Ukraine advance going 'according to plan', says Putin
RUSSIA,FRANCE, BELGIUM: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia’s military operations in Ukraine were going according to plan and he praised its soldiers as heroes.
“I want to say that the special military operation is proceeding strictly in line with the timetable. According to plan. All the tasks that have been set are being successfully resolved,” he said, a week after Russia sent tanks and troops into Ukraine from the north, east and south.
Putin’s televised comments seemed designed to rebut statements by Western Governments and intelligence agencies that Russia’s campaign has stumbled in the face of logistical problems, tactical mistakes and fiercer-than-expected resistance from Ukraine.
“Now on Ukrainian territory, our soldiers and officers are fighting for Russia, for a peaceful life for the citizens of Donbass, for the denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine, so that we can’t be threatened by an anti-Russia right on our borders that the West has been creating for years,” he said.
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron believes “the worst is to come” in Ukraine after a phone call with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin who appears intent on seizing “the whole” of the country, an aide to the French leader said.
“The expectation of the President is that the worst is to come, given what President Putin told him,” a senior aide to the French leader told reporters on condition of anonymity.
“There was nothing in what President Putin told us that should reassure us. He showed great determination to continue the operation,” the aide added, adding that Macron told Putin he was making a “grave mistake”.
Meanwhile, the European Union on Thursday agreed to approve temporary protection for refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine — so far numbered at one million — while also setting up a humanitarian hub in Romania.
The moves by the European Union came in parallel to its muscular sanctions on Russia imposed in successive waves over the course of the invasion, now in its eighth day. European Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen tweeted that the EU was also setting up a “humanitarian hub” in Romania, one of four EU countries bordering Ukraine. – THE HINDUSTAN TIMES, THE MALAY MAIL