Your Weekend Reading: Two Years On and Russia’s War Still Rages

It’s been two years since Russia invaded Ukraine, with tens of thousands having perished in a war that’s ushered in the most geopolitically dangerous era in decades. More violence has erupted, including the disastrous conflict between Israel and Hamas. Tensions everywhere seem to be rising. The Kremlin could deploy a nuclear weapon into space as early as this year, the US told allies, just before the Biden administration unveiled a far-reaching sanctions package against Russia. US President Joe Biden, in the aftermath of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s death, blamed Vladimir Putin and called him a “crazy SOB.” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva meanwhile compared the destruction of Gaza to the Holocaust. The once-unthinkable comment made an already strained meeting of the G-20’s top diplomats this week, under Brazil’s s presidency, even more uncomfortable for the attendees.

Israel says it’s still planning to attack the southern Gaza city of Rafah despite having no precise plan for the one million war refugees there. Fears are growing that many could be pushed into Egypt, something which Cairo has said would jeopardize the 45-year old peace accord that helped bring stability to the Middle East. But the US and European Union say they are working to use the war to create a fairer deal for Palestinians, and possibly their own state. Diplomatically, the US could find common ground with China against nuclear weapons in space, Andreas Kluth writes in Bloomberg Opinion. “Putin’s assault on decency, order, humanity and indeed sanity has gone far enough,” Kluth writes. “It’s now up to the US and China together to ensure that Putin won’t go astral.”