Democracy Now!

The U.S. is refusing to directly condemn Saudi Arabia after the kingdom announced on Saturday it executed 81 people, including seven Yemeni men and one Syrian man. Rights groups say many of those executed were people arrested for participating in human rights demonstrations and that many of the defendants were denied access to a lawyer, held incommunicado and tortured. This comes as the U.S. is said to be in talks with Saudi officials about upping the kingdom’s oil supply to ease gas prices in the West. “It’s very clear that the Saudi government thought that they could take advantage of the Ukraine crisis to quietly carry out this execution,” says Sarah Leah Whitson of Democracy for the Arab World Now. Whitson says President Biden’s continued attempts to negotiate with Saudi Arabia while condemning the human rights abuses perpetrated by Russia are “pathetic,” undermining international law and U.S. credibility on human rights. She also says the Saudi government is trying to pressure the U.S. to scrap a lawsuit she is leading on the state-sanctioned murder of the Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi in exchange for increasing oil production.

We speak with Joshua Yaffa, longtime Moscow correspondent for The New Yorker, who has just left Ukraine after reporting on the Russian invasion for the past two weeks. He says Russian attacks in Ukraine are becoming increasingly indiscriminate as the army is unable to take over the capital of Kyiv to facilitate Putin’s goal of a regime change, noting, “Putin has raised the stakes for himself so extraordinarily high that I don’t think he’ll be convinced to back down based on something like street protests.” He also describes support from Ukrainian civilians for a no-fly zone, which many fear could start a war between the U.S. and Russia and increase the likelihood of a nuclear disaster.

The mayor of Kyiv has declared a 36-hour curfew after a series of Russian missile strikes hit residential areas of the capital of Ukraine on Tuesday. Meanwhile, talks are resuming today between Ukraine and Russia, and the prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia are traveling to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. We get an update from outside of Kyiv from Peter Zalmayev, director of the Eurasia Democracy Initiative, on the Russian invasion. “They’re not having any military successes, so they’re just bent on revenge and anger that they’re venting on civilians,” says Zalmayev. He says if Russian attacks continue on the same trend, Ukraine could see up to 50,000 civilians killed in the war, and that any agreement between the two countries will be flawed, as “the Russian side has shown that they cannot be trusted.”

Mariupol Residents Evacuate as Russia Blocks Aid Convoy; Kyiv Declares Curfew, Russian State TV Employee Interrupts Evening News Broadcast with Antiwar Protest, U.S. Warns China Not to Give Russia Military or Financial Assistance, U.N. Agencies Warn of Rising Rates of Famine in War-Torn Yemen, CIA Used Prisoner in Afghan Prison as a “Training Prop” for Torture, U.K. Supreme Court Won’t Halt Extradition of Julian Assange to U.S., Boris Johnson Planning Trip to Meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Idaho GOP Passes Bill to Ban Abortions at 6 Weeks, Criminalize Gender-Affirming Surgery, Joe Manchin Joins GOP Senators, Dooming Confirmation of Fed Nominee Sarah Bloom Raskin

Ukraine says Belarus could become directly involved in the Russian invasion. This comes as Russia sent thousands of troops to Belarus to attack Ukraine from the north and NATO has accused the Russian Air Force of flying warplanes from airfields in Belarus last week. “We all know, see and understand that the territory of Belarus is used for conducting the war against Ukraine,” says Natallia Satsunkevich, an activist with the leading independent Belarusian human rights group Viasna. She links the degradation of civil society in Belarus to the criminalization of human rights actors and protesters. Satsunkevich also says the referendum vote on housing Russian nuclear weapons was unfair, and describes how Putin’s backing of the Lukashenko regime in Belarus has worsened human rights in the country.

On Sunday, the U.S. journalist and filmmaker Brent Renaud was shot dead near Kyiv while working on a documentary about refugees. He is the first foreign journalist known to have been killed in Ukraine since the Russian invasion. Ukrainian officials are accusing Russian forces of his death. We discuss Renaud’s remarkable documentary work and feature part of an interview he gave on Democracy Now! after he was embedded in Iraq with the National Guard from his home state of Arkansas. We are joined by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ann Marie Lipinski, who got to know both Renaud and photographer Juan Arredondo during their time as fellows at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, which Lipinski curates. “Brent was a very, very special journalist, yes, but also person,” says Lipinski. “He just brought a very, very rare humanity and patience to the work.” We also hear from Cora Weiss, former board of directors chair of Downtown Community Television, where Brent and his brother Craig started their filmmaking career in the same former firehouse building that housed Democracy Now! for over a decade. “He shouldn’t have been killed,” says Weiss. “Brent was terribly important as an educator for all Americans to understand the horrors of war and the unnecessary expense in life.” Carlos Martínez de la Serna of the Committee to Protect Journalists says Renaud’s killing amounts to a war crime.

Russia Widens Targets as Kyiv, Polish Border Come Under Attack, More Than 2,000 Mariupol Residents Killed; 2 Ukrainian Mayors Abducted, U.S. & Chinese Officials Meet Amid Wave of Russian Sanctions, Reports Russia Seeking Chinese Military Aid, Award-Winning U.S. Journalist & Filmmaker Brent Renaud Killed While Covering Ukraine Refugee Crisis, Russia Shuts Down Instagram as Meta Allows Calls for Violence Against Russian Soldiers on Facebook, Iran Claims Attack on Iraq’s Kurdish Capital; Russian Sanctions Jeopardize Iran Nuclear Deal Talks, Saudi Arabia Executes 81 Men in One Day, U.N.: 10,200+ Children Killed Since Start of War in Yemen, Leftist Gustavo Petro Wins Colombia Presidential Primary as Chile Swears In Progressive Gabriel Boric, China Locks Down Shenzhen Amid Worst COVID Outbreak of Pandemic; Cases on the Rise in Europe, Parisians Call for Presidential Candidates to Prioritize Climate, Eliminate Fossil Fuel Dependence, Biden Admin Ends Trump-Era Border Policy, But Only for Unaccompanied Migrant Children, Texas Judge Blocks Gov. Abbott’s Order to Probe Trans Kids’ Care as “Child Abuse”, Texas Supreme Court Leaves Near-Total Abortion Plan in Place, Ohio Grand Jury Will Not Indict White Cop Who Fatally Shot Black Teenager Ma’Khia Bryant, Police Search for Gunman Accused of Shooting at Least 5 Unhoused People, “Coverage4All”: New York Budget Plans Include Healthcare for Undocumented Immigrants

What role did the United States play in creating conditions for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and what will it take to end the war? The U.S. invasion of Iraq, which saw no repercussions for the Bush administration despite breaching international humanitarian law, coupled with Cold War-era policies and NATO’s eastward expansion, incited Putin’s aggressions towards Ukraine, says retired colonel Andrew Bacevich, president and co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “American decision makers acted impetuously, and indeed recklessly, and now we’re facing the consequences,” says Bacevich.

We get an update from a Ukrainian volunteer on how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has besieged the strategic southern city of Mykolaiv, where Russian troops have targeted civilian areas for shelling. Many Ukrainians are asking European nations and the U.S. to establish a no-fly zone. We speak to Igor Yudenkov in Mykolaiv, a former IT professional who is now helping other residents find shelter, feeding pets left behind, and defending the city. Yudenkov ​​has been separated from his wife and daughter, who are currently in Russian-occupied territory.

We speak to Svitlana Romanko, a leading Ukrainian environmental lawyer, based in the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk, which was bombed Friday. She describes the situation there, and discusses her hopes that new sanctions to prevent American banks from investing in Russian fossil fuels signal a tipping point that will force the world to transition to clean energy. Aside from its disastrous impact on the environment, Russian oil and gas has funded powerful oligarchs and the military industrial complex, which should prompt world leaders to invest in renewable energy in ways that will survive beyond the war, says Romanko. This week she co-authored an Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times with 350.org founder Bill McKibben headlined “The Ukraine war is a decision point — banks should stop funding the fossil fuel industry forever.”

Russian Tanks and Artillery Take Firing Positions Within Range of Ukraine’s Capital, Ukraine’s President Calls Russia a “Terrorist State” Civilian Attacks, IAEA Warns of Deteriorating Conditions at Ukrainian Nuclear Sites, White House Will Ask Congress to Revoke “Most Favored Nation” Status for Russia, U.S. Inflation Jumps to 40-Year High, UAE Asks OPEC to Boost Oil Production as U.S. Presses Saudis Over Oil Prices, Pentagon Asks Biden to Deploy U.S. Commandos to Somalia, U.S. Claims North Korea is Testing New Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, Israeli Knesset Reinstates Racist “Citizenship Law”; Palestinian Lawmaker Salah Hamouri Arrested, BJP Claims Key Victories in State Elections, Bolsters Right-Wing Head of Uttar Pradesh, Guatemalan President Rejects Bill Banning Marriage Equality and Increasing Penalty for Abortion, 2020 Census Significantly Undercounted U.S. Residents of Color, Victims’ Families and Survivors of Opioids Epidemic Confront Sackler Family in Historic Hearing, 3 More Starbucks Locations Unionize; MLB Agrees to New Contract, Ending Lockout

Russian forces reportedly killed at least three people when they bombed a children’s hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Wednesday, shelling a humanitarian corridor and breaking a ceasefire deal that was was meant to allow residents to flee. The actions constitute a violation of international humanitarian law and, therefore, a potential war crime, says David Miliband of the International Rescue Committee. The mayor of Mariupol says there have been over 1,200 civilian deaths since the start of the war. Russian forces have also cut off the city’s water supply and electricity. “This is a strangulation of the city,” says Miliband.

We go to Moscow to look at the growing antiwar movement in Russia, where activists are risking a brutal crackdown to oppose their government’s assault on Ukraine. Arshak Makichyan is a climate activist who recently joined protests against the invasion and says the actions of the Russian government do not reflect the will of the people. He says Russian citizens suspect President Vladimir Putin could declare martial law soon, as part of a broader campaign to suppress dissenting voices. Meanwhile, U.S. sanctions have unintended consequences on peace activists, whose access to virtual private networks and foreign social media platforms has been hurt, leaving them less able to find alternative sources of information. “It’s difficult and dangerous to fight this regime,” says Makichyan.

Poland continues to be a vital destination for refugees fleeing the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, who risk cold winter temperatures and travel for days to cross the border into safety. Humanitarian aid relief workers are calling for the European Union to put more pressure on Russia to agree to a ceasefire and find a diplomatic solution to end the war. Speaking from Lublin, Poland, Becky Bakr Abdulla of the Norwegian Refugee Council says that as the world focuses its attention on Ukraine and Russia, refugees from countries such Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen are experiencing less hospitable treatment. “Let’s not also forget tens of millions of other refugees and displaced people around the globe that need equal amount of support,” she says.

The Russian military invasion of Ukraine has devastated civilian centers such as schools and hospitals. Over 2.2. million people have fled the country, resulting in a dangerous refugee crisis in Europe as Russia refuses to guarantee the “humanitarian corridors” promised for civilians to safely evacuate. “What we’re talking about is repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure, which is illegal under international law,” says Bel Trew, independent correspondent for The Independent, who has been reporting on civilians being targeted in other Ukrainian cities.

Ukraine Condemns “Atrocities” as Russia Bombs Maternity Hospital and Shells Refugee Corridors, Russian and Ukrainian Foreign Ministers Fail to Reach Ceasefire Agreement, U.S. Amends UN Ambassador’s Condemnation of Russia’s Use of Cluster Bombs, House Passes $1.5T Spending Bill After Democrats Drop $15B for Coronavirus Relief, U.S. on Pace to Miss its COVID Vaccine Donation Goal, Conservative Ex-Prosecutor Yoon Suk-yeol Wins South Korean Presidential Election, Israel & Turkey Agree to Renew Relations as Turkish Activists Protest Visit From Israeli President, Prominent Western Saharan Activist in Morocco Targeted With Pegasus Spyware, TX Flags 27,000 Primary Mail Ballots for Rejection; FL Legislature Approves Election Police Force, Trial Opens Over 2020 Plot to Kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan Charges Ex-Boy Scouts Leader Charged For Sexual Assault, Guatemalan Congress Approves Bill Upping Prison Sentence for Abortions, Banning Same-Sex Marriage

We speak with Chase Strangio of the ACLU about recent anti-LGBTQ measures in Florida, Texas and Idaho, and pending bills in other states. Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” education bill aims to ban the mere discussion of sexuality and gender identity in schools. A bill in Idaho criminalizes gender-affirming healthcare for transgender children and teens. Meanwhile, welfare officials in Texas have begun to carry out Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s directive to launch child abuse investigations against parents who seek gender-affirming care for their transgender children. “What we’re seeing is a national, well-funded effort to attack and eradicate trans youth and trans lives specifically,” says Strangio, who is also an attorney in the ACLU’s lawsuit against Abbott.

We go to London to speak with writer and activist Tariq Ali about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s historic address to the British House of Commons, Russia’s invasion and NATO expansion into Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, U.S. officials have reportedly traveled to Venezuela to discuss lifting sanctions and increasing imports of Venezuelan oil to make up for the oil shortage induced by new sanctions on Russia. “Further escalation, further armaments, pouring in weapons is going to make conditions worse, principally for people of Ukraine,” says Ali.

Global oil and gas prices are skyrocketing as the U.S. bans Russian energy imports as part of its sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine. In retaliation, Russia threatened to cut off natural gas to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. We speak to energy and climate investigative reporter Antonia Juhasz, author of “The Tyranny of Oil: The World’s Most Powerful Industry,” about growing calls for a green energy revolution amid the climate crisis and rising prices for fossil fuels. “The bottom line is to achieve, first, peace in Ukraine and stop Putin, and then to make the transition from fossil fuels,” says Juhasz.

ICRC Warns of “Apocalyptic” Situation in Ukraine As New Attempts to Evacuate Civilians Move Ahead, U.S. Rejects Poland Fighter Jet Plan, Announces Ban on Russian Oil, Dozens of Children Killed, One Million Have Fled, As Invasion Takes Toll on Ukraine’s Children, Venezuela Releases 2 U.S. Prisoners After High-Profile Visit From White House Delegation, Intl Mining Co. Destroyed Indigenous Land, Suppressed Opposition and Spied on Reporters in Guatemala, Jury Finds 1st Defendant Tried Over Jan. 6 Guilty; Grand Jury Indicts Leader of Proud Boys, Florida Senate Approves Highly Contested “Don’t Say Gay” Bill Despite Widespread Outcry, Idaho House Passes Bill Criminalizing Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Youth, Minneapolis Teachers Go On Strike, Call for Better Learning Conditions and Fair Wages, Senate Passes Major Reform of U.S. Postal Service, Excluded Workers Shut Down Major NYC Bridges, Demand More Support From State, International Women’s Day: Ukrainian Women Take Shelter; Police Arrest, Attack Protesters Around World

As the U.S. considers a ban on importing Russian oil as part of sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine, senior advisers to President Biden are reportedly planning to visit Saudi Arabia to secure more oil to make up the shortfall. We speak to Minnesota Congressmember Ilhan Omar about Saudi Arabia’s devastating war in Yemen, which has caused the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. “If our issue is that we don’t want to buy oil from a powerful country that is conducting a devastating war on its weaker neighbor, I just don’t see Saudi Arabia hardly being a principled solution,” says Omar. She also discusses the need to institute policies so all refugees of war can be treated with the same level of hospitality as Ukrainians, the need to ban members of Congress from trading stocks and more.

Russia’s crackdown on civil society has extended to antiwar protesters, independent news media and human rights organizations, silencing dissent and sources of information amid the war in Ukraine. Under Russia’s foreign agents law, nongovernmental organizations receiving funding from another country experience increased scrutiny and risk of liquidation. We speak with Anna Dobrovolskaya, executive director of the Memorial Human Rights Center, one of Russia’s oldest human rights organizations, which monitors human rights violations and provides legal assistance to asylum seekers. Russian courts ordered it dissolved in December 2021. “It’s the approach of the Russian government to widely and silently put some limitations on people who are just willing to speak openly,” says Dobrovolskaya. “The government is just trying to close everything down.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky released a video on Monday to admonish Russia for breaking promises to let Ukrainian citizens evacuate safely through “humanitarian corridors,” as Russian forces have continued to lay siege to civilian centers. We go to western Ukraine to speak with Olena Shevchenko, Ukrainian human rights and LGBTI activist who recently fled the Russian military assault on Kyiv with her parents and has been helping to evacuate others. Vulnerable communities such as disabled and transgender people have a more difficult time fleeing to safety, says Shevchenko.

Ukraine Accuses Russia of Shelling Evacuation Corridor as Civilian Deaths Mount, EU Leaders to Discuss Phaseout of Russian Fossil Fuels as Biden Weighs Russian Oil Ban, U.N. Says More Than 2 Million Refugees Have Fled Ukraine, Advocates Demand Rescue of Haitian Refugees Stranded on Desecheo Island, U.N. Warns of Worsening Civilian Toll from Conflicts in Ethiopia, Afghanistan, U.S. Releases Mentally Ill Torture Survivor Held at Guantánamo for 20 Years, Confirmed Global COVID-19 Death Toll Passes 6 Million, Florida Surgeon General Recommends Against COVID Vaccines for Children, “We Say Gay!”: Florida Students Walk Out to Protest Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation, Supreme Court Rejects GOP Bid to Restore Gerrymandered Maps in NC, Pennsylvania, U.S. Navy to Shutter Pearl Harbor Fuel Depot That Caused Water Contamination, Protests and Celebrations Mark International Women’s Day

We speak to Russian activist and historian Ilya Budraitskis after over 5,000 antiwar protesters were detained on Sunday as part of a sweeping crackdown on Russian civil society and the media. Activists in Russia are relying on alternative outlets such as social media for information, as the Russian government continues to censor major news outlets. Writers and independent news outlets such as Novaya Gazeta have faced the threat of criminal investigations for spreading so-called disinformation, which includes using the words “invasion” and “war” to describe Russia’s military actions in Ukraine, says Budraitskis.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has entered its 12th day as civilians across Ukraine are shelled while trying to flee for safety. More than 1.5 million refugees have now left Ukraine in what the United Nations is calling the fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II. We speak to Kateryna Ivanova, who ran a dental clinic with her husband just outside of Kyiv, about the toll of war on daily life as medical professionals risk their lives by staying behind to meet the shortage. “We cannot work as a dental office at the moment, but I really want to be of use for my neighborhood and for my country, so I’m doing what I can,” says Ivanova.

After multiple failed peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, Russia has promised a ceasefire and several so-called humanitarian corridors to allow Ukrainians to flee to predetermined countries, though similar agreements have fallen apart amid continued Russian shelling of civilian areas. We speak to Anatol Lieven from the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft about what a Ukraine-Russia peace deal could look like and what is at stake in a prolonged war. “The world community as a whole is very, very anxious for this war to end,” says Lieven.

Ukraine’s Zelensky Warns of More Russian Attacks on Cities, Calls for No-Fly Zone as 1.5M Flee, Russian Police Arrest 5,000+ Protesters, Kremlin Ramps Up Media Crackdown Amid Mounting Isolation, WNBA Player Brittney Griner Arrested and Detained in Russia, Federal Court Limits Use of Pandemic-Linked Immigration Policy, Crime Reporter Juan Carlos Muñiz Is 7th Murdered Journalist in Mexico This Year, Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian Teen Near Al-Aqsa Mosque in Occupied East Jerusalem, ISIS-K Claims Peshawar Mosque Attack That Killed at Least 56 People, U.N. Calls for Warring Political Factions in Libya to Work Together Toward New Elections, White House Mulls Biden Trip to Saudi Arabia as Calls Grow for Russian Oil Ban, North Korea Holds 9th Ballistic Missile Test of 2022, New York City and Los Angeles Drop Coronavirus Restrictions, Supreme Court Reinstates Death Sentence for Boston Marathon Bomber, GMG Union Wins New Contract, Ending Five-Day Strike Against G/O Media, Tornadoes Kill 7 in Iowa, Kamala Harris Joins Civil Rights Leaders in Selma at 57th Anniversary of “Bloody Sunday”

We speak with Ukrainian American journalist Lev Golinkin about the rise of the far right in Ukraine. Golinkin says Russian bombing of the sacred Jewish site of Babi Yar disproves Putin’s claims that the invasion is about “denazification,” and attacks on cities in eastern Ukraine show he does not care about Russian-speaking Ukrainians either. He also speaks about the neo-Nazi presence within his home country, saying, “Ukraine’s far right is the primary benefactor on the Ukraine side of this war because they now get to attract people from all over the world, and they get to be seen as on the frontlines of fighting for white civilization.” He adds the presence of neo-Nazis in Ukraine “does not give Russia any reason, any justification, to invade an inch of Ukrainian territory.”

As the Russian military escalates its invasion in Ukraine, Russian police are cracking down on antiwar protesters at home, arresting more than 8,000 over the past eight days. Meanwhile, Russia’s lower house of parliament has passed a new law to criminalize the distribution of what the state considers to be “false news” about military operations, and remaining independent news outlets in the country are shutting down under pressure from the authorities. We speak with Vladimir Slivyak, co-chair for the leading Russian environmental organization Ecodefense, who won the 2021 Right Livelihood Award — the “alternative Nobel Peace Prize” — for defending the environment and mobilizing grassroots opposition to the coal and nuclear industries in Russia. Slivyak describes Putin’s attempts to shut down independent media within Russia and the “pure propaganda” his regime is spreading on state-sponsored media to justify the invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of “nuclear terror” after Russian forces shelled and subsequently set on fire the largest nuclear power plant in Europe on Friday morning. The fire at the Zaporizhzhia plant burned for hours but reportedly did not spread to any of the plant’s six reactors before the Russians ultimately seized the site. Ukraine heavily relies on nuclear power, with 15 active nuclear power reactors across the country. Targeting any of these reactors — or even deactivated reactors at Chernobyl — could result in a catastrophic nuclear radiation leak that could make the surrounding region, and even most of Europe, uninhabitable. We host a roundtable discussion with Ukrainian energy expert Olexi Pasyuk in western Ukraine, Russian environmentalist and 2021 Right Livelihood Award Laureate Vladimir Slivyak and Greenpeace nuclear specialist Shaun Burnie, author of a new report on severe nuclear hazards at the Zaporizhzhia plant in Ukraine. “No state has been invaded with such a large nuclear power program,” says Burnie. “We’re in new territory here.” The report says the only solution is immediate end to war.

Russia Accused of “Nuclear Terror” for Shelling Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Putin Says Russia’s Invasion Is Going as Planned; Macron Says “Worst Is Yet to Come”, Ukrainian Camera Operator Killed in Russian Strike on TV Tower ID’d as Yevhenii Sakun, Russia Forces Independent Radio and TV Broadcasters Off Air over Coverage of Ukraine, ICC Investigators Head to Ukraine as U.N. Rights Council Condemns Russian Invasion, Biden Admin Grants Protected Status to Ukrainian Immigrants, Halts Deportation Flights, Lawmakers Propose U.S. Ban on Imports of Russian Fossil Fuels, Youth Climate Activists March in Solidarity with Ukraine, Call for Equal Treatment of All War Victims, Mosque Bombing in Pakistan’s Peshawar Kills at Least 30 People, SCOTUS Rules CIA Black Sites Can Be Treated as State Secrets, Jury Acquits Brett Hankison of Wanton Endangerment in Raid That Killed Breonna Taylor, Florida Legislature Approves 15-Week Abortion Ban, Florida Students Speak Out Against “Don’t Say Gay” Bill; Iowa Enacts Trans Athelete Ban, Man Charged in Anti-AAPI Hate Crime Spree in NYC, Purdue Pharma, Sackler Family Reach New Settlement with States over Opioid Epidemic, NYT Tech Workers Unionize, Becoming Largest Tech Union with Bargaining Rights

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned that if a Third World War were to take place, it would be a nuclear war. His comments come just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert and after Russian nuclear submarines set sail for tests in waters near Norway. Meanwhile, voters in Belarus have approved a referendum opening the door for Russia to station nuclear weapons in Belarusian territory, and Russia has called on the U.S. to remove its nuclear weapons from European soil. “We need to acknowledge that nuclear weapons are clearly not a cause of stability in the world, as we’re often told,” says Daniel Högsta, campaign coordinator for the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. “They don’t deter conflicts; they in fact have the potential to exacerbate them.” Högsta also explains the dangers of imposing a no-fly zone in Ukraine despite Russia’s continued threats of using nuclear weapons, which he says amount to a kind of “nuclear blackmail.”

While President Biden has ruled out sending troops into Ukraine, the U.S. is directly aiding Ukraine militarily and has imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia amounting to what some have called “economic warfare.” We look at Biden’s response with Senator Bernie Sanders’s foreign policy adviser Matt Duss, who is also Ukrainian American. He says the U.S. should continue to exhaust all diplomatic avenues in order to stop violence in Ukraine. Duss also details the U.S. role in setting the stage for Putin’s oligarchical government and says the U.S. must not use “Ukranians as a tool for our foreign policy and our conflict with Russia.”

As the United Nations reports more than a million refugees have now fled the violence in Ukraine, the U.N. General Assembly voted 141 to 5 to denounce the Russian invasion. Meanwhile, Russian troops have reportedly seized their first city: the strategically located southern port of Kherson. Heavy shelling continues to be reported in the cities of Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol, and a 40-mile-long Russian convoy approaching Kyiv has been stalled due in part to Ukrainian resistance. We go to Kyiv to speak with Tymofiy Mylovanov, president of the Kyiv School of Economics and former Ukrainian trade minister, who details the global financial costs of the war and describes how the Ukrainian government is mobilizing to fight the resistance. We also speak with Kyiv-based human rights lawyer Oleksandra Matviichuk, who calls on the international community to impose more sanctions on Russia.

Russians Continue Assault on Ukrainian Cities as Death Toll Mounts, Ukrainians Put Their Bodies on the Line to Block Russian Troops from Major Nuclear Site, Russian Police Arrest Children as Brutal Crackdown on Antiwar Protests Continues, Over 1 Million People Have Fled Ukraine in What Could Become 21st Century’s Largest Refugee Crisis, UNGA Votes for Resolution “Deploring” Russian Invasion of Ukraine, NYT: Beijing Asked Putin to Delay Ukraine Invasion Until After Winter Olympics, 175 Countries Agree to Collectively Tackle Plastic Pollution Crisis, Study Finds Third mRNA Vaccine Dose Dramatically Boosts Protection Against Omicron, Texas Judge Blocks Investigation of Parents Seeking Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Teen, Fed Chair Jerome Powell Backs Interest Rate Hike, House January 6 Committee Says Trump “Engaged in Criminal Conspiracy”, Breonna Taylor “Didn’t Need to Die”: Ex-Cop Involved in Deadly Louisville Raid Testifies, Gizmodo, The Root Workers Strike; REI Workers Unionize; MLB Cancels Games over Labor Dispute

We speak with acclaimed Filipino scholar and activist Walden Bello on the Global South’s response to the unfolding crisis in Ukraine. Bello says there’s hesitation from many world leaders to take an active role in the crisis, arguing that there is a lack of explicit national interests and a general suspicion the U.S. provoked the invasion to take advantage of the subsequent backlash against Russia. He says people in the Global South realize that ever since the Soviet Union fell apart, ”NATO and the U.S. tried to take advantage of it in an aggressive eastward expansion of NATO right onto the countries that would border the Soviet Union.” Bello also expresses fear the U.S. may try to stoke tensions with China over Taiwan, saying, “China’s not interested at this point in any sort of military conflict that would jeopardize what is its big reputation right now of peaceful economic diplomacy.”

We discuss President Biden’s first State of the Union address with Jacobin magazine’s Branko Marcetic, who says Biden should have focused more of his speech on laying out goals to reach renewable energy independence since the continued reliance by the U.S. on the oil and gas reserves of countries like Russia and Saudi Arabia gives those countries “relative freedom” to commit war crimes on the world stage. He says the task ahead is to “both avoid military escalation” and “try and get a ceasefire agreed to as soon as possible.” Marcetic’s latest piece is headlined “Four Ways to Counter Russian Aggression That Don’t Risk Nuclear War.”

The United Nations reports more than 800,000 people have fled Ukraine since Russia attacked last week, but many foreign nationals trying to escape have described racist discrimination and abuse, saying they were turned away from buses and at the border, while Ukrainians were welcomed with open arms. We speak with one of the African students who documented their experiences on Twitter with the hashtag #AfricansInUkraine. Nigerian student Alexander Somto Orah says the discriminatory treatment he and other African students faced started at the train station in Kyiv and continued at the border with Poland. “We started protesting and telling them they have to let us go, that this is rubbish. They take in like a hundred Ukrainians and then take in like two Africans. It doesn’t make sense, because there are more Africans there than Ukrainians at the border,” Orah recalls. “So we started pushing, and the police cocked their guns and pointed at us guns and told us that they’re going to shoot us.” Orah eventually made his way to Warsaw and is now helping other students to cross.

As a massive Russian military convoy approaches Kyiv while Russia intensifies attacks on civilian infrastructure across Ukraine, we get an update from Andre Kamenshikov, Ukraine director for Nonviolence International in the southern Kyiv suburbs. He says “people are holding out, and I think there is growing confidence that the Russian forces will not be able to take the city.” He also says Russian President Putin is using the threat of NATO as propaganda to increase domestic public support of the war, and discusses why he won’t be taking up arms as a nonviolent activist.

Russian Assault on Ukrainian Cities Intensifies; Airstrike Hits Kyiv Holocaust Memorial, Ukrainian Refugee Crisis Mounts as Over 800,000 People Flee in One Week, U.N. Launches Humanitarian Appeal for Ukraine; More Companies Impose Penalties on Russia, Biden Closes Off U.S. Airspace to Russia over Invasion of Ukraine, Greg Casar Wins Texas Congressional Primary; Jessica Cisneros Heads to Runoff Against Henry Cuellar, Legal Groups Sue Texas for Targeting Parents Who Seek Lifesaving Healthcare for Trans Kids, U.S. to Shift COVID Strategy as More States Ease or End Restrictions, Another 169 Suspected Indigenous Graves Found at Residential School in Canada, Israeli Forces Kill 3 Palestinians in West Bank; Israel’s Top Court Suspends Sheikh Jarrah Expulsions, Panama Is Latest Country to Recognize Legal Rights of Nature, 61-Year-Old Asian Woman Dies 3 Months After Violent Attack in NYC, “He Works to Protect Them”: AOC Rejects Kevin McCarthy Criticism of GOP Reps’ Ties to Far Right

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, veteran journalist Andrew Cockburn and Yale historian Timothy Snyder discuss the history of the region and what role NATO’s expansion played in the current crisis. Cockburn says the United States and its allies broke promises made in the 1990s not to expand the military alliance into Eastern Europe, setting the stage for an eventual confrontation. “What Putin has done is absolutely disgraceful, but it’s kind of easy to understand. There has been sustained efforts to push NATO forward,” he says. But Snyder says the focus on NATO ignores the agency of leaders in Ukraine and elsewhere who have the right to seek their own arrangements. “It’s very important to remember that the world isn’t just about Washington and Moscow. It’s also about other sovereign states and other peoples who can express their desires and have their own foreign policies,” says Snyder.

Russia has escalated attacks against Ukraine, launching a missile strike hitting a government building and shelling civilian areas in Kharkiv, reportedly targeting civilians with cluster and thermobaric bombs, and killing more than 70 Ukrainian soldiers at a military base in Okhtyrka. Meanwhile, the U.S. rejected Ukrainian President Zelensky’s demand for a no-fly zone over Ukraine, saying it could lead to a war between the U.S. and Russia. This comes as Ukrainian and Russian negotiators failed to reach an agreement on Monday and the European Union approved Ukraine’s emergency application to be a candidate to join the union. We go to Kyiv to speak with Yurii Sheliazhenko, executive secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, who says “support of Ukraine in the West is mainly military support” and reports that his country “focuses on warfare and almost ignores nonviolent resistance to war.” He also discusses Zelensky’s response to the crisis, the European Union’s approval of Ukraine’s emergency application, and whether he plans to leave the war-torn city of Kyiv soon.

Ukraine Accuses Russia of War Crimes as Bombs and Shells Kill Civilians, Human Rights Groups Say Russia Used Cluster Bombs and Thermobaric Weapons in Ukraine, U.N. General Assembly Holds Emergency Session on Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine, Russian Economy Reels as Countries Impose Sanctions , U.N. Warns 4 Million Refugees Could Flee Ukraine in Coming Weeks, African and Indian Nationals Face Racism as They Attempt to Flee Ukraine, “Orientalist and Racist”: News Outlets Condemned over War Coverage , Tens of Thousands Evacuate Australia’s Worst Floods in Over a Decade, Coal Company Lawyers Ask Supreme Court to Bar EPA from Regulating Carbon Emissions, Capitol Police Re-erect Security Barrier Ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union Address, 5 Dead, Including 3 Children, in Murder-Suicide at California Church , Sen. Joe Manchin Joins GOP Senators Blocking Bill Guaranteeing Abortion Access

We speak with climate author, journalist and movement leader Bill McKibben upon the release of the highly anticipated U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2022 report, which finds the impacts of the climate crisis are already worse than predicted, driving poverty, hunger, disease and species extinction. McKibben also speaks about how global dependency on oil and gas empowers autocrats like President Vladimir Putin and is helping fuel the Russian war in Ukraine. Renewable energy could help defeat fascism and deter some of “the worst people on Earth” if deployed at scale, he says.

President Biden on Friday nominated federal Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court to fill Justice Stephen Breyer’s pending vacancy. If confirmed, she would be the first Black woman to serve as a Supreme Court justice. We speak with Harvard constitutional law professor Tomiko Brown-Nagin about the nomination of the 51-year-old federal judge and the parallels between her and the first Black woman federal judge and civil rights legal icon Constance Baker Motley, who was at one point eyed for a Supreme Court nomination.

Following a wave of peace rallies held across the globe this weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has agreed to diplomatic talks with Russia. This comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin placed Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert on Sunday, citing increasingly tightened international sanctions. We speak with Anatol Lieven, senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, who says it’s not clear whether Putin is using a nuclear threat to topple the Ukrainian government or pressure them into a deal. Lieven also speaks about Belarus’s support of the Russian invasion and argues future protests inside Russia against the war will be greatly influenced by Western sanctions.

Ukraine is demanding an immediate ceasefire and for all Russian troops to leave the country as they report more than 350 Ukrainian civilians have so far been killed in President Putin’s invasion, which entered its fifth day Monday. The United Nations is also reporting more than 500,000 people have fled Ukraine and another 100,000 are internally displaced. This all comes as the Russian military has so far failed in its attempts to seize Kyiv and other large Ukrainian cites despite the capital remaining surrounded by Russian troops. We go to Kyiv to speak with Olena Shevchenko, a Ukrainian human rights and LGBTQ activist, who describes growing opposition to Russian forces and solidarity within her country. “Nobody in Ukraine is ready to live under occupation of Russia,” says Shevchenko, who also says that LGBTQ-identifying people would be “the first targets for the Russian regime.”

Ukraine Demands Ceasefire as Casualties Mount, Ukrainian and Russian Delegations Meet in Belarus, Belarus Could Join Russian Invasion as Putin Puts Nuclear Forces on High Alert in Latest Escalation, 500,000+ Ukrainians Become Refugees as Families Torn Apart by War, International Community Send Military Assistance, Up Sanctions on Russia , Protests Around the World Condemn Invasion of Ukraine; Russian Police Arrest Thousands, U.S. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson Accepts Historic Supreme Court Nomination, U.N. Report Warns Climate Crisis Is Driving Hunger, Poverty, Disease and Species Loss, El Salvador Ex-President Alfredo Cristiani Charged in 1989 Jesuit Priest Massacre, North Korea Launches Ballistic Missile Toward Sea of Japan, Texas Voter Suppression Law Leads to Widespread Rejection of Mail-In Ballots, Judge Orders New Trial for Tennessee Black Lives Matter Activist Jailed for “Illegal Voting”, Starbucks Workers in Mesa, Arizona, Vote to Unionize, New York Labor Leaders Rally for Amazon Workers Fired for Organizing Union

Russian military activity near Ukraine’s nuclear sites have raised alarm, as triggering any of the volatile reactors around the country could cause nuclear catastrophe for the entire European continent. Russian troops have seized the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster and have reportedly taken staff hostage, raising fear that any disturbance could rerelease deadly radiation that has been sealed off for years. As Ukraine relies on nuclear power for 50% of its electricity, shutting down active nuclear reactors would alleviate the potential for nuclear catastrophe at the cost of leaving many deprived of electricity during the war. “This is the first time that we’ve ever seen a war zone in a location where there are operating nuclear power plants,” says Linda Pentz Gunter, international specialist at Beyond Nuclear. “Any manner of situations could lead to a catastrophic meltdown.”