Biden has key to end Ukraine conflict, says Kremlin
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday said the situation at the front remained “extremely acute”, particularly in the eastern Donetsk region where Russia is stepping up an offensive.
Zelenskiy reported major battles for Vuhledar, to the southwest of Donetsk, and Bakhmut, to the northeast. Bakhmut has largely been pulverised by repeated Russian attacks.
“The occupiers are not just storming our positions, they are deliberately and methodically destroying the towns and villages around them, with artillery, air strikes, missiles,” he said in an evening video address. “The Russian army has no shortage of lethal means and can only be stopped by force.”
The area around Bakhmut, with a pre-war population of 70,000, has seen some of the most brutal fighting of the 11-month-old war. The town has symbolic importance for both Russia and Ukraine, though Western military analysts say it has little strategic significance.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin said on Friday that U.S. President Joe Biden had the key to end the conflict in Ukraine by directing Kyiv, but that Washington had so far not been willing to use it.
“The key to the Kyiv regime is largely in the hands of Washington,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a daily briefing.
“Now we see that the current White House leader … does not want to use this key. On the contrary, he chooses the path of further pumping weapons into Ukraine,” he added.
Moscow has often accused Washington of giving orders to Ukraine and of prolonging the conflict by supplying Kyiv with weapons. The United States says Russia has unleashed a brutal war of choice and can end it by withdrawing its troops.
Tensions between the two sides have plumbed historic lows over the past year, with the United States announcing this week that it would supply Ukraine with 31 advanced M1 Abrams tanks worth $400 million in a matter of months.
Russia says any Abrams shipments would be a waste of money as they would “burn” just like other tanks in Ukraine.—Reuters
