China

China has been keeping rather silent about the situation in Ukraine, indicating tacit approval, although its actions are becoming less tolerant in the last few days.

It strikes me that China has a lot to learn from Ukraine and could be treating the situation as a dry run to gauge the reaction of the West to its intended aim of grabbing Taiwan. If that's the case, it's in its interest to let events play themselves out - to a point.

They'll be keenly watching mistakes the Russians make, the mitigating actions Russia takes, the effects of being a key supplier of critical supplies (such as gas and oil), the arming of Ukraine by the West, the reticence of NATO to get involved and the number, type  and speed in implementation of financial sanctions that are being put in place. Having been done once, such actions would be much faster a 2nd time, with greater co-ordination.

China lacks the power of Russia in terms of gas and oil and is the world's largest importer of oil - which puts it at a disadvantage, unless it can guarantee supplied from Russia. Its main exports are electronics which, while important, are not so critical in an economic war.

Taiwan is 6% of the size of Ukraine, but the Taiwan Strait poses a critical, 100 mile barrier. China claims it as territorial waters, but the rest of the world, especially the USA, classifies it as international waters.

Everything they learn will enable them to plan mitigating actions in the event of them launching an invasion across the Taiwan Strait. What happens may even deter them.