Ukraine

• Germany and the UK have started to transfer the Leopard 2 and Challenger tanks they promised Ukraine - just in time for an anticipated spring offensive. The Abrams tanks the U.S. pledged won't arrive until the fall.
• Sergey Aksyonov, the pro-Kremlin leader of Crimea, launched a new private military unit inspired by Wagner Group and consisting of 300 former Wagner fighters. Russian opposition media say Aksynonov's unit is sort of a public-private partnership and reserve force for the Russian military: fighters signed contracts with both the private army and the ministry of defense.

• The UN Security Council declined to entertain Russia's request for another inquiry into the Nord Stream 2 explosions that disrupted the pipelines in September. An investigation last week blamed pro-Ukrainian saboteurs, but Russia wants to link them to U.S. or Ukrainian officials (last week's investigation found no evidence of any official backing from Kyiv or Washington).
• Wagner Group put up a huge, 17-story recruiting billboard next to a highway in Moscow. It features a tough-looking masked man holding a gun, with victorious slogans like "Join the winning team!" and "Together we will win." Analysts think Wagner has lost tens of thousands of recruits fighting in Ukraine and will struggle to replace them since it can no longer recruit in prisons...hence the recruiting billboards.

• Chinese billionaire Jack Ma resurfaced in a rare public appearance that analysts thought was staged by the government to boost confidence in China's tech sector.
• Ma Ying-jeou, a former president of Taiwan, is visiting mainland China on a heritage trip. He doesn't plan to meet Pres. Xi or other senior officials - which would be more of a political win for Beijing - but his visit is significant in itself: he's the first former Taiwanese leader to visit the mainland since the end of the civil war in 1949.

• Pres. Biden said the U.S. will pause further airstrikes on Iran's proxies in eastern Syria, ending the tit-for-tat retaliations that kicked off after a militia's rocket killed a U.S. contractor last week.

• The Taliban arrested Matiullah Wesa, an outspoken (male) advocate for women's education in Afghanistan, without an explanation. Mr. Wesa was previously arrested in February for doling out free books to women and girls in Kabul, but he'd been quiet since then.

• Israeli PM Netanyahu backed down from controversial plans to overhaul the judiciary, following fervent protests against them. His retreat didn't quell the demonstrations, though, since he presented it as a temporary pause for "dialogue" rather than a real reversal.