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In Ukraine, feuds, funding and Zelenskiy’s frenemy

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Plus: Bollywood or Hollywood? And more This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a bracing wintry barrage of

Plus: Bollywood or Hollywood? And more [Bloomberg]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a bracing wintry barrage of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Must-Reads - Czech [billionaire]( checked. - Cloudy with a chance of [TikTok](. - How not to [restructure](. - Is [dealmaking]( back? - The unlearned lessons of [Evergrande](. - [Globalization]( without end, amen? The War Turns on Feuding and Funding  This month will mark the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began with a terrifying thrust toward the capital, Kyiv, in the earliest moments of the war. While President Volodymyr Zelenskiy emerged as the face of Ukrainian resistance — inspiring much of the West to support his besieged nation — it was the country’s military chief, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, who devised the strategy that kept Russian troops at bay, bogging them down in winter mud as they attempted to take the capital. Indeed, Zaluzhnyi had advocated full-scale mobilization even before Putin sent in his forces — but Zelenskiy resisted the suggestion, not wanting to frighten Ukrainian civilians. This week, Zelenskiy — apparently disappointed by last year’s failed counter-offensive against Russia —  tried to get Zaluzhnyi to accept a different role. But he refused to give up control of the armed forces. That tension — Zaluzhnyi has a much higher approval rating than Zelenskiy nowadays — is fraying Ukrainian solidarity at the very top. As Marc Champion [says](: “If Zelenskiy does dismiss Zaluzhnyi, let’s hope he has a really good reason.” This is happening as the Biden Administration is trying to pull together a messy congressional deal to save Ukrainian aid, which is tied up by Republicans who want to be tough on undocumented migrants at the US border with Mexico. That’s complicated by Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential candidate, who’s made clear he wants no deal on immigration. Andreas Kluth [says]( there may be a way out of this tangle. “It would emerge from the Senate,” he writes. “The simple idea ... is to take the border issue, originally included for Republicans, out of the supplemental request again, and then to send a smaller package to the House that contains only support for Ukraine, Israel and America’s Asian allies. This new bundle, according to one estimate, could win with comfortable majorities of 80-85 votes (out of 100) in the Senate and 270-300 (out of 435) in the House.” The question is whether the Republican Speaker of the House will put it to a vote. As Andreas says, “The Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck memorably compared laws to sausages: it’s better not to see them being made … But if the sausage in question comes out in one piece, it may just save Ukraine. So I’ll close my eyes and eat it.” Fortunately for Ukraine, the European Union has just managed to approve its [€50 billion ($54.35 billion) support for Kyiv](, facing down Moscow-supporting Hungary’s threat of a veto. There was a time when Zelenskiy and Zaluzhnyi would have found levity in such a situation. The president famously was one of the most successful comedians in Ukraine, building a comfortable fortune for himself, including offshore assets in Cyprus, according to The Showman: The Inside Story of the Invasion that Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky by Simon Shuster, my former colleague at Time magazine. The funny thing, according to the book, is that Zaluzhnyi, as a young man, had also wanted to be a comic like Zelenskiy but didn’t have time to pursue that career because of military commitments. Comedy isn’t easy. But, if the stars of this show can’t share the limelight, tragedy will be heartbreaking. Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a B-Movie? Sixteen years have passed since Dev Patel made it big as an 18-year-old with his starring role in Slumdog Millionaire. The British actor has been through the Hollywood mill since, with a couple of critical duds (among them, The Last Airbender, M. Night Shyamalan’s live-action version of the animated cult series). In April, Monkey Man, a movie that Patel wrote, directed and stars in, will open in theaters in the US. As Bobby Ghosh [says](, “It promises to be a high-adrenaline, all-action affair, a departure for Patel, a British actor best known for playing vulnerable characters.” Bobby also raises a question: Can Patel sell this Mumbai-set film to audiences in India? Apart from the locale, there are potentially helpful cultural references, including allusions to roles played by the legendary Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan and the popular monkey god Hanuman (who has a 135-foot tall statue in the state of Andhra Pradesh). The movie, however, doesn’t seem to have the prerequisite of a Bollywood film: musical numbers. The Fight Club-like setting would never have precluded Bachchan from song-and-dance. One of my favorite recent moments from Bollywood is from Pippa, a movie about the 1971 India-Pakistan war (which saw the birth of Bangladesh). The sequence is as good as anything from the golden age of Hollywood musicals — and has the benefit of a stuck-in-your-head song by A.R. Rahman, who won an Oscar for Slumdog’s “Jai Ho.” Plus, it has high-spirited choreography and the insouciant charm of Ishaan Khatter, playing the Indian military hero at the heart of the movie. It is fully enjoyable beyond the context of the movie itself — and I can’t stop watching the video.  Fight scenes may be all the choreography that audiences will get with Monkey Man. Which isn’t bad. Muhammad Ali’s shuffle was the greatest dance move ever. Telltale Charts “How much debt is too much? Both Washington and Beijing have liabilities that exceed their entire economies. … But here is the key difference. Foreigners own about 30% of the $26 trillion US public debt, versus only 5% in 1970. By comparison, this figure stands at just around 10% for China. … As far as Xi [Jinping] is concerned, the US is in an enviable spot. He naturally wants to take a page out of the Americans’ playbook and lure in foreign buyers. He might even be able to argue that Chinese government bonds are safe-haven assets. They have outperformed volatile US Treasuries in terms of total returns.” — Shuli Ren in “[The One Bull Market Xi Jinping Cares About](.” “Bernard Arnault, the founder and chief executive officer of LVMH who’s known as the ‘wolf in cashmere,’ last week sang the praises of Van Cleef [& Arpels] owner Cie Financiere Richemont SA, and quipped that if  its chairman, Johann Rupert, wanted ‘support to maintain his independence, I’ll be there.’ … It’s not clear what Arnault meant. Maybe it was a joke, but it raises questions about Richemont’s status. ... Not surprisingly, the comment, on LVMH’s earnings call last week, reignited speculation that he has his sights on acquiring Richemont. If so, the tricky part will be persuading Rupert that he needs any help at all.” — Andrea Felsted in “[Has Arnault Launched the Mating Dance of the Bling Kings?](” Further Reading A beauty, yes, but how [Japanese](is she? — Gearoid Reidy Not another [security law]( for Hong Kong! — Karishma Vaswani Keep your hands off my [brain](, Elon. — Parmy Olson Britain builds back [badly](. — Matthew Brooker The failure of the [UNRWA](. — Marc Champion Climate activists, don’t fault [Africa]( for producing oil. — Ken Opalo Walk of the Town: A Pastry Crawl in Copenhagen I’m in Denmark this week to cover a couple of restaurant events. I caught up with my friend Margaret Lam, who is one of the most prominent haute cuisine influencers (with more than 130,000 followers on her [@little_meg_siu_meg]( Instagram account). She has strong opinions about pastry and expressed them when we started on a bakery crawl on Wednesday morning. For one, she’s dubious about the emphasis Americans put on crisp. The best pastries, she says, combine both crunch and a comforting gooeyness. Case in point: The buttery texture, flakiness and perfect moisture levels of the treats at Koebenhavns Bageri, which is about a 30-minute walk from the Bloomberg office in the Danish capital. The kringle at Koebenhavns Bageri. Photograph by Howard Chua-Eoan/Bloomberg Located in Carlsberg — between the Vesterbro and Valby districts — the shop, which is about 10 months old, specializes in traditional Danish baked goods (including the astonishing kringle above). Margaret and I sampled everything available that morning. “They have very good butter here in Denmark,” she said, “and they are not afraid to use it. The pastry is as good if not better than Paris.” The weather is an incentive: It was 40 degrees Fahrenheit (around 4 Celsius) outside the shop, where we sat because there was no room inside. More calories to warm you up in the Nordic winter. Drawdown Thanks for hanging in there for a whole month! Here’s a soupçon of my appreciation. ”I’m not one to cry over spilled soup, but I never like the way she smiles at me.” Illustration by Howard Chua-Eoan/Bloomberg Notes: Please send grimaces and other feedback to Howard Chua-Eoan at hchuaeoan@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Instagram](, [TikTok](, [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Opinion Today newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox. [Unsubscribe]( [Bloomberg.com]( [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022 [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( [Ad Choices](

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