Stevenson’s army, April 7

– Politico report shows many agencies acting on Ukraine.

– WaPo details Biden’s “deliberate but impulsive” response to Ukraine.

– NYT says Russia is bringing in mercenaries with May 9 plan for victory.

– German intelligence reports intercepts of Russians talking of killing civilians.

– WaPo reports on the right-wing Azov Battalion fighting for Ukraine.

– WaPo says India media echo Russia.

– On the other hand, Politico says many lawmakers want permanent sanctions on Putin’s Russia.[My take: Russia can’t be defeated militarily in a conventional war. The fighting can’t end until Russia is willing, either because the costs are too high or it believes it can’t achieve more. Thinking strategically, the pro-Ukraine side needs to provide some relief to Russia if it agrees to a cease-fire. Similarly, a regime-change goal only prolongs the killing of Ukrainians.]

My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I republish here. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).