Russian President Vladimir Putin accused NATO of participating in the conflict in Ukraine by supplying arms to kyiv forces, in an interview broadcast on Sunday. In addition, the head of American diplomacy will visit Central Asia at the beginning of the week, hoping to strengthen the footprint of the United States in the ex-Soviet republics, caught between their powerful Russian neighbor and the influence of China. . Find hour by hour the main events of the day.
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused NATO of participating in the conflict in Ukraine by supplying arms to kyiv forces, in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
“They are sending tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine. This is really participation,” the Russian president said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 channel.
Chinese Ambassador to the European Union Fu Cong said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel may visit China in the first half of 2023, the report reported. Chinese newspaper Global Times.
European diplomats have criticized China’s refusal to label the war in Ukraine as an invasion or to ask Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukrainian territory.
Russia’s Deputy Ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polianski, on Sunday accused the West of using “cowboy” methods and “pressuring” certain countries during the United Nations General Assembly which was held last week, at which a resolution calling for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine was adopted.
The resolution passed Thursday with 141 votes in favour, while six countries backed Russia by voting no (Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea, Mali, Nicaragua and Syria).
US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken travels to Central Asia earlier this week, hoping to strengthen the United States’ footprint in the former Soviet republics, caught between its powerful Russian neighbor and the growing influence of China. .
In the midst of the war in Ukraine, the leaders of these Central Asian countries are on a tightrope due to formal defense agreements with Moscow and the economic and security weight of Russia, and have thus adopted a position of balance in the dispute.
Russia’s ally Belarus has nearly 1.5 million potential soldiers outside its armed forces, a senior Belarusian official said on Saturday.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko authorized Moscow to use Belarus as a rear base to send Russian soldiers to Ukraine last year and to train newly mobilized Russian soldiers.
With AFP and Reuters
Source: France 24
