
Biden returns to UN as world grapples with Putin's latest provocations in Ukraine war
CNN
President Joe Biden returns to the green-marbled United Nations stage Wednesday hours after Russia's president announced in a provocative speech an escalation in his war effort in Ukraine, setting up a rhetorical showdown between the two leaders on the international stage.
Biden had already planned to make the Ukraine war a centerpiece of his yearly UN address, with aides previewing a harsh message for Moscow. But President Vladimir Putin's announcement that he is ordering a "partial mobilization" of Russian citizens in the Ukraine war and again raising the specter of using nuclear weapons dramatically increases the stakes for Biden's address.
In his 20-minute speech, Putin warned he would use "all the means at our disposal" if he deemed the "territorial integrity" of Russia to be jeopardized.

More than two decades ago, on January 24, 2004, I landed in Baghdad as a legal adviser, assigned an office in what was then known as the Green Zone. It was raining and cold, and my duffle bag was thrown into a puddle off the C-130 aircraft that had just done a corkscrew dive to reach the runway without risk of ground fire. Young American soldiers greeted me as we piled into a vehicle, sped out of the airport complex and then along a road called the “Highway of Death” due to car bombs and snipers.












