Ukrainian forces have seized even more territory from Russia as they continue their counter-offensive, the country’s president has said.

Volodymyr Zelensky said troops have now retaken more than 6,000 sq km (2,317 sq miles) from Russian control in September, in the east and the south.

The BBC cannot verify these figures.

Russia has admitted losing key cities in the north-eastern Kharkiv region, in what is seen by some military experts as a potential breakthrough in the war.

Moscow describes its troop withdrawal from the region in recent days as a “regrouping” with the aim of focusing on the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in Ukraine’s east.

That claim has been ridiculed even in Russia, with many social media users there describing the stated pull-out as “shameful”.

Speaking later on Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Ukrainian forces had made “significant progress” in their counter-offensive, but added that it was too early to predict the outcome.

“The Russians maintain very significant forces in Ukraine as well as equipment and arms and munitions. They continue to use it indiscriminately against not just the Ukrainian armed forces but civilians and civilian infrastructure as we’ve seen,” Mr Blinken said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February. Russia still holds about a fifth of the country.

In his late video address on Monday, President Zelensky said: “From the beginning of September until today, our warriors have already liberated more than 6,000 sq km of the territory of Ukraine – in the east and south”.

“The movement of our troops continues,” he said.

The counter-offensive appears to have been rapid. Last Thursday, President Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had retaken 1,000 sq km, but by Sunday that stated figure had tripled to 3,000 sq km.

Mr Zelensky thanked several of Ukraine’s brigades involved in the counter-offensive, describing their fighters as “true heroes”.

He did not reveal which Ukrainian cities and villages had been liberated.

Russia’s military earlier admitted that its troops had to leave the key cities of Balakliya, Izyum and Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region. Russia now controls only a small eastern part of the region.

Significant – albeit slower – advances by Ukrainian troops have also been reported in the southern Kherson region, which borders with Crimea – a Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.

UK defence officials say the Ukrainian army’s recent successes will have “significant implications” for Russia’s overall operational design.

However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has insisted that military operations in Ukraine will continue “until all the tasks that were initially set” have been fulfilled.

Russia says its forces have been carrying out strikes in those areas retaken by Ukraine in recent days.

Valerii Marchenko, mayor of Izyum, told the BBC the Ukrainian army was in his city and the state flag had been raised.

The military is now engaged in cleaning up the war-torn city and Ukrainian forces are searching for Russian soldiers potentially hiding in people’s houses.

Mr Marchenko said that after “about 10 days”, residents who had to flee the city would be able to return “safely”.

Russia has been accused of targeting civilian infrastructure in revenge for setbacks on the battlefield.

A wave of missile strikes on Sunday caused massive power cuts across north-eastern Ukraine, leaving tens of thousands of people without electricity and running water for several hours.

World Opinions – BBC News

L’article Ukraine war: We’ve retaken 6,000 sq km from Russia, says Zelensky est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

Joe Biden said last month that he would be meeting face to face with Russian President Vladimir Putin at some point soon. Now we have a date – and a location.

The first US-Russia summit of the Biden presidency will take place in Geneva, Switzerland, on 16 June. That comes at the tail end of Biden’s already scheduled trip to the United Kingdom for the G7 summit and Brussels for a meeting of Nato leaders, giving the president plenty of time to hear from US allies before sitting down with Putin.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, in a statement announcing the meeting, said the summit would cover a “full range of pressing issues” as the US seeks to “restore predictability and stability” to its Russian relations. That echoes comments Secretary of State Antony Blinken made during a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Iceland last week, as he said Biden’s goal was a “predictable, stable relationship with Russia”.

A full slate of topics – and tension

When Biden and Putin meet, they’ll have plenty to talk about. A short list of subjects includes arms control, climate change, Russian military involvement in Ukraine, Russia’s cyber-hacking activities, including the 2020 SolarWinds attack on US government and private computer networks, and the attempted poisoning and jailing of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny.

Those conversations seem destined to be fraught, as Biden and Putin have traded verbal barbs amid rising tensions in the past months.

In an interview in March, Biden agreed with the description of Putin as a “killer”, prompting Russia to temporarily recall its ambassador to the US and Putin, in turn, to say it takes one to know one, before dryly wishing Biden “good health”.

There’s little expectation of any tangible results from this meeting, aside from the hopes it will lead to improved relations and understanding between the two leaders.

Sanctions imposed and waived

Contributing to the current US-Russia tensions are new penalties the Biden administration imposed last month as punishment for the Solar Winds hacking, which included new limits on transactions between US financial institutions and the Russian government as well as sanctions on Russian businesses and the expulsion of some Russian diplomats in the US.

If those sanctions were a diplomatic “stick”, the announcement last week that the Biden administration would waive congressionally mandated sanctions on the nearly completed Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany could help ease US-Russia tensions in the run-up to June’s summit. (It also avoids irritating Germany, which could be an equally important concern for the Biden administration, which is intent on repairing US-EU relations.)

The Trump factor

If predictability and stability are part of Biden’s goal, it will mark a sharp contrast from the four years of the Trump presidency, which began with allegations – confirmed by the US intelligence community – that Russia had meddled in the 2016 presidential election and was behind cyber-attacks on the Democratic Party and its presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton.

Those attacks cast a shadow on much of the Trump presidency, leading to Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation and revelations of contact between members of the Trump campaign and Russian nationals (although the investigation found no evidence of co-ordination between the two camps).

When Trump and Putin had their first and only one-on-one summit in Helsinki, Finland, in July 2018, Trump controversially stated that he believed Putin’s insistence that Russia was not involved in election hacking, despite US intelligence conclusions to the contrary.

During his presidential campaign and throughout his time in office, Trump expressed admiration of, and a sympathetic ear toward, Putin, although his administration did – after some delay – follow through with congressionally mandated sanctions on Russia.

Biden’s fine line

The rhetoric of the Biden administration toward Russia has been markedly different, even if its actions have not always matched the stronger words. That has led to some criticism of the White House’s Russia policies from both political friends and adversaries.

Following the Nord Stream 2 waiver announcement, Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Menendez, a Democrat, said he didn’t see how the move helped “counter Russian aggression in Europe”.

And shortly after the White House summit information was made public, Republican Senator Ben Sasse hit Biden’s Russia policy on a number of fronts, including the recent move by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to intercept a passenger jet in order to capture a dissident journalist.

“We’re rewarding Putin with a summit?” he said in a statement. “Putin imprisoned Alexei Navalny and his puppet Lukashenko hijacked a plane to get Roman Protasevich. Instead of treating Putin like a gangster who fears his own people, we’re giving him his treasured Nord Stream 2 pipeline and legitimising his actions with a summit. This is weak.”

US-Russia summits are always diplomatic high-wire acts, with US presidents having to walk a fine line as the world looks on. Biden, as a former vice-president and long-time foreign relations expert in the Senate, has plenty of experience in the diplomatic arena and seems to relish developing one-on-one chemistry with world leaders.

The Geneva summit will be one of the biggest in-person tests of his political career, however.

World Opinions – bbc

L’article Biden-Putin summit: Awkward conversation looms in Geneva est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

Politicians know that they have a problem when they have to deny it. On Monday, Vladimir Putin insisted that an extravagant palace on the Black Sea coast did not belong to him, following a video exposé released by the opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, and so far watched by around 90 million people. Footage of him swimming in a giant pool was fake.

Nothing described as his property there either “belongs to or ever belonged to me or my close relatives. Ever”, Mr Putin said. (His opponent has said that the estate formally belongs to four proxies.)

The Russian president and his allies have preferred to publicly ignore Mr Navalny. Now, they are attacking him and his claims head-on, and denouncing the protests he has inspired as illegal and dangerous. Tens of thousands took to the streets in more than 100 cities across the country on Saturday, in the largest show of opposition for years – prompting police to arrest thousands, including Mr Navalny’s wife, Yulia, and many of his allies.

The demonstrations were sparked primarily by Mr Navalny’s arrest on his return to Russia, following treatment in Germany after the suspected FSB assassination attempt. He could be sent to a penal colony, perhaps for years, by the end of this month.

His extraordinary courage, charisma and savvy social media tactics – as well as shock at the novichok poisoning (for which officials say there is no evidence) – have brought support from disparate parts of the Russian opposition, many of whom may not share his broader political outlook. Mr Putin’s approval ratings still appear high, but are well below their peak. Underlying these protests are frustration at poor standards of living and the dismal economic situation, worsened by low oil prices and the pandemic, as well as resentment at corruption and other political abuses. In many places, local issues have fused with wider complaints.

More protests have been called for this weekend, ahead of Mr Navalny’s court hearing. In 2013, he escaped a prison sentence thanks to public pressure. This time, the scale of opposition has rattled the Kremlin, and the uprising that began in Belarus last summer has sharpened anxieties. Mr Navalny, long a nuisance, now looks like a threat. Assaults, pressure on his family, jail and even poisoning have failed to silence him. Keeping him behind bars would keep him quiet, while warning off others. But supporters hope the protests will at least help to maintain attention on his case – and, perhaps, safeguard him while in custody.

The US, EU and UK have rightly called for his immediate and unconditional release. The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, says that he will press the case in Moscow next month. Whether action results – or amounts to more than largely symbolic sanctions – is another matter. Germany is determined to press ahead with the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, despite growing opposition in Europe and sanctions imposed by the US.

Angela Merkel said last week that the attack on Mr Navalny had not changed her basic view of the project. The UK has done embarrassingly little to crack down on money laundering by close friends of the Kremlin. A damning report from the intelligence and security committee last year called the City of London a “laundromat” for illicit funds. Britain’s unexplained wealth orders – introduced in 2018 – could, and should, be used more effectively.

Russian officials and state media are already busy portraying Mr Navalny as a western stooge, though he has always been careful to keep his distance from foreign governments. Mr Putin’s real problem is not his jailed opponent, but the Russian people whose dissatisfaction he harnesses. Their daily experiences do as much to erode the Kremlin’s authority as Mr Navalny’s viral videos. While the president may prefer to ignore it, there is no denying public discontent.

The Guardian view

L’article View on Russia’s protests: Navalny isn’t Putin’s only problem est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.