Powerline rounds up some of the latest news. Perhaps the single most surprising item to me is this:
Strange bedfellows. I personally regard a choice between Putin and Erdogan as a choice between bubonic plague and cholera, but the latter is at least survivable with prompt medical treatment.
But meanwhile, Turkey denies.
And ouch:
Former deputy national security advisor under Trump, KT McFarland, outlines three steps by which the US could really hurt Putin without sending even one soldier:
First, the president should explain to his supporters that the existential threat Russia poses to our national security require him to reverse course and take the shackles off the American energy industry he imposed early in his presidency.
Second, the president should go to our European allies, especially Germany, and tell them we have their backs. Russia supplies half of Europe’s energy. No European leader dare jeopardize that relationship. So instead, offer to guarantee their energy security. We can help them replace Russian oil and natural gas with clean, no strings attached, American liquefied natural gas. They’ve been reluctant to make the switch from Russian to American energy. Perhaps the last few days have shown them the Russian energy comes at too high a political and economic price.
Finally, the president should tell the Russians that we will do everything in our power to bring down the price of oil and natural gas, through our own exports and by encouraging our Arab allies to pump more oil.
[…] If we can drive the price of [Russia’s] major export down to 2020 levels, Russia is broke.
Meanwhile from the Daily Telegraph, harsh but fair
And Powerline’s Week in Pictures takes no prisoners: U-Cranial Inversion Edition.
However, Mark Galeotti in the Daily Telegraph is convinced that Putin has bitten off more than he can chew, and that he “has set in train the demised of his kleptocratic regime. It will wither and die like the old Soviet Union.” Wishful thinking?
According to the live ticker of Die Welt (German center-right daily, fairly reliably pro-American), a senior source in the Bundesnachrichtendienst (Germany’s foreign intelligence service) has expressed surprise that only a small fraction of the Russian troops staged at the borders actually went inside, and also his suspicion that both side are underreporting casualties.
About Germany’s own attitude — the latest “gem” being offering 5,000 helmets, but asking Ukraine to pick them up at the Polish border — the Ukrainian ambassador expressed himself “auf gut Deutsch” (in good German; idiomatic meaning: straight up, no beating around the bush): “Die Heuchelei ist zum kotzen” (the hypocrisy is to make one vomit). Having lived half my life in academia, i.e., the worldwide capital of empty virtue signaling, I believe I know it when I see it.
The Daily Telegraph reports that poor coordination, fuel supplies exhaustion, and fierce resistance are slowing down the Russian advance. Especially Javelin portable antitank rockets are exacting a severe toll:
The same article reports that the USA offered Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky safe conduct abroad, and that he answered: “I don’t need a ride, I need ammunition!“
Zelensky, Jewish and a popular late-night comedy host, was expected to be a lightweight by many outsiders when first elected, but has meanwhile proven a surprisingly charismatic leader with beitzim I cannot but admire.
The hacker collective “Anonymous” reportedly gave Putin’s personal website some “loving” and has threatened to do a lot more than that, “declaring cyberwar”.
Retired US General Jack Keane:
And Douglas Murray of The Spectator:
Laura Ingraham and Kristi Noem lay the blame for everything squarely at the feet of Biden
“An invasion made in China”
ADDENDUM: wow: Kazakhstan to Putin: pound sand.
None of these backfires [for Putin] is more surprising than in Kazakhstan. Putin just got done rescuing President Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev from a serious uprising six weeks ago, sending Russian army formations to put down demonstrators in Almaty. With his invasion bogging down, Putin asked Tokayev for more troops to support the Ukraine invasion.
Not only did Tokayev refuse, he went further in refusing to recognize the “independent” states Putin set up in the Donbas: […]
Nor is Tokayev the only friendly country that Putin has alienated with this move. Hungary and Czech Republic leaders had been sympathetic to Putin and growing more restive within the EU, offering Putin a chance to split the Western alliance. Those efforts also came to an abrupt halt yesterday: […]
Two until now major pro-Russian voices in the European Union, Czech President Milos Zeman and Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, didn’t mince their words in criticizing Moscow’s most aggressive action since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
Their countries experienced comparable brutality — the Czech Republic, as part of Czechoslovakia, in 1968 and Hungary in 1956.
Zeman called Thursday’s invasion “an unprovoked act of aggression.” …
Until just days ago, Zeman was insisting that the Russians wouldn’t attack Ukraine because “they aren’t lunatics to launch an operation that would be more damaging for them than beneficial.”
“I admit I was wrong,” he said Thursday.
[…] “Russia attacked Ukraine this morning with military force,” Orban said in a video on Facebook. “Together with our European Union and NATO allies, we condemn Russia’s military action.”
“Hungary’s position is clear: we stand by Ukraine, we stand by Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty,” his Foreign Minister Peter Szijijarto said.
Read the whole thing.
ADDENDUM 2: rather disturbing background read by Lee Smith in The Tablet (via Instapundit)
And Der Spiegel reports (in German) that Germany changed its mind and is now giving Ukraine weaponry out of Bundeswehr stocks
Spin, strangeness, and charm 
We could use more politicians like the Czech leader Milos Zeman:
A politican admitting he was wrong? what is the world coming to?
Heh. But yes, refreshing indeed.
Boycott Russian business…
And don’t give us “not all Russians” nonsense.
They are not choosy shelling Ukraine cities.