Ukrainian forces staged a fightback this week, halting the Russian advance in some areas, and regaining territory they had previously lost. Kyiv said its forces had retaken Makariv, a strategically important town west of the capital, and forced Russian troops back from the southern city of Mykolaiv, a key point on the route from Crimea to Odesa.
Buoyed by his country’s resistance, Ukraine’s President Zelensky vowed never to surrender major cities to Russia, and rejected a Russian offer of safe passage for civilians from the besieged city of Mariupol if Ukraine’s forces surrendered there. Renewing calls for talks with Putin, he said any major “compromises” would have to be put to the Ukrainian people in a vote.
Russia, however, continued its bombardment of Ukraine. Strikes were reported in residential areas of Odesa and in Kyiv, where eight people died when a shopping centre was destroyed by a missile on Monday. Russia also continued to lay waste to Mariupol, which came under fire from warships in the Sea of Azov. Local officials said the city was being reduced to “the ashes of a dead land”. Negotiators said Putin was not yet willing to meet Zelensky, and that there had been “no significant progress” in peace talks so far.
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Already Europe has ‘changed forever’
It was only a month ago that Russia invaded Ukraine, said The Sunday Times, and already Europe has “changed forever”. Thousands of lives have been lost; cities like Kharkiv and Mariupol have been destroyed; the continent faces its biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War. As long as Putin remains in power, Russia will be a “pariah”.
Putin wanted to restore Russia to greatness, said The Independent. Instead, he has only succeeded in humiliating his “badly organised” armed forces; in convincing countries to cripple Russia’s economy with sanctions; and in uniting a once fractured West against him.
With Western arms still “pouring into” Ukraine, Putin’s problems will just get worse, said The Economist. Last week, the US announced it was sending another $800m in military aid – a package that includes 800 Stinger antiaircraft systems and 2,000 Javelin anti-tank missiles, as well as drones which are thought to be capable of striking tanks from 25 miles.
The West should now press home its advantage, said The Wall Street Journal. By showing such extraordinary resilience, “Ukraine has earned the right to determine what concessions, if any, it can live with” in exchange for peace. In the meantime, the only “exit ramp” Putin should be offered is “complete withdrawal from Ukraine”.
Is Putin facing defeat?
Don’t bet against Putin facing defeat in Ukraine, said Andrew Neil in the Daily Mail. His troops are suffering huge losses and are short of food, fuel and ammunition. At least 7,000 have died. Ukrainian forces have destroyed 500 Russian armoured vehicles, 32 fighter jets, and 240 tanks – more than in any military action since the Second World War. Five Russian generals have been killed; Putin has sacked eight others.
It’s true that Russia has made gains in the south, said Max Boot in The Washington Post. It’s likely that Mariupol will fall and Russia will get its “land bridge” between Crimea and Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine. But the situation elsewhere is “dismal”. Russians have been driven out of Mykolaiv, a city of 470,000; and Kyiv and Kharkiv, a largely ethnic Russian city that was expected to fall fast, remain in Ukrainian hands.
Maybe so, said Niall Ferguson in The Mail on Sunday, but Putin won’t stop until he controls enough of Ukraine’s south and east to win concessions that he can then present as a victory. The West is still filling the Kremlin’s coffers by buying $1bn of Russian oil a day. And anyone who saw Putin’s “splenetic” address to a vast crowd in Moscow last week will know that he isn’t thinking rationally. The more desperate he gets, the more drastic the actions he’ll take: Russia has already fired hypersonic missiles that fly at ten times the speed of sound; it could yet unleash chemical weapons.
President Biden’s “naivety” in assuring Moscow that Nato won’t intervene “in any circumstances” is extraordinary, said Simon Tisdall in The Guardian. As long as Putin is confident we won’t strike back, “bloodbath upon atrocious bloodbath beckons”.
Putin’s objective now ‘unattainable’
Putin must know his objective of bringing all of Ukraine under his sway is now “unattainable”, said William Hague in The Times. But “even in the unlikely scenario” he engages in Turkeybrokered peace talks in good faith, the issues are “formidably” complex. The future status of Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk is intensely divisive, as are questions of how Ukraine would be compensated for damage to its cities, for lives lost, and for the millions uprooted from homes. The Ukrainians’ offer of neutrality provides some hope for talks. “But they will need a muscular, self-reliant, ruggedly independent neutrality if they are ever to sleep easily in the future.”
Almost 100,000 people remain trapped in Mariupol and are at risk of starvation, Zelensky warned this week. Repeating calls for Russia to allow safe humanitarian corridors, he said civilians faced “inhumane conditions ... without food, water, medication” and are under “constant shelling”.
Ukrainian officials fear their country is running out of weapons, The Times reports: their forces are using up more munitions than anticipated, and there have been delays in supplies from Germany, France and other nations. President Biden was due in Europe for summit talks with Nato, EU and G7 allies this week, their aim being to increase support for Kyiv and to squeeze Russia further by ramping up sanctions.
