Why China’s angle on Russia’s war matters

Good morning! It's Friday, February 25th. I'm Duarte Geraldino.

And I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." We're going in-depth on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We'll explain the latest, from the damage on the ground in Ukraine to the U.S. response.

We'll look at the unusual role China is playing.

And we'll have a conversation with "New Yorker" editor David Remnick. He has spent a lot of time in Russia and he's seen a lot. But nothing quite like this.

I think it's madness. Madness! What is the purpose here? I can't, for the life of me, see the sense in this, even the dark sense of it.

We begin with the latest from Ukraine. The capital, Kyiv, is under attack. Frequent air raid sirens warn residents, "Take cover."

Some of those sirens are followed by explosions. "The Guardian" shared a video taken from the city as blasts lit up the sky.

People don't just see it and hear it, they feel it. Listen to how the force appears to set off car alarms.

"Reuters" reports that an estimated 100,000 Ukrainians have fled as explosions and gunfire have rocked major cities. Dozens have been reported killed. Russian troops took control of the Chernobyl nuclear site, which is north of Kyiv, and have marched for the capital.

The mayor of Kyiv is former heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko. He told "Good Morning Britain" he and everyone in the city will fight Russian troops if they have to.

I believe in Ukraine. I believe in my country. I believe in my people.

This morning, a Kremlin spokesman said Putin is willing to send representatives to Belarus for talks with Ukraine. This comes after Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, signaled he may be open to talks. He said that could include discussing his country's "neutral status." He pointed out that it's not currently in NATO.

Yesterday, President Biden warned Russia, stand down or face repercussions.

Putin chose this war, and now he and his country will bear the consequences.

Biden announced a new round of sanctions that target major Russian banks. Washington is also implementing export controls designed to cut off technology and squeeze Russian business leaders. The U.S. is also moving 7,000 additional troops to Germany. Biden says sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin personally are on the table.

Let's keep the focus on Putin, because understanding his goals may help us figure out where things go from here. "New Yorker" editor David Remnick is an expert on Russia. He's covered the country and the region extensively and he won the Pulitzer Prize for his book on the end of the Soviet Union. I sat down with him to ask if he saw this week's attack coming.

Well, if you had asked me a year ago, no, of course not. But the pattern for Vladimir Putin is, when he sets things like this into motion, obviously this is of a larger scale, he carries them out. He did in Georgia, he did in Eastern Ukraine and now he's doing it full scale in Ukraine. At the same time. I think it's madness. Madness! What is the purpose here? To subdue a country that's of no threat to him whatsoever? I mean, if the goal was to attract Ukraine away from the west, what thing could he have done better to unite Ukraine against Russia? What could he have done that will further consolidate NATO. I can't, for the life of me, see the sense in this, even the dark sense of it.

You recently wrote in "The New Yorker," you described Putin as being immune to the pressures of normal politics, right? Because he doesn't have an opposition he feels accountable to, he's shown that he's willing to pay a high price for what wants. What does that mean for the rest of the world and how do you contain a ruler like that?

Hmm. That's not only an excellent question, it's the question. Because it's not that he doesn't have an opposition, he's repressed his opposition. His most vivid political opponent, Alexei Navalny, is sitting in a prison camp. There are glimmers of independent media. On Thursday, for example, Dmitry Muratov, the editor of an independent newspaper, he won the Nobel Prize. You might remember a newspaper called "Novaya Gazeta," "the new newspaper." He came out with a statement saying, essentially, that we are, we who don't believe this war is proper, are powerless and ashamed. And that the only thing that will end such a war is a true anti-war movement in Russia. But those are very faint glimmers. And remember, it's early days, it's early days. So, who knows what kind of information can leak through in the modern world. In 1968, when the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia to put an end to what was called the Prague Spring, a kind of liberalizing, what was called socialism with a human face. And Moscow had had quite enough of that, thank you, and sent in tanks. Do you know how many people protested in the Soviet Union, who felt that they could? Seven or eight people came out to Red Square, unfurled banners saying, "We are with you, Czechoslovakia," et cetera, et cetera. And within seconds, not even minutes, seconds, KGB was on these people. They beat the hell out of them, and they were… they suffered the obvious consequences. Now, media has changed. The internet has changed. So maybe more leaks through. Maybe public opinion will operate in a slightly different way. But state control is pretty firm at this point.

How worried should Americans be at this moment?

Well, I think it would be the height of foolishness to think this is a minor incident that's gonna go away very soon. A line has been crossed. An enormous line has been crossed that hasn't been crossed to this degree in Europe since the end of the second world war. So the repercussions of this are going to be very long lasting. And it is not unimaginable that it goes much deeper, goes on far longer and Ukraine is not merely destabilized, but it's the scene of a killing field. I hope I'm… I hope, desperately hope, to be wrong.

That's just a small part of my conversation with David Remnick. You can hear the full interview on a special episode out this weekend.

Russia's attack on Ukraine is making headlines around the world. But if you try to get your news from Chinese state media, you're not gonna hear much about the conflict. State-controlled news outlets are hardly covering the war. "Bloomberg" looks at how, in many ways, China is minimizing what Russia is doing.

Yeah, Russia's invasion of Ukraine didn't even make the front page of the official newspaper in China. The war was near the bottom of page three. As the reporters in Beijing explain, the country's leadership is finding it tricky to figure out what to say about Russia's actions. It's split between the desire to support Moscow in opposing American power, but it also wants to be seen as a responsible global power.

President Xi Jinping hadn't commented on Putin's invasion as of this morning. Which is noteworthy because only a few weeks before Russia attacked Ukraine, China and Russia declared their friendship had, quote, "no limits." Xi gave Putin a very warm welcome at the Beijing Olympics.

Lower-level officials have spoken out, but only using careful language. A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman repeatedly dodged questions about Russia's invasion. She said China "didn't wish to see what happened in Ukraine." She added that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries must be protected.

And here's where we get into a big issue for China: Taiwan. In "The Atlantic," Michael Schuman asks a provocative question: s Taiwan next? He's a senior fellow at The Atlantic Council's Global China Hub. He argues that Russian aggression in Ukraine makes it more likely that China may try to claim Taiwan by force.

China doesn't consider Taiwan independent. It considers it a part of China that's being occupied by an illegitimate government. Controlling the island is a primary goal of Beijing's foreign policy. Officially, China calls that "reunification." There are echoes of this in the way Putin talks about Ukraine.

Now, Schuman is not saying a Chinese attack on Taiwan is imminent. Unlike Putin, Xi hasn't made his point with troops. The question is what China might take away from how the West reacts to Russia. Beijing may be watching to see just how much pain Washington and its allies can actually inflict on Moscow. How much Russia can get away with in Ukraine may determine how aggressive China gets with Taiwan down the road.

As always, on a day like this, you can get the latest on the Apple News app. Before you go, a few other major stories to know about today. Multiple news outlets report that President Biden has chosen Ketanji Brown Jackson as his Supreme Court nominee. If confirmed, the federal judge will become the first Black woman on the high court.

Three former Minneapolis police officers were found guilty of depriving George Floyd of his civil rights when he was murdered by another former officer in 2020. They face up to a lifetime in prison. And over the weekend, keep an eye out for our full interview with "The New Yorker's" David Remnick on Russia and Ukraine. We'll be back with more news on Monday.