There’s growing concern that Russia is succeeding in its effort to capture the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol and that it could be attempting to split Ukraine in half. Fighting continued around the capital city Kyiv through the weekend but so far the Ukrainian army has demonstrated a strong counter-offensive to any Russian advances there. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky indicated Monday morning that he’s ready for peace talks and would agree to neutrality, though he won’t concede any Ukrainian territory.
After visiting Poland and meeting with Ukrainian refugees at the weekend, President Joe Biden made an unscripted remark at the end of a speech Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power.” He explained that the comment was a personal perspective directed to the Russian people and not an indication that the U.S. is advocating or planning for a regime change in Russia.
Commenting on Biden’s statement, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) said Monday,”Russia is actually violating a U.N. Security Council resolution that said not permitting humanitarian corridors, or using the denial of food for starvation purposes as a tool of war, is a war crime. So the President said to himself this person is committing war crimes, this person is indiscriminately bombing civilians. I think that’s what he meant by ‘he cannot stay in power.’ But it’s not a regime change call.”
