Pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin are increasing both on the battlefield and in the global community as Ukrainian troops pushed their counter-offensive on 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, reports AFP.
It has given space to Ukraine 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, but sought to remain neutral on Ukraine.
Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
