The War Room: A large rocket today devastated a civilian administrative building on Freedom Square in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, demonstrating that the Russians are not avoiding civilian targets. At least 10 people were killed. 

  Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said today, “Nobody is going to break us. We are strong. We are Ukrainians.”

  Yesterday Kharkiv, absorbed a Russian barrage that is believed to have killed at least nine people, three of them children. A school was heavily damaged. 

  The Russians have begun using cluster bombs, projectiles that break up in the air and spread mini-bombs over a wide area. Dropped in a city occupied by civilians, it’s a terror weapon.

  The Ukrainians have also accused the Russians of using a thermobaric bomb, a devastating weapon banned by the Geneva Convention. Also known as a vacuum bomb, it’s fueled by oxygen from the surrounding air, creating incredible heat and suffocating people who might be in the surrounding area.  

  Russian President Vladimir Putin is stepping up the violence as his military campaign stalls and stumbles without taking any major objectives. He appears to be preparing a major push. Today, the head of a 40-mile long Russian military convoy is about 15 miles from the outskirts of Ukraine’s capital city Kyiv. Some parts of the convoy were three vehicles abreast. 

  After daylong talks between representatives of  Ukraine and Russia, Putin told French President Emanuel Macron that his demands for peace include “the demilitarization and denazification” of Ukraine as well as recognition by the West that Russia has legal sovereignty over the Crimean peninsula, which it took from Ukraine in 2014. He’s sticking with the fiction that Ukraine is run by Nazis rather than a Jewish president.

  Diplomatic warfare has begun. The US announced the expulsion of 12 Russian officials who were serving as diplomats in New York, accusing them of “engaging in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security.”

  Smaller countries are now joining with major powers making efforts to help Ukraine, some of them breaking their official policy of neutrality. Monaco, the city-state on the French Riviera that doubles as a tax haven for the rich, said it would freeze assets and impose economic sanctions on specific Russians.

  Norway, which had previously been uninvolved because it is not a member of NATO, announced it will send about 2,000 shoulder-launched anti-tank weapons to Ukraine. Sweden is also breaking its historic neutrality sending 5,000 Vietnam-era US anti-tank rockets as well as field rations and body armor. Sweden has not sent weapons to a country at war since the Soviet Union invaded Finland in 1939.

  Turkey announced that it is blocking warships from passing through the Bosporus and Dardanelles Straits.

  Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, says it’s getting out of  $3 billion  worth of oil and gas joint ventures with Gazprom, the Russian gas giant. British Petroleum made a similar decision. 

Economic War: Russia’s economy is suffering under international sanctions as the Moscow stock market remains closed a second day for fear of a crash. Russians lined up at banks and ATMs to withdraw cash while the government raised interest rates to 20 percent trying to convince people to leave their money in the bank. The ruble has fallen to a value of less than a US penny.

  The Treasury Department announced a freeze on Russian Central Bank assets, banning people in the United States and European Union from trading with Russia’s central bank. The sanctions also apply to Russia’s Finance Ministry and its sovereign wealth fund. Russia is blocked from access to $400 billion in reserves held out of the country. 

  Britain is going to start blocking Russian ships from its ports. FedEx and UPS announced they were halting deliveries to Russia. 

Viral News: A new poll says Americans are much less worried about catching or spreading the Coronavirus. The poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research says that of the nearly 1,300 adults surveyed in mid-February, only 24 percent said they were “extremely or very worried” about themselves or a family member testing positive.

  On the other hand, a Washington Post-ABC News poll a says most Americans say some restrictions on normal activities should remain in place. The nationwide survey found that, two years into the crisis, bipartisan majorities think the virus is only “somewhat under control” or “not at all.” 

  New cases of Covid-19 in the US are down 59 percent over the past two weeks.

The Spin Rack: President Biden delivers his State of the Union address tonight. He’s expected to focus on the Ukraine invasion and the economy. — Toyota shut down vehicle production in Japan because of a cyber-attack on one of its parts suppliers, stalling production of about 13,000 vehicles. — Russian vodka is being pulled from store shelves around the world in protest of the Ukraine invasion. A brewery in Lviv, Ukraine has stopped making beer and is now turning out Molotov cocktails, which are not for drinking. The new label says, “Putin is a dickhead”.

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