Après Brussels, Will Biden Visit the Ukrainian Border?

ATHENS — It’s a small continent after all. Following an extraordinary summit of NATO member states at the military alliance’s headquarters in Brussels Thursday, and after additional meetings with the G7 and 27-member European Council wrap up in the Belgian capital, President Biden will travel on Friday to Poland. That NATO member state shares a 310-mile border with Ukraine, a country reeling after a month of Vladimir Putin and Russia’s unabated aggression. Will the president work in a visit to the Polish border with Ukraine? A public appearance by Mr. Biden at the very location where most, if not all, Western weapons are now flowing into Ukraine as that battered country fights to the death to avoid complete subjugation to Mr. Putin would be a feat indeed. The optics of doing so might also give a boost to what London’s Independent calls presidential approval ratings that have stalled over his Russia stance. Earlier this week, the New York Post reported that reporters aboard Air Force One pointed out “a significant gap” in Mr. Biden’s schedule on Friday. In response to a question about the gap, the White House deputy press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said at the time, “Clearly we will give more guidance on what Friday will look like. But for security purposes, we just want to keep it more broad and not go into details.”Meanwhile, Mr. Biden said at a news conference at Brussels today that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has built greater unity within NATO, the European Union, and the Group of Seven economies. The president said of Mr. Putin, “He didn’t think we could sustain this cohesion,” adding that NATO has “never been more united than it is today.” Mr. Biden and NATO allies have previously stressed that the U.S. and NATO would not put troops on the ground in Ukraine. But billions of dollars’ worth of military hardware has already been provided, and the Associated Press reported that an American official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said Western nations were discussing the possibility of providing anti-ship weapons amid concerns that Russia will launch amphibious assaults along the Black Sea coast.The leaders spent part of Thursday huddling over how to respond should Mr. Putin deploy chemical, biological, or even nuclear weapons. The AP reported that Mr. Biden, in an early evening news conference after meeting with NATO and G-7 leaders, warned that a chemical attack by Russia would trigger a forceful response.Cohesion on the sanctions front may be a bit more subjective. Is Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for the New York Times, trying to send the president a message while he is abroad? Mr. Baker retweeted a link to an opinion piece by the Financial Times’s Edward Luce that warns America risks being seduced by its own public relations and posits that the West is rash to assume the world is on its side over Ukraine. “Not for the first time, the west is mistaking its own unity for a global consensus,” Mr. Luce wrote, even as Mr. Biden is attempting to shore up both unity and consensus in Brussels this week.Divisions, if they can be called that, are arguably manifesting themselves more clearly on the economic and sanctions front. A new round of American sanctions will target more than 400 Russian elites and members of the Russian State Duma. The efforts, the White House said, were aimed at blunting Russia’s ability to use its international reserves to prop up the economy and fund the war. The Biden administration’s new sanctions target 48 state-owned defense companies, 328 members of the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, and dozens of Russian elites. The Duma as an entity was also named in the new sanctions; these somewhat symbolic moves follow on the heels of Mr. Biden branding Mr. Putin a war criminal.The issue of whether to continue buying Russian oil and gas, and whether Western companies should continue doing business with a belligerent Russia, remains muddled. The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has rejected an immediate embargo of Russian fossil fuels, saying it could start a recession. He has also called on the international community to help Europe shoulder the burden of the millions of refugees arriving from Ukraine. Today, notably, the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, on his way to attending the European Council meeting at Brussels, said there was a need for a common EU strategy on natural gas procurement, Athenian daily Kathimerini reported. In France, they still like to vive la différence. President Macron warned about “reputation risks” for French companies that are operating in Russia but said they are free to make their own choices. “My position is to let the companies be free to decide for themselves. That’s up to the companies’ leadership to assess,” he said in Brussels Thursday. Mr. Macron’s remarks come after French automaker Renault announced plans to pause production at its Moscow plant in an apparent move to fend off mounting criticism.In his video speech to the French parliament on Wednesday, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said that Renault, a supermarket chain, Auchan, and a home improvement giant, Leroy Merlin, “must stop being sponsors of Russia’s war machine.” A Leroy Merlin store was hit in the recent Russian airstrike that leveled a shopping mall in Kiev, and one of the casualties in that attack was reportedly an employee of the store. But Auchan, Leroy Merlin, and a French food giant, Danone, have to date refused to cease operations in Russia. For its part, Britain on Thursday sanctioned 65 more Russian companies and individuals over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The targets include Russia’s largest private bank and a woman the British government said was the stepdaughter of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. On the reviled Russian oligarch front, Russian crew aboard a superyacht possibly linked to Mr. Putin have left their jobs, workers say. The New York Times reports that American officials say the lavish Scheherezade, now dry-docked at Marina di Carrara, a town along Italy’s Tuscan coast, could be owned by Captain Vlad himself. The gleaming $700 million (or more), 495-foot yacht is said to be outfitted with treats fit for any luxury-loving tyrant, including swimming pools, a dance floor, two helipads, marble surfaces galore, and some lovely golden toilet paper holders.Israeli newspaper Haaretz points to “Putin’s Oligarchs’ Rush for Israeli Luxury Rentals, Preferably in Cash.” According to the report, as sanctions related to the Ukraine war start to bite, Russian oligarchs and “particularly the Jewish ones” are looking to Israel as a physical and financial haven.Some are attempting to consolidate or advance their Israeli residency status. The homes they are looking to rent tend to be in the $30,000 to $50,000 a month range, and usually along the Mediterranean coast just north of Tel Aviv — the world’s most expensive city, according to the Economist.

Après Brussels, Will Biden Visit the Ukrainian Border?

More from the New York Sun

‘Ask E. Jean’ Is a Hagiographic Look at the Gonzo Writer Who Has Twice Bested Trump in Court

Apple Is Hoping AI Will Solve Its Siri Problem

Switzerland Votes on Whether To Cap Its Population at 10 Million

Designer Fashion Gets Increasingly Expensive as it Delivers Diminishing Returns

With Lawsuits Cleared and Tempers Flaring, UFC Readies for Trump’s Birthday Bashing at the White House

Critics Look to States To Block Paramount-Warner Bros. Deal After Justice Department’s Approval

White Students Are Now a Minority in American Schools, New Analysis Finds

Trump’s Name Removed From Kennedy Center After Federal Judge Rules Rebranding Unlawful