Biden meets Ukraine ministers as Russia signals scaled down goals

(MENAFN- Jordan Times)

WARSAW — US President Joe Biden met top Ukrainian ministers in an emphatic show of support Saturday, as Russia signalled it may scale down its war aims after failing to break Kyiv's resistance in a month of fighting and deadly attacks on civilians.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov made a rare trip out of Ukraine to meet with the US leader, in a possible sign of growing confidence in their fightback against Russian forces.

The talks discussed Washington's 'unwavering commitment to Ukraine's Sovereignty and territorial integrity,' State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters.

Biden, who later met Polish President Andrzej Duda, also stressed the 'sacred commitment' to NATO's collective defence, in a clear reassurance to Ukraine's neighbours rattled by the conflict.

Putin had sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, vowing to destroy the country's military and topple pro-Western President Volodymyr Zelensky.

In a surprise statement, Sergei Rudskoi, a senior Russian general, suggested the time had come for a considerably reduced 'main goal' of controlling Donbas, an eastern region already partly held by Russian proxies.

The apparent scaling down of ambitions came as a Western official reported that a seventh Russian general, Lieutenant General Yakov Rezanstev, had died in Ukraine and that a colonel had been 'deliberately' killed by his own demoralised men.

Complicating Moscow's challenges, invading troops were facing a counteroffensive in Kherson, the only major Ukrainian city under Russian control.

Zelensky pressed on with his relentless diplomatic efforts to rally world leaders to his side, this time taking his message to the Doha Forum meeting in Qatar's capital.

He accused Russia of fuelling a dangerous arms race by“bragging” about its nuclear stocks, and urged Qatar to help by preventing Moscow from deploying energy as a weapon.

“I ask you to increase the output of energy to ensure that everyone in Russia understands that no one can use energy as a weapon to blackmail the world,” Zelensky said.

'Everybody's shooting'

Russia's far-bigger military continued to combat determined Ukrainian defenders who are using Western-supplied weapons — from near the capital Kyiv to Kharkiv, the Donbas region and the devastated southern port city of Mariupol.

A humanitarian convoy leaving Mariupol, including ambulances carrying wounded children, was being held up at Russian checkpoints, a Ukrainian official said.

A buildup of several kilometres had formed close to Vassylivka, in the region of Zaporizhzhia where the convoy was headed, said Lyudmyla Denisova, in charge of human rights in Ukraine.

“The ambulances carrying wounded children are also queueing. The people have been deprived of water and food for two days,” she wrote on Telegram, blasting Russian troops for“creating obstacles”.

Authorities had said they fear some 300 civilians in Mariupol may have died in a Russian air strike on a theatre being used as a bomb shelter last week.

The theatre was targeted despite the word“children” being written large in Russian on the ground outside, so as to be visible to pilots.

Russian forces hammering Mariupol's out-gunned resistance consider the city a lynchpin in their attempt to create a land corridor between the Crimea region, which Moscow seized in 2014, and the Donbas.

Russian forces have taken control of Slavutych, the town where workers at the Chernobyl nuclear plant live, detaining the mayor, regional Ukrainian authorities said.

But residents of the town were mounting pro-Ukrainian protests, prompting the invading forces to fire shots in the air and lob stun grenades into the crowd.

Kyiv said it was shortening a planned 35-hour curfew to just Saturday 8:00pm to Sunday 7:00am, as Britain's defence ministry said Ukrainian counterattacks were underway near the capital.

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