The Morning Joe panel discusses the latest developments in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including new attacks on the western city of Lviv and declining morale among Russian forces.

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Mar 14, 2022

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is only in his third year as president, but he’s now risking his life to lead a resistance that may just prove Putin underestimated him. In a special report, MSNBC’s Ari Melber highlights his unusual path to power, detailing how he spent most of his career in film and tapped into his TV fame for an unlikely presidential victory. Melber draws parallels between his political rise and the characters he’s played on screen, saying “he embraced what he was known for… emphasizing that the script was not a real plan, and that he was taking his obligations seriously.”

There are several past conflicts with parallels to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but one particular conflict that can provide lessons to both the United States and Russia is the 2003 United States invasion of Iraq. Bernie Sanders’ foreign policy adviser Matt Duss and Professor Peter Beinart join Mehdi Hasan to discuss.

On Wednesday, President Biden announced $800 million in additional aid to Ukraine, but he drew the line, once again, at providing fighter jets and enforcing a no-fly-zone. Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-NY) joins Mehdi Hasan to discuss how deep the U.S. involvement in the crisis in Ukraine could get.

Some are referring to the conflict in Ukraine as TikTok's first war. Witnesses have been regularly posting videos to the platform, giving people around the world an inside look at what's happening on the ground. But, there are also consequences to having this information on social media. Gideon Lichfield, WIRED's global editorial director, joined CBS News to discuss.

Mehdi Hasan takes a deep dive into the 2003 invasion of Iraq to see how it compares to Russia’s war in Ukraine, and what both Russia and the United States can learn from the past.

In Vladimir Putin’s recent press conference, he made some interesting statements and claims. Democratic Strategist Aaron Parnas and Jeffrey Edmonds join Zerlina Maxwell to react.

Russia has the larger and stronger military in its war with Ukraine, but new intelligence states Russia is already suffering an unusually high death toll of 7,000 soldiers, per The New York Times. MSNBC's Ari Melber reports on the new figures, noting the death toll means more Russian soldiers were killed in three weeks than the U.S.'s total losses across 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Source: eurasianet.org

Uzbekistan has broken ranks among its Central Asian peers, who have pointedly refrained from adopting explicit positions on Russia’s war, by stating that it recognizes Ukraine’s territorial integrity and that it will not recognize the independence of the breakaway self-styled republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Speaking in the Senate on March 17, Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Komilov urged both sides in the conflict to reach a diplomatic solution.

“The situation around Ukraine is a cause of deep concern for Uzbekistan,” Komilov said. “We support pursuing a peaceful solution for this situation and to settle this conflict by political and diplomatic means. For that to happen, it is necessary first to bring an end to the military activities and aggression.”

The statement stops short of categorically assigning blame to either side for initiating the conflict, but the fact that it has been made at all is notable in light of the depth of diplomatic and economic ties between Uzbekistan and Russia.

All other countries in Central Asia, whose economies are like Uzbekistan’s strongly dependent on that of Russia, have adopted fiercely noncommittal positions.

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Read more: https://eurasianet.org/uzbekistan-calls-for-an-end-to-aggression-in-ukraine

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