The War Room: Ukrainian authorities say that after a month of faltering Russian efforts to take their country, the invaders may have switched to a strategy of splitting it.

  Ukraine’s military intelligence chief said that Russia’s Vladimir Putin doesn’t have the troops to “swallow” his country. But “There is a reason to believe that he is considering the Korean scenario for Ukraine,” Brig. Gen. Kirill Budanov said in a statement to the Ukrainian press service. “In other words, he will try to impose a distribution line between the non-occupied and occupied regions of our country.”

  The levelled city of Mariupol in the southeast near Crimea is in imminent danger of falling to the Russians.

  Ukrainian forces have gone on the offensive in areas where the Russian lines are thinnest and weakest. A large contingent of Russian troops has fallen back to regroup in an area around the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukrainian officials said. They say they are increasingly confident in their ability to fend off ground assaults on the capital, Kyiv. The Russians, however, are still shelling towns and cities, including Bucha and Irpin outside Kyiv where they are digging in with defensive positions.

  The month-long war has been devastating for Ukraine. About 3.7 million residents have left the country. The government says that, as of March 24^{th ,}  $63 billion in Ukrainian infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed and that includes more than 4,400 residential buildings, 138 health care facilities, eight civilian airports, and 378 education institutions. 

Power Politics: In one of the most pivotal speeches in his career, President Biden is accused of making a huge gaffe in Poland when he said of Vladimir Putin, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”

  Nothing could be more obvious, that Putin has to go, but Biden apparently went rogue from European leaders and from the US State Department declaring something everyone thinks but no one else will say. Declaring regime change for another country is a big step.

  Secretary of State Anthony Blinken later offered a lame “walk back” of Biden’s declaration saying, “I think the president, the White House, made the point last night that, quite simply, President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else.” No, that’s not what Biden meant.

  Biden said in his speech, There’s simply no justification or provocation for Russia’s choice of war. It’s an example, one of the oldest human impulses, using brute force and disinformation to satisfy a craving for absolute power and control. It’s nothing less than a direct challenge to the rule-based international order established since the end of World War II.”

  Describing a battle between democracy and autocracy and liberty vs. repression, Biden said, “This battle will not be won in days or months either. We need to steel ourselves for a long fight ahead.”

The Information War: Russian news organizations were treated to a long interview with President Volodymyr Zelensky, the first he has given to Russian reporters since the start of the war. The Russian government immediately ordered the outlets not to publish or broadcast the interview.

  In the interview Zelensky said Ukraine is willing to discuss lifting restrictions on the Russian language and becoming a neutral country. “We are ready to go for this,” he said while pledging not to give up Ukrainian sovereignty or even discuss Vladimir Putin’s demands for demilitarization and “de-Nazification” of the country.

  Zelensky also insisted that any deal would have to be validated by a voter referendum held after Russian troops withdraw. 

Economic Warfare: The Washington Post ran a story about all the ritzy western shops that are closed along Moscow’s Stoleshnikov Lane, the shopping strip for the Russian rich. At least 12 shops are closed because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including Prada, Fendi, Harry Winston, Piaget, Chanel, Cartier, and Dior. 

Swish: The Cinderella story of St. John’s basketball ended last night with a crushing 69-49 loss to the University of North Carolina. It was like they were up against a professional basketball team.

  The Final Four are now UNC, Kansas, Duke, and Villanova.

Channel Change: Switching to CNN’s new streaming service, host Chris Wallace told the NY Times that after 15 years, working at Fox News had become unsustainable.

  Hosting “Fox News Sunday,” Wallace had been a neutral and journalistically responsible moderator who eventually became surrounded by a pack of wild conservative dogs including Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity.

  “I’m fine with opinion: conservative opinion, liberal opinion,” Wallace told the Times about his decision to leave. “But when people start to question the truth — Who won the 2020 election? Was Jan. 6 an insurrection? — I found that unsustainable.”

  Those people questioning truth were the other Fox hosts.

 Wallace admitted, “I think Fox has changed over the course of the last year and a half. But I can certainly understand where somebody would say, ‘Gee, you were a slow learner, Chris.’”

The Envelope, Please: The Oscars last night featured an unscripted command performance.

  Host Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head, saying she was waiting to star in “GI Jane II.” Pinkett has a hair loss condition and it’s a sore subject. You could see it on her face when Rock made the joke.

  Will Smith, her husband, ran up on stage and smacked Rock in the face in front of the world audience then sat back down in the front row shouting “Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth!”

  Smith went on to win Best Actor for his performance in “King Richard.” In his acceptance, he apologized for the incident to everyone except Chris Rock, explaining that it’s his mission in life to protect the people he loves.

  Jessica Chastain won Best Actress for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” and “CODA,” about a deaf family, won Best Picture. It’s the first Best Picture winner to have been released on a streaming service, Apple TV. 

  But hey, Will Smith wins Man of the Year.

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