Joe Biden stated Tuesday that the Ukraine situation is a global problem that highlights the need for international order, territorial integrity, and sovereignty.
Biden’s comments came a day after he promised U.S. military backing for Taiwan, the self-governed island claimed by China.
“This goes beyond Europe. It’s a global problem,” Biden remarked of the Ukraine conflict at the Quad conference.
Biden said Washington will stand with friends and advocate for an open Indo-Pacific.
“International law, and human rights must always be maintained,” he remarked.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Davos business executives on Monday that the world must boost sanctions on Russia to discourage other countries from employing “brute force”
Germany, the EU’s largest member, warned a ban on Russian oil imports is probable “within days.” Moscow claimed its economic links with China will increase amid its isolation by the West over the Ukraine conflict.
Many of the EU’s 27 member nations rely significantly on Russian energy, causing Kyiv to criticise the group for not stopping shipments swiftly enough.
Hungary wants energy investments before approving an embargo, which EU nations oppose. EU offers $2.14 billion to central and eastern states without non-Russian supplies.
Germany’s economics minister says a deal is imminent.
As economic relations with the U.S. and Europe are broken, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Kremlin will focus on China.
“If they (the West) want to provide something in terms of restarting relations, we will carefully examine it,” he said in a speech, according to the foreign ministry’s website. “Our economic links with China will expand quicker now that the West has a ‘tyrannical attitude’.”
Over 6.5 million people fled Russia’s three-month invasion, the greatest attack on a European state since 1945, and it sparked unprecedented Western sanctions on Russia.
Zelensky urged Ukraine’s friends to persuade Moscow to a prisoner swap.
“The exchange of people – this is a humanitarian concern today and a highly political decision,” Zelensky said in a video hookup with the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Zelensky: “We don’t need Russian soldiers, only ours.”
DONBAS
Russia dispatched hundreds of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 for a “special military operation” to demilitarise its neighbour and hunt out dangerous nationalists, allegations Kyiv and Western countries reject as a territorial grab.
Russian soldiers now control a fairly unbroken area of Ukraine’s east and south after capturing Mariupol last week.
They’re seeking to encircle Ukrainian soldiers and conquer Luhansk and Donetsk provinces in Moscow-backed eastern Donbas.
Serhiy Gaidai, the region’s governor, stated that 12,500 Russians tried to capture Luhansk. Gaidai said Ukraine had driven Russian forces out of Toshkivka, south of Sievierodonetsk.
Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told local TV that Avdiivka is being shelled 24/7.
Monday, Russian soldiers shot at 38 localities in Donetsk and Luhansk, killing 7 and wounding 6.
Zelenskiy said 87 people were killed last week when Russian soldiers attacked a training centre in the north.
The US said Monday that Denmark will supply Harpoon anti-ship missiles and a launcher to Ukraine. This is the first evidence since the Russian invasion that Kyiv will get U.S.-made weaponry that increases its hitting range.
Boeing’s Harpoons might force the Russian navy away from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, allowing the grain and other shipments to continue.
A court in Kyiv condemned a young Russian tank commander to life in prison for murdering an unarmed civilian.
The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s website lists 13,000 suspected Russian war crimes.
Russia denies civilian targeting or war crimes.
