Today’s newsletter for paid subscribers raised a pressing issue about any possible peace deal between Russia and Ukraine:

The one glaring thing missing, to me, is any suggestion that Russia must pay reparations.

Far be it from me to suggest that I know better than Ukraine’s president Zelensky what his people need to justify an end to the war. They’re the ones being shot at and bombed, and they are in the best position to judge whether and how to end it.

. . . .

No amount of money can bring back the dead children and other civilians. But Russia can be made to pay. And if Ukraine does not want to make that a condition of its peace deal, we can still demand it.

. . . .

Unless we make it clear that Russia must pay to make Ukraine, if not whole, then as close to “whole” as possible through the spending of money, then Russia will keep escalating its violence, and killing civilians in an effort to strengthen its “bargaining” position. We should make it clear at once that Russia’s bargaining position gets worse with each new day of destruction, as that is another day for which Russia — in particular its oligarchs — will have to atone.

The piece goes on to suggest that we already have a lot of Russia’s money in our hands.

So let’s get to work making sure there is redress for the unjustifiable aggression we have seen.

Read the post here. Subscribe (with a seven-day trial option available) here.

[guest post by Dana]

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken this morning:

We have a strong sense of what Russia could do next. We believe that Moscow may be setting the stage to use a chemical weapon and then falsely blame Ukraine to justify escalating its attacks on the Ukrainian people. Manufacturing events, and creating false narratives of genocide to justify greater use of military force is a tactic that Russia has used before…

Meanwhile:

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke on Wednesday with Nikolay Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, warning him of the consequences “of any possible Russian decision to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine”.

Sullivan declined to say what those consequences might be.

We have yet to see whether Washington will decide that the use of chemical (or biological) weapons is our red line and if so, whether that would actually mean something.

As it stands, the United Nations is reporting that 2.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine since the invasion began.

–Dana

As I have done every March 17 since I started this blog, I am wishing my Dad a Happy Birthday.

It is a tradition to note my previous similar posts on this special day. And so, I am doing it again today.

He would have been 97 today.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!