Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were each courting major allies yesterday, seeking to prop up their efforts in a war whose fortunes have tilted toward Ukraine in the past few days.
In Uzbekistan’s ancient city of Samarkand, Putin was hoping to break through his international isolation and further cement his ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in a geopolitical alliance increasingly seen as potent counterweight to the Western powers.
Putin and Xi were due to discuss Ukraine, the Russian president’s foreign affairs adviser said.
Photo: AFP
In Kyiv, Zelenskiy was shrugging off a traffic collision the previous night that left him with no major injuries, officials said.
On the agenda was a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who once more showed full commitment to Ukraine’s cause.
Von der Leyen said she would address “how to continue getting our economies and people closer while Ukraine progresses towards accession” to the bloc, which is likely still years away in even the best of circumstances.
Photo: EPA
While Russian forces in some areas are increasingly being pushed back toward the border, Russia is still striking from behind the front line. It fired missiles at the dam of a reservoir close to Zelenskiy’s birthplace, Kryvyi Rih, forcing local authorities into emergency works to make sure there was no threat to the population.
Officials blew up two dams to help the river flow, helping levels subside, Kryvyi Rih military administration head Oleksandr Vilkul said yesterday
The missile strikes so close to his roots had no military value, Zelenskiy said.
“Hitting hundreds of thousands of ordinary civilians is another reason why Russia will lose,” he said in his nightly address on Wednesday.
Zelenskiy said that almost 400 settlements had been retaken in less than a week of fighting.
“It was an unprecedented movement of our warriors. Ukrainians once again managed to do what many considered impossible,” he said.
Zelenskiy is expected to ask for more Western military material, which has been essential in driving the counteroffensive, and request even harsher sanctions against Moscow as the war drags on in its seventh month.
Despite renewed Ukrainian vigor on the battlefield and the first rumblings of criticism at home, Putin is staying steadfast with his determination to fully subdue Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.
“Unfortunately, I cannot tell you that the realization has grown over there [in Russia] by now that this was a mistake to start this war,” Scholz said after a telephone call with Putin earlier this week. “There has been no indication that new attitudes are emerging there now.”
Typhoon Usagi yesterday had weakened into a tropical storm, but a land warning issued by the Central Weather Administration (CWA) was still in effect in four areas in southern Taiwan. As of 5pm yesterday, Tropical Storm Usagi was over waters 120km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the southernmost tip of Taiwan proper, and was moving north at 9kph, CWA data showed. The storm was expected to veer northeast later yesterday. It had maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126kph, the data showed. The CWA urged residents of Kaohsiung, Pingtung County, Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) to remain alert to
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