Biden Will Confer With Allies as Russia 

Plans Military Drills

The president’s call with trans-Atlantic leaders, set for Friday, follows tense fighting between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainians. The U.S. defense secretary met with his Polish counterpart, seeking to show NATO’s solidarity.

 (NYT)

After a night of heavy shelling, tensions simmer 

in eastern Ukraine as crisis deepens.

(NYT)

With fears mounting of war in Europe, President Biden prepared to gather NATO allies by phone on Friday to discuss the threat to Ukraine, and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia planned to preside over the launches of nuclear-capable missiles on Saturday in drills that will showcase the country’s most destructive weapons.

...Fighting escalated on Thursday along a volatile front line between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, the type of situation that the Biden administration says Moscow could use as a pretext to launch a wider invasion.

Mr. Putin said on Friday that Russia was prepared for further diplomacy but would continue insist on far-reaching demands for “security guarantees” in Eastern Europe that the West has rejected — such as a halt to the eastward expansion of NATO and the pullback of the alliance’s forces from the region.

“We are ready to go on the negotiating track under the condition that all questions will be considered together, without being separated from Russia’s main proposals,” Mr. Putin said in a news conference alongside his close ally President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus, who was visiting Moscow.

The Biden administration has said it believes Russia is poised to invade Ukraine within days. Although Moscow insists that it has no such plans, it has vowed to mount “a tough response” if the United States and its NATO partners do not roll back their presence in Eastern Europe.

I texted my family yesterday that the war in Ukraine had begun with the shelling. My daughter asked worried, "War with US?" Almost certainly not, I replied, unless Russia also invades a NATO country. I wish the Bidens would do less NATO-gathering though. They said they were prepared for anything that happens. Invasion was always most likely to happen. They said they knew what they would do if the most likely happened: cut Russia off from the global financial system. Period. They've said many times, No American-Russian fighting. They need to follow their play book calmly and not make an emotional response. "Whose fault is this war? my girl-child asked once again. I paused. A four-way text message is not the medium for a disquisition. "Russia's. They are the invaders." Taking one more encompassing step back though it's not a five-word answer that I have given here for fifteen years. We should give a written guarantee that NATO will not expand "one inch" eastward. That means at this particular moment in the rent fabric of space-time, Ukraine will never become a NATO member. I thought we had that point settled but then Ukraine's president said that was still the goal. Not he'pful. The "pullback" or "rollback" demand is squishy to me, squishy is good here, it can be negotiated. Ukraine membership in NATO cannot. I don't think I could fault the U.S. or NATO if, in response to the Russian invasion of non-NATO member Ukraine they did the opposite of pullback or rollback and rushed military hardware and troops to the most vulnerable NATO allies nearby, Poland and the Baltic countries. I have faulted them in the past though for making Poland and the Baltic states NATO members. Personally, I would not want to die or to risk death for Warsaw or Vilnius but a treaty is a treaty and Article 51 compels it. Taking this longer course around as I have done previously the answer to "Whose fault?" is firstly, Russia's, secondly, it seems Ukraine's, thirdly, NATO's and the U.S.'s.