(CN) — In a brazen policy shift, U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday said the United States would commit its military to defend Taiwan in the event of an attack by China, raising the stakes in what many see as a new Cold War between the United States and its allies and the deepening alliance of China and Russia.
His statement came during a news conference in Tokyo and seemingly overturns long-standing U.S. “strategic ambiguity” over Taiwan, a self-governed island claimed by Beijing. Biden was on his first trip as president to Asia and seeking to shore up support in a part of the world he's neglected since taking office. Biden has made two trips to Europe and become consumed by the Ukraine war.
Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine continued to rage over the weekend with Russian forces making more small gains in Donbas, the eastern region that the Kremlin is determined to seize. Donbas has deep historical ties to Russia, many of its inhabitants are ethnic Russian and it is economically important with its steel and mining industries, large cities, hydroelectrical dams, fertile soils, Black Sea coast line and nuclear power plants, one of which in Zaporizhzhia is under Russian control.
Fighting in Donbas is now focused on the small cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk. There are reports of clashes on the outskirts of both cities and Ukraine is at risk of seeing its troops encircled.
Ukrainian forces are coming under intense bombardment and suffering heavy losses. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that between 50 and 100 soldiers are being killed a day in the east. He's described the fighting there as “hell.”
In a Monday speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Zelenskyy called on the world's business and political elites to do more to punish Russia over its invasion.
“This is really the moment when it is decided whether brute force will rule the world,” Zelenskyy said. “Brute force seeks nothing but the subjugation of those it wants to subdue. And it does not discuss, but kills at once, as Russia is doing in Ukraine right now, right at this time when we are talking.”
He said “maximum” sanctions must be applied.
“A Russian oil embargo. Complete blocking of all banks without exception – all. Complete abandonment of the Russian IT sector. Complete cessation of trade with the aggressor,” he said. “It is necessary to set a precedent for the complete exit of all foreign businesses from the Russian market. So that your brands are not associated with war crimes. That your offices, accounts, commodities are not used by war criminals in their bloody interests.”
More sanctions are possible and the European Union is considering an embargo on Russian oil, despite opposition from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Russia's economy has been hit hard by the unprecedented wave of sanctions already imposed on it, but the sanctions have also driven up inflation and damaged economies around the world, raising the specter of major turmoil and even famine in many parts of the world.
Over the weekend, Zelenskyy called for a diplomatic solution to end the war, but he also said he would refuse to consider giving up any Ukrainian territory to Russia. Peace negotiations are all but stalled.
Russia, meanwhile, is slowly incorporating into its sphere territories its troops have occupied in Ukraine.
On Monday, Georgy Muradov, the vice prime minister of Crimea, claimed that the Sea of Azov, an internal sea connected to the Black Sea, belongs to Russia and the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, one of two eastern Ukrainian regions that declared themselves independent following the overthrow of a pro-Russian Ukrainian president in 2014.