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| Getty Images |
Vladimir Putin’s war is not going well. Can he find an off-ramp?
Ukraine’s surprise counter-offensive has retaken massive amounts of territory and repelled the Russian thrust toward Kharkiv. Moscow’s forces are still in wild retreat in the northeast, and losing ground in the south as well.
The advance also exposed a mass burial site near newly-liberated Izium — containing hundreds of bodies, many civilian and some showing signs of torture. That fresh evidence of barbarism can only bolster global support for Putin’s foe.
Meanwhile, Russia’s most powerful ally, the People’s Republic of China, is expressing doubts: At this week’s summit, Putin felt obliged to acknowledge President Xi Jinping’s worries over the war.
Putin’s homefront, too, is getting dicey. His Defense Ministry’s claim that the rout in the northeast was a “pre-planned regrouping” went over like a lead balloon. Even Putin’s media lapdog Dmitry Kiselyov admitted on state-run TV that “this has been the toughest week so far” of the war, while online criticism is soaring. --->READ MORE HERE
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| AP Photo/Leo Correa |
Pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin mounted on the battlefield and in the halls of global power as Ukrainian troops pushed their counteroffensive Saturday to advance farther into Ukraine’s partly recaptured northeast.
Western officials and analysts said Russian forces were apparently setting up a new defensive line in Ukraine’s northeast after the counteroffensive punched through the previous one, allowing Kyiv’s soldiers to recapture large swaths of land in the northeastern Kharkiv region that borders Russia.
Putin, at a high-level summit in Uzbekistan this week, vowed to press his attack on Ukraine despite the recent military setbacks but also faced concerns by India and China over the drawn-out conflict.
“I know that today’s era is not of war,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the Russian leader in televised comments as they met Friday in Uzbekistan. “We discussed this with you on the phone several times, that democracy and dialogue touch the entire world.”
At the same summit a day earlier, Putin acknowledged China’s unspecified “questions and concerns” about the war in Ukraine while thanking President Xi Jinping for Beijing’s “balanced position” on the conflict.
The hurried retreat of Russian troops this month from parts of a northeast region they occupied early in the war, together with the rare public reservations expressed by key allies, underscored the challenges that Putin faces on all fronts. Both China and India have maintained strong ties with Russia and had sought to remain neutral on Ukraine.
Xi, in a statement, expressed support for Russia’s “core interests” but also wanted to work together to “inject stability” into world affairs. Modi said he wanted to discuss “how we can move forward on the path of peace,” adding that the biggest concerns facing the world are the problems of food security, fuel security and fertilizers.
“We must find some way out and you too must contribute to that,” Modi stressed in a rare public rebuke.
The comments cast a shadow over a summit that Putin had hoped would burnish his diplomatic status and show he was not so internationally isolated. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to +++++relevant+++++ and related stories:
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