Ukraine war: US President Joe Biden fears Putin does not have a strategy to get out of the conflict | World News
US President Joe Biden says he is concerned Vladimir Putin has no way out of the Ukraine war.
Speaking in Washington DC on Monday, Biden described the Russian President as “a very calculated man” but with no exit strategy, and admitted “I’m trying to figure out what we do about it.” “.
He say Putin mistakenly thought that the invasion of Ukraine would shatter NATO and the European Union.
But he said that instead, the United States and many European countries have in effect regrouped on the Ukrainian side and become more unified.
Putin has long objected to what he sees as NATO moves east into the former Soviet republics. Ukraine and its Western allies have steadfastly denied it posed any threat.
However, President Biden’s upbeat comments on European unity come as French leader Emmanuel Macron issued a stark warning to Ukraine about its hopes of joining the EU.
In a speech marking Europe Day in Strasbourg, France, President Macron said he feared the process would take “decades”.
“We all know well that the process of allowing (Ukraine) participation will take years, in fact it could be decades,” he said.
Main developments:
• President Vladimir Putin marked Russia’s Victory Day by noting that Russian forces in Ukraine have a preemptive move to avoid aggression
• Anti-war sentiment has begun to creep into Russia – and protesters are detained
• Attacks continue in the northeastern Kharkiv region
• Ukrainian journalists were commended for their “courage and endurance” in a special quote from the organizers of the prestigious Pulitzer Prize.
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Vladimir Putin’s Victory Day speech to his country surprised some people
The European Union’s executive body, the European Commission, said it aims to make its first comments by June on Ukraine’s request for membership in the bloc.
But once candidate status is granted, the process of becoming an EU member often takes years, and any member state can veto not only any eventual accession agreement, but also the opening of an EU membership. and concluding individual negotiating chapters.
Meanwhile on the battlefield, fierce fighting raged at the vital Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa as Russian forces sought to finish off the last standing Ukrainian defenders at a steel mill in Mariupol .
In the picture: Putin shows off Russia’s military might
The Ukrainian military said Russian forces fired seven missiles from the air at Odesa on Monday night, hitting a shopping mall and a warehouse.
They said one person was killed and five were injured.
Natalya Gumenyuk, an army spokeswoman, said on Facebook: “While searching for strategic targets, obsolete missiles managed to hit an ‘extremely dangerous’ shopping mall and a house warehouse for consumables.”
The photos on the post show what appears to be the warehouse engulfed in flames.
Witness: The relief team will not stop providing supplies near the front lines when Putin’s bombs fall
President of Ukraine Volodmyr Zelenskyy said the strikes into Odesa also had a secondary effect on food supplies.
In his nightly address to his country, he said that for the first time since the Second World War, there had been “no regular movement of merchant fleets, no regular port operations.” .
“And this is a blow not only for Ukraine. Without our agricultural exports, dozens of countries in different regions of the country would be.
The world has been on the verge of food shortages.
“And over time, the situation can become, frankly, scary.”
Anti-war demonstrations
However, Nigel Gould Davies, the former British ambassador to Belarus, said he believes Russia’s momentum is waning.
“Russia has not won this war. It is starting to lose.”
He said that unless Russia there is a major breakthrough, “the balance of advantage will steadily shift in favor of Ukraine, especially as Ukraine gains access to a growing volume of increasingly sophisticated Western military equipment.” .”
Despite Russia’s crackdown on dissidents at home, anti-war sentiment spread on Monday as dozens of protesters were detained across the country on Victory Day and Editors at a pro-Kremlin media outlet revolted by briefly publishing several dozen stories critical of Putin and the invasions.
