield decision now.

How the free world pushes back against Russian disinformation, especially inside Russia, will have implications for other autocracies—including China, North Korea, and Iran. Today, China is propagating Russia’s lies about Ukraine to its own population. Getting the truth to the Russian people now could bring Putin’s dangerous reign to an end and have a deterring effect on other regimes’ future behaviors.

Bergen: How much manpower would Putin need to control the territory?

Repass: Difficult to say.

The Russians must have enough people to coerce the 41 million people in Ukraine to cooperate with the Russian government. It took a large part of the German Army's Eastern Front to subdue the Ukrainians so they could pursue the campaign into southern Russia during World War II.

So, I don't see how Putin's going to be able to pull that off.

I think the Western liberal democracies have both a moral obligation and a political imperative to support a nation fighting for its independence and the pursuit of a liberal political order in the Western tradition. If not here, where will we take a stand against autocratic and revisionist forces? What should Georgia and Azerbaijan conclude from our timidity in the face of evil? Surely Taiwan is next.

I believe Russia's assault on Ukraine is the leading edge of militarily strong states preying upon weaker ones. Few of us thought we would be here, but so it is. What are we going to do now?

History has been unkind to nations when they tolerate or appease such aggression. The concepts of territorial integrity and democracy cannot end at NATO's borders. Is the rest of the world to be left to the wolves while there is but one island of security? Russia's attack on Ukraine cannot succeed if we hope to build and sustain the benefits of democracy beyond NATO's borders.

 The big unknown is how Beijing will navigate this new and unfamiliar terrain. The simple answer is no one knows—not even the Chinese. It is not an exaggeration to claim the entire world has been upended over the last two weeks, and the battle for Ukraine remains far from finished. Nevertheless, it seems all but certain that China will not launch a war it might lose, let alone lose badly. Instead, Beijing will do what it does best: Double down on its long-term, incremental strategy of retaking Taiwan by “all means short of war.” Taiwan will likely face increasing cyberattacks and other forms of non-kinetic coercion aimed at demoralizing the population into eventual capitulation. China will also accelerate its campaign to delegitimize Taiwan on the international stage, denying Taipei recognition in various international fora and perhaps even whittling down the already small number of countries that officially recognize Taiwan.

• A new emblem has surfaced in the Ukraine-Russia conflict: a "Z," stylized in a thick brushstroke.
• The "Z" was spotted on Russian tanks invading Ukraine and painted on the sides of military vehicles.
• It may have started off as a Russian signal for victory, but has been appropriated as a symbol of the far-right.

—Kamil Galeev (@kamilkazani) March 6, 2022

—Kamil Galeev (@kamilkazani) March 6, 2022

—Samuel Ramani (@SamRamani2) March 6, 2022

—Denis Kazakiewicz (@Den_2042) March 6, 2022

—Francis Scarr (@francska1) March 3, 2022

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These and other questions won’t be asked or answered if we fail to see the reality unfolding before our eyes and understand its broader implications. To say “No one wants war” is to miss the obvious: Putin does. He has launched an aggressive war, and he won’t stop by himself or by sanctions alone. This is not the kind of world order conducive to American prosperity, or anyone else’s. To focus too narrowly on the Ukraine crisis misses the opportunity to address the larger geopolitical challenges that Ukraine represents.

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If democracies do not support one another against a nuclear-capable tyrant, like Putin, we are all in big trouble. Ukraine may be the first, but it certainly won’t be the last to fall to an oppressor. The motto of the U.S. special forces is De Oppresso Liber, which translated from the Latin means “to free the oppressed.” The Russians overmatch the Ukrainians in every military category except courage. I can think of few times in their history when the Green Berets were needed more.