2023-07-14 02:03:02
Vladimir Putin “has already lost the war” in Ukraine, said Thursday Joe Biden, believing that Moscow would end up negotiating against the Ukrainian counter-offensive, the Russian president assuring him that Ukraine’s accession to the NATO would aggravate international tensions, the day after the Alliance summit in Vilnius.
He could end the war tomorrow, he would just have to say “I quit,” the US president said during a visit to Finland celebrating the recent NATO membership of the Nordic country neighboring Russia.
But there is no possibility for him to win the war in Ukraine […] He has already lost it, Mr. Biden assured, pointing to Russia’s lack of resources and its economic difficulties.
Despite the lack of progress in the Ukrainian counter-offensive on the front, the American president said he was convinced that it would lead to a request for negotiations from Moscow.
I hope, and it is my expectation, that Ukraine will make meaningful progress in its offensive and that this will lead to a negotiated settlement at some point, the US leader said.
Biden assures that Ukraine will be part of NATO
Faced with the disappointment displayed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at not having obtained a precise timetable for his country’s accession to NATO at the alliance summit on Tuesday and Wednesday in Vilnius, Joe Biden reiterated the American promise of a membership.
The question is not whether or not they should join NATO [mais] when they can join. And they will join NATO, said the tenant of the White House.
Russia responded Thursday with a series of airstrikes on Ukraine, which injured at least four people in kyiv, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Vladimir Putin commented on Ukraine’s possible NATO membership on Thursday evening, saying he was certain that it would not improve Ukraine’s security and that, in general, it would make the world much more vulnerable and lead to additional tensions on the international scene.
Speaking on Russian television on the sidelines of a technology forum, he added that the threat of Ukraine joining NATO was precisely one of the reasons for Russian military intervention in the country in February 2022. .
The delivery of new weapons will only aggravate the situation, and make it worse for the Ukrainian side, which will only fuel the conflict, added the Russian president.
American cluster munitions have arrived
On Thursday, the Ukrainian armed forces said they had already received the cluster munitions promised by Washington. We just received them, we haven’t used them yet, but they can radically change the situation on the battlefield, said Oleksandre Tarnavsky, the commander of the counteroffensive in the south of the country, in an interview with the American television CNN.
Controversial, these weapons are accused of causing many collateral victims, in particular civilians, due in particular to the unexploded charges which are buried in the ground.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also claimed that the delivery of Western F-16 fighter jets – needed according to Kiev to fight the Russian invasion – would be considered a nuclear threat, these planes being able to carry the atomic weapon.
I don’t believe there’s a real prospect […] that Putin uses nuclear weapons. Not only the West, but also China and the rest of the world said: “do not go on this ground”, swept Joe Biden, alongside Finnish President Sauli Niinistö.
Finland, the latest member of NATO
Joe Biden arrived in Finland on Wednesday evening, which joined the Atlantic Alliance in April, to end the European tour he had started on Sunday evening in London.
Turning the page on five decades of forced neutrality by Russia after the Second World War, then of military non-alignment since the end of the Cold War, Finland became, on April 4, the 31st member of the Alliance Atlantic.
With a new 1300 km border with a NATO country, this entry is a major strategic setback for Moscow.
Sweden are expected to follow in the coming months, following a surprise deal with Turkey on Monday in Vilnius.
The American president also returned to the abortive mutiny at the end of June of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, a sign of the deep divisions in the Russian military camp.
He joked about the risks of elimination of the leader of the group Evguéni Prigojine, judging that he should be careful what he eats.
The American president also said he was determined to do everything possible to free the American journalist Evan Gershkovich, correspondent for the Wall Street Journal imprisoned for more than 100 days in Russia, including via a prisoner exchange.
In addition to Mr. Niinistö, Joe Biden met Thursday in Helsinki with the leaders of the other Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland).
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