The US Department of Defense is almost certain that Putin has given up on conquering Kiev, even if he does not slow down arms supplies to Ukraine, sending another 134 troops to favor a partial replacement of the soldiers who have already fought for over 40 days. The US Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin he said yesterday at a press conference: "Putin thought he could very quickly conquer Ukraine, but he was wrong and now he may have given up on his efforts to capture the capital, focusing on the south and east of the country.".
Meanwhile, the G7 announces new economic and financial sanctions against Moscow while the EU calls for a total embargo on Russian oil and gas. The twenty-seven ambassadors of the member countries have launched the fifth EU sanctions package, which also provides for the gradual embargo on Russian coal imports.
The president of the EU Parliament, Robert Metsol, urges to "do everything to isolate Putin and his allies".
According to the deputy secretary of NATO, Geoana, in the coming weeks in southeastern Ukraine there "it will be another kind of war, more conventional and on a larger scale". Speaking on the Italian TV program A clean sweep, Geoana added: “Allied support will change depending on this. And I can predict that the allies will supply more weapons to Ukraine ...".
In view of the Moscow offensive to the southeast, the Pentagon is preparing to send more than 1.400 Stinger missiles, more than 5.000 anti-tank Javelins and hundreds of drones to kiev. And the president of the EU Council Charles Michel he anticipates that the EU will propose to increase the fund for military support to Ukraine with a further 500 million, bringing it to 1,5 billion euros. At the same time, theAustralia announces that it will send the 20 armored vehicles requested by President Zelensky himself to Kiev.
Zelensky believes that the situation a Borodyanka is "much more horrible"Compared to the recent alleged massacre of civilians carried out a Bush, which prompted many in the international community to accuse Vladimir Putin of war crimes and the UN general assembly to approve the suspension of Russia from the Human Rights Council.
In the resolution proposed by the US and Great Britain he expressed himself "Grave concern over the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, in particular over reports of violations and abuses of international humanitarian law by Moscow“, Starting right from Bucha.
For their part, the leaders of the G7 agreed to ban "new investments in key sectors of the Russian economy, including the energy sector ", as well as widening export bans on certain goods and imposing a further crackdown on Russian state-owned banks and companies.
There have been two strong explosions that have affected Odessa in the last few hours, while the Ukrainian attorney general Iryna Venediktova announced that 26 bodies had been extracted from the rubble of two bombed apartment buildings in Borodyanka, a town northwest of Kiev where about 200 residents are missing.