KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin mounted both on the battlefield and in the halls of global power as Ukrainian troops waging a counteroffensive pushed Saturday to advance farther into the country’s partly recaptured northeast.
At a high-level summit in Uzbekistan, Putin vowed to press his attack on Ukraine despite recent military setbacks but also had to address concerns over the drawn-out conflict voiced by India and China.
“I know that today’s era is not of war,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the Russian leader in televised comments as the two met Friday in Uzbekistan. At the same summit a day earlier, Putin acknowledged China’s unspecified “questions and concerns” about the war in Ukraine while also thanking Chinese President Xi Jinping for his government’s “balanced position” on the conflict.
The hurried retreat of his troops this month from parts of a northeast region they occupied early in the war, together with the rare public reservations expressed by key allies, underscored the challenges Putin faces on all fronts. Both China and India maintain strong ties with Russia and had sought to remain neutral on Ukraine.
Xi, in a statement released by his government, expressed support for Russia’s “core interests” but also interest in working together to “inject stability” into world affairs. Modi said he wanted to discuss “how we can move forward on the path of peace.”