The Morning Dispatch: War in Ukraine Creeps Closer

"We are now at a stage where Russia could, at any point, launch an attack on Ukraine."

By The Dispatch Staff

Jan 21, 2022

Happy Friday! We really hope World War III hasn’t started by the next time we’re in your inbox.

One day after Democrats’ voting reform bills failed to advance in the Senate, a bipartisan group of senators confirmed they are in the early stages of crafting legislation that would shore up the Electoral Count Act. Senate and House Minority Leaders Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy both seemed to endorse the effort on Thursday, as did White House press secretary Jen Psaki—though she maintained it’s “not a substitute” for larger reforms.
The Biden administration on Thursday sanctioned two current Ukrainian officials and two former Ukrainian officials for acting as “pawns” of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and participating in a “global influence campaign to destabilize sovereign countries in support of the Kremlin’s political objectives.”
The Department of Justice announced Thursday federal prosecutors had charged four Belarusian government officials with conspiracy to commit aircraft piracy for their role in fabricating a bomb threat last spring that forced a RyanAir plane to land in Minsk so local law enforcement could arrest a dissident journalist onboard. The four Belarus-based individuals remain at large and will likely not be tried, but Thursday’s charges will severely restrict where they can travel without facing extradition.

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