Ukraine Update…391 days into the Russian move on the Ukraine….Ukraine Counteroffense soon….

Here’s the latest on the war and its impact across the globe.

• Ukraine needs $411 billion for reconstruction efforts, according to a new estimate from the World Bank on Thursday. Direct damage in the country exceeds $135 billion, the joint study by the Ukrainian government, the European Commission and the United Nations found.
• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” days after coming under fire, including from his own party, for dismissing the invasion of Ukraine as a “territorial dispute.” In an interview with Piers Morgan, which Morgan teased in a New York Post column ahead of its airing, DeSantis said Putin should be held “accountable” for the war.
• Lawmakers in Sweden formally voted to allow the country to join NATO. “Sweden will be safer and more secure and we will be a security provider to the alliance,” Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said in a tweet announcing the vote. Sweden applied for membership in the alliance in May. Its candidacy still requires final approval from NATO’s existing members.
• Russia awarded medals to the two fighter pilots who dumped fuel on and then hit the propeller of a U.S. surveillance drone over the Black Sea, according to the Russian state news agency Tass. The White House recently released footage of the incident that appeared to refute the Kremlin’s claims that the United States was the aggressor. The Pentagon said this week that the United States would continue to conduct operations over the Black Sea.

• Arresting Putin if he traveled abroad would be “a declaration of war against Russia,” Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday, according to state news agency Tass. The International Criminal Court last week issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president over alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Medvedev spoke in response to earlier comments by the German federal minister of justice that Berlin would be obliged to comply with the ICC if Putin were to visit. The warrant is considered largely unenforceable, as Russia does not accept the jurisdiction of the ICC.
• Prince William, heir to the British throne, made a surprise visit to troops in Poland, according to Kensington Palace. William met with British and Polish troops and praised their “extraordinary work in support of Ukraine.” He also visited Ukrainian refugee families staying in a shelter in Poland and said more needs to be done to address “the humanitarian crisis.”
• Russia has invited Iran’s foreign minister to visit Moscow, the Kremlin said Thursday. Hossein Amirabdollahian will meet with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on Wednesday for negotiations and developments across the Middle East.
• The U.S. Treasury Department has imposed over 2,500 sanctions related to the Russian invasion, Secretary Janet L. Yellen said. “We have degraded the Kremlin’s ability to replace more than 9,000 pieces of heavy military equipment that it has lost on the battlefield,” she saidat a Senate subcommittee meeting. Some of the steps, she added, such as capping the price of Russian oil, have “cut into the Kremlin’s revenues.”
• Russia and Belarus have been barred from the ice hockey world championships, the international federation announced. International Ice Hockey Federation President Luc Tardif cited security concerns as the reason for the decision.
• The International Olympic Committee cannot be a referee in global political disputes, said the president of its ruling body, Thomas Bach. He spoke in the wake of backlash for refusing to bar Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2024 Games to be held in Paris. The remarks, reported by Reuters, were made at a political forum in Germany.
• House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) is set to hold a hearing on U.S. aid to Ukraine, the committee announced. Officials from the State Department, Defense Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development are scheduled to testify Wednesday.

• Russia intends to increase the size of its air defense forces, Shoigu said at a meeting of Defense Ministry officials. The priority will be to equip Russian troops with advanced air defense and antimissile defense systems, he added.
• Russia is making only “incremental gains” in Bakhmut, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Wednesday, on the day Zelensky visited the front line in the eastern city. “It’s where the most vicious fighting is going on,” Kirby said, adding that Ukrainian troops are continuing to fight “very bravely to try to prevent Bakhmut from falling.”
• Russia’s limited drone and missile strikes Wednesday may indicate that its forces struggle with precision missile shortages, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said. The think tank added that Russian forces conducted more intensive strikes during the fall of 2022, which suggests they might now be rationing high-precision munition….

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