In his most direct public comment on the war yet, Indian PM Narendra Modi tells Putin: \u0027Today\u0027s era is not an era of war\u0027
“We will do everything to stop this as soon as possible. Only, unfortunately, the opposing side, the leadership of Ukraine, announced its rejection of the negotiation process and stated that it wants to achieve its goals by military means.”
Putin had made similar comments to Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday, saying he understood Beijing’s concerns about the conflict. Ukraine wrested control of a large swathe of the northeast of the country occupied by Russia in a lightning offensive this month that forced Russian troops to flee, abandoning their equipment. The sudden losses dealt a major blow to the Kremlin’s efforts to seize eastern Ukraine. In response, Russia fired missiles that plunged large areas of Ukraine into darkness and attacked elements of the water system in a city behind the front lines, causing severe damage and flooding.
But it is a different matter entirely when the criticism is coming from Putin’s own supporters. It is one of the more sobering facts about modern Russian politics that, if Putin were to be removed from power, the likelihood is that his replacement would come from the cohorts of Russian nationalists, not freedom-loving democrats like Navalny.
“Moscow, from the get-go, has had three aims: One is to destroy any idea of a sovereign independent Ukraine; the other is to rewrite the post-Cold War settlement in Europe, and the third is to basically trash any idea of a U.S.-led global order,” Lo said.