Stevenson’s army, June 1

– President Biden makes his Ukraine policy paper public as an op-ed in NYT. He makes clear:

So long as the United States or our allies are not attacked, we will not be directly engaged in this conflict, either by sending American troops to fight in Ukraine or by attacking Russian forces. We are not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders. We do not want to prolong the war just to inflict pain on Russia.

– Other reports say US is sending MLRS rockets, but Ukraine has promised not to fire them into Russia.

– WSJ says Zelensky has confirmed that condition.

– WSJ also reports, as I have long warned, that the European coalition on Ukraine is fracturing.

– NYT says Russia repeating its mistakes in renewed Ukraine fighting.

– NYT notes how much Erdogan is disrupting NATO.

– Two reports on Russia’s Wagner group — backgrounder by pro publica and report on massacre in Mali in NYT

– Pacific Islands cool to Chinese offers, but NYT report says China is winning in the Pacific.

-David Ignatius says MBS is winning because US has to deal with him.

– Ezra Klein says too many Democratic Party leaders are lawyers who are more excited about procedures than results.

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).