The War Room: Russian attacks destroyed two apartment high rises outside Kyiv yesterday in an escalation of attacks on civilian targets. Also yesterday, a Russian rocket  hit the primary television tower in Kyiv in an initial effort to knock out civilian communications in the city. 

  At least eight people died in the strike that took down the television signal. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it would strike “objects” in Kyiv to prevent “information attacks,” in other words, to stop anyone from broadcasting the truth about what Russia is doing.

  Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelensky delivered an impassioned plea by video to the European Parliament saying, “Do prove that you are with us. Do prove that you will not let us go. Do prove that you indeed are Europeans, and then life will conquer death, and light will win over darkness.” 

  While a 40-mile convoy of Russian vehicles waits outside Kyiv, food, fuel, and morale among the Russian troops are reported to be low. Some Russian troops have surrendered en masse to the Ukrainians or sabotaged their own vehicles to avoid fighting, The NY Times reports according to a senior Pentagon official. Some Russian soldiers have punched holes in their vehicles’ gas tanks, presumably to avoid moving forward into the fight, the official told the Times.

  While there’s little video of active fighting, photos and videos of destroyed Russian vehicles and convoys are getting out to the West, providing evidence of ferocious fighting by the Ukrainians. The defenders claims they’ve killed 5,300 Russians. There’s no verification of that, but the Russians have left behind bodies and burned out vehicles.

  The Russians continue to spout big lies and doublespeak justifying their invasion, moving more than100 diplomats from 40 Western countries and allies including Japan to walk out of a speech by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the top UN human rights forum. 

  In his speech, Lavrov accused the European Union of engaging in a “Russophobic frenzy” by supplying weapons to Ukraine, even though Russia is invading. Lavrov blamed Ukraine for the crisis, claiming it has been trying to assemble nuclear weapons.

  Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in 1994 after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

    Lavrov delivered his speech by video link because Russian air flights are banned.  He repeated Russian claims that Ukraine has “made territorial claims against the Russian Federation, threatened to use force and acquire a military nuclear capability and “We cannot fail to respond to this real danger.”

The Humanity: As many as 680,000 Ukrainians have fled the country with the war only in its 7^th day.

  More than half have gone to Poland, but Ukrainians are also streaming into Moldova, Slovakia, Romania, and Hungary in the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since the Balkan wars of the 1990s, according to the United Nations. The situation is grim. Women and children … men of fighting age are not allowed to leave … are waiting as many as 60 hours to cross the border.  

The Economic War: The world of business and finance continues to isolate Russia. The three largest shipping companies say they will stop entering Russian ports. 

  Apple says it’s stopped selling products in Russia and is limiting other services in the country. Satellite service DirecTV says it will remove the Kremlin-funded media outlet RT America from its lineup.

State of the Union: In what normally might be the lead story on a Wednesday in March, President Biden delivered his first State of the Union message last night. 

  The president got one of his first rounds of applause announcing that no Russian airplane will be allowed to fly in US airspace while the invasion of Ukraine continues. Biden warned that Vladimir Putin “has no idea what’s coming.” 

 “He badly miscalculated,” Biden said. “He thought he could roll into Ukraine and the world would roll over. Instead, he met with a wall of strength he never anticipated or imagined. He met the Ukrainian people.”

 At the same time, Biden promised that no American troops would be sent into the fight.

  Last night was a precursor of what Biden and the Democrats face in the midterms. Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert twice interrupted Biden, attempting to start a chant of “Build the Wall!” and again when she shouted that Biden got 13 service members  killed in Afghanistan. 

  In the official Republican response, Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa described Biden’s presidency as a remake of “That ‘70s Show,” complete with “runaway inflation,” rampant crime and a rampaging “Soviet army.”

Strikeout: Major League Baseball yesterday crashed through its self-imposed deadline to reach a deal with the players union, delaying the March 31 opening of the season. Commissioner Rob Manfred said, “I want to assure our fans that our failure to reach an agreement was not due to a lack of effort by either party.”

  The owners are playing hardball, so to speak. MLB locked out the players on December 2^nd when the previous five-year contract expired.

The Spin Rack: A ship carrying thousands of German luxury cars has finally sunk in two miles of water in the Atlantic after drifting and burning for weeks. — The Target discount store chain says it’s raising its minimum wage to as much as $24 an hour depending on the local market. The federal minimum wage is $11.25. — Former NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned in a sexual harassment scandal, is spending $369,000 on a broadcast ad campaign intended to rehabilitate his reputation. “Political attacks won,” the ad says, “And New Yorkers lost a proven leader.” He might need a bigger budget.

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