Russian President Vladimir Putin is doing in days what decades of American prodding and pressure couldn't:

• He's getting Germany and other European nations to unite, expand defense spending and strategic thinking, and do more to protect themselves and others, Axios World author Dave Lawler reports.

Why it matters: Putin calculated a divided America and Europe would make it hard to punish him for invading Ukraine. Instead, he’s spawned a new coalition of the willing that spreads from Europe, to U.S. companies, to Russians in the streets. 

☢️ The latest: Putin today ordered Russian nuclear deterrent forces to high alert, citing sanctions and "aggressive statements" by Western countries, AP reports.

• Putin said in televised comments: "Western countries aren’t only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading NATO members made aggressive statements regarding our country."

🚨 Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said today that a Ukrainian delegation would meet with a Russian delegation "without preconditions" on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border."

• Zelensky said on Telegram following a conversation with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko: "Lukashenko has taken responsibility for ensuring that all planes, helicopters and missiles stationed on Belarusian territory remain on the ground during the Ukrainian delegation's travel, talks and return."

📺 The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield hinted today on CNN's "State of the Union" that Russia could face accusations of war crimes at The Hague. (Watch the video.)

Zoom out: Under public pressure from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, European countries one by one dropped their objections to limiting Russia's access to the SWIFT financial transactions system. The U.S. joined yesterday.

• Suddenly, almost everything is on the table.

Zoom in: The U.S. has been pushing Germany for years to spend 2% of its GDP on defense to no avail. But in a speech today, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said there was now a "new reality."

• "The 24th February marks a turning-point in the history of our continent," Scholz said, pointing to Thursday's invasion.

Not only will Germany hit the 2% threshold, Scholz proposed enshrining that commitment in the constitution.

• In other dramatic reversals in the past week, Scholz suspended the Nord Stream 2 Russia-to-Germany gas pipeline and announced that Germany would begin arming Ukraine.

The bottom line: Close observers of German politics said they've never seen so many doctrines of German foreign policy dismantled so quickly.

• Go deeper on Axios' Ukraine dashboard.

President Biden plans to accelerate the return of the federal workforce this week, as the White House seeks to show the country that in-person work can be safe, people familiar with the plans tell Axios' Hans Nichols, Glen Johnson and Stef Kight.

• "He will talk about the government leading by example — that COVID should no longer determine where people are working," an administration official told Axios.

Why it matters: Biden plans to send a clear back-to-work signal to America — perhaps in the State of the Union address on Tuesday, but probably in a separate COVID speech later in March.

Zoom out: Nearly two years into the pandemic, huge swaths of the federal workforce aren't yet back in the office. Agencies have been allowed to set their own policies.

Zoom in: A spokesperson for the White House's Office of Management and Budget says federal workers' return began stepping up late last year. A majority already are back in some capacity — but that number will "substantially increase ... very soon," the official said.

• "New routines require flexibility and grace — for ourselves and each other," OMB is telling staff.

A senior administration official tells Axios that over the next several weeks, the White House will begin a broad push for returning to normal — with messaging to show federal employees are back at work.

• Share this story ... Axios' Alexi McCammond, Andrew Solender and Jonathan Swan contributed reporting.

Social media platforms are beginning to crack down on Russian state media as the Kremlin propagates disinformation about Ukraine, Axios Media Trends author Sara Fischer writes.

• Why it matters: Tech giants prefer not to take sides in conflicts where they operate in both combatants' territory. But Russia's invasion of Ukraine is eroding that stance.

Google yesterday paused monetization of Russian state-funded media across its platforms, hours after its subsidiary YouTube announced a similar measure, citing "extraordinary circumstances in Ukraine."

• A YouTube spokesperson noted it will also be "significantly limiting recommendations to these channels."

Facebook parent Meta on Friday said it would prohibit Russian state media "from running ads or monetizing on our platform anywhere in the world," per a tweet from its head of security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher.

• Twitter said Friday it would temporarily pause advertisements in Ukraine and Russia "to ensure critical public safety information is elevated and ads don’t detract from it."

Twitter was restricted in Russia.

• Facebook said Russia is partially restricting the platform, after Facebook refused to stop fact-checking and labeling content posted by four Russian state-owned media organizations.

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Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, a former comedian and actor, is a resolute and unifying wartime leader, calmly delivering defiant speeches from his smartphone (above) on the vacant streets of Kyiv.

• Why it matters: It's a role few could imagine for Zelensky when he won in 2019 after playing a president on TV, Axios' Erin Doherty writes.

"We know what we are protecting — the country, the land, the future of our children," Zelensky said in a video yesterday.

• Go deeper: What to know about Zelensky.

"Since the founding of the nation," Danny Hakim and Jo Becker write in today's New York Times Magazine, "no spouse of a sitting Supreme Court justice has been as overt a political activist as Ginni Thomas," a lawyer and longtime conservative operative who is married to Justice Clarence Thomas.

• Why it matters: Her views "have come to dominate the Republican Party," the article notes. "And with Trump’s three appointments reshaping the Supreme Court, her husband finds himself at the center of a new conservative majority poised to shake the foundations of settled law. In a nation freighted with division and upheaval, the Thomases have found their moment."

The Times said Ginni Thomas didn't respond to requests for comment, but wrote on a private Facebook group for her high school classmates that "a NYT reporter" might have "contacted you looking for stories, etc on me. This reporter seems to have been told to write a hit piece" and "has knocked on many doors and written many emails. They all contact me and are not responding. 😁"

• Keep reading (subscription).

Instead of a cold-open sketch, "Saturday Night Live" began with the Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York singing the hymn "Prayer for Ukraine," solemnly introduced by Kate McKinnon and Cecily Strong.

• Watch the video.