Russia Signals Less Ambitious Goals In Ukraine War
Ukraine Crisis: Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24.
New Delhi:
Russia signaled Friday it may dial back its war aims to focus on eastern Ukraine after failing to break the nation’s resistance in a month of fighting and attacks on civilians, including up to 300 feared killed in the bombing of a theatre.
The possible shift came as President Joe Biden visited elite US troops serving with NATO just across the border in Poland and France’s Emmanuel Macron proposed an internationally backed evacuation of civilians trapped in the bombarded city of Mariupol.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered the February invasion to destroy Ukraine’s military and topple pro-Western President Volodymyr Zelensky, bringing the country under Russia’s sway.
However, Sergei Rudskoi, a senior general, suggested a considerably reduced “main goal” of controlling Donbass, an eastern region already partly held by Russian proxies.
Here are the LIVE Updates on the Ukraine-Russia War:
Get NDTV UpdatesTurn on notifications to receive alerts as this story develops.
- French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday dismissed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demand for Europe to pay for gas in rubles as he accused Moscow of trying to sidestep sanctions over its war on Ukraine.
- Macron told journalists after an EU summit in Brussels that the Russian move “is not in line with what was signed, and I do not see why we would apply it”.
- Putin made the demand this week as Moscow struggles to prop up its economy in the face of debilitating sanctions imposed by the West over his invasion of Ukraine.
- Macron said that “we are continuing our analysis work” following the Kremlin’s manoeuvre.
- But he insisted “all the texts signed are clear: it is prohibited. So European players who buy gas and who are on European soil must do so in euros”.
- A senior White House official said on Friday India’s position at the United Nations over the crisis in Ukraine has been “unsatisfactory” but was also unsurprising given its historical relationship with Russia.
- Mira Rapp-Hooper, director for the Indo-Pacific on the White House National Security Council, told an online forum hosted by Washington’s School of Advanced International Studies India needed alternatives to continued close ties with Russia.
- “I think we would certainly all acknowledge and agree that when it comes to votes at the UN, India’s position on the current crisis has been unsatisfactory, to say the least. But it’s also been totally unsurprising,” she said.
Source link
