PUTIN TALKS BUT BODIES PILE UP
Russia is speaking about a ceasefire and peace in one room but in another is plotting to expand the battlefield with more foreign fighters, more artillery and even possibly another country.
The US was the first to warn against hopes that Vladimir Putin would accept anything other than a Ukrainian surrender, given how much standing he and his nation had already lost.
But now the French, normally the epitome of diplomacy, have called it and accused Russia of just “pretending” as it looked to continue its “brutal strategy” of conquest.
French Foreign Minister Jean-yves Le Drian said there was only one urgent matter, a ceasefire, but Mr Putin had no real interest in that.
“Unfortunately we’re still facing the same Russian logic – making maximalist demands, wanting Ukraine to surrender and intensifying siege warfare,” Mr Le Drian he said.
Ukraine military intelligence claims 40,000 Syrians are set to join the war for Russia, 300 a day to be collected from Syria in Russian military aircraft. The first flight full had already arrived.
The war in Ukraine has continued without mercy, with 53 civilians killed in 24 hours in the town of Cherni
hiv by artillery, and more shelling of Kyiv and Mariupol, the latter now 90 per cent damaged or destroyed.
The one bright spot was that 130 survivors were pulled from the rubble of the city’s theatre overnight, which had been used as a civilian shelter and was bombed. No deaths were reported there.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden will warn his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping today that he will face “costs” if Beijing rescues its ally Russia from Western sanctions aimed at punishing Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The two leaders’ first phone call since a video summit in November will be a chance to air differences as
the US spearheads an unprecedented pressure campaign on Russia, placing China in a geopolitical bind.
Beijing has refused to condemn Moscow, and Washington fears the Chinese could switch to full financial and even military support for Russia, transforming an explosive transatlantic standoff into a global dispute and a step closer to world war.
Not only could Beijing potentially help Russia weather crippling pressure on its banks and currency, but Western governments would then face the decision of whether to impose sanctions against China.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had hoped China would use “whatever leverage they have to compel Moscow to end this war” but “instead, it appears that China is moving in the opposite direction”.
He said he was “concerned that they’re considering … military assistance.”
Meanwhile, evidence emerged that Mr Putin had lost at least 7000 troops and more than 200 tanks in the conflict. The Ukrainian side also says it is now counterattacking against stalled Russian positions as the invasion enters its fourth week.
Russian forces are not moving into the Ukrainian capital Kyiv or the second city, Kharkiv, despite a ferocious bombardment.