Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to give a speech on Tuesday outlining the goals of the second year of his invasion of Ukraine, a day after US President Joe Biden walked the streets of Kiev promising to support Ukraine for as long as it takes.

Following his surprise visit to Kiev, Biden traveled to Poland and will speak today about how the United States has helped rally the international community in support of Ukraine, while highlighting American support for NATO’s eastern flank.

Biden, in his signature sunglasses, and President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a green combat uniform, strolled side by side through Kyiv’s golden-domed St. Michael’s Cathedral on a clear winter morning. Air raid sirens accompanied the walk of the two leaders.

“When Putin launched his invasion almost a year ago, he thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided. He thought he could overtake us. But he was wrong,” Biden said.

“The price that Ukraine had to pay is extremely high. The sacrifices were very great… We know that difficult days, weeks and years lie ahead of us.”

Burnt-out Russian tanks stand near the cathedral as a symbol of the failed assault on Moscow at the beginning of its invasion, which began on February 24. Her forces quickly reached the outskirts of Kyiv – and eventually retreated, meeting unexpectedly strong resistance.

Since then, Russia’s war has killed tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers on both sides, cities have been reduced to rubble, and millions of refugees have fled the country. Russia claims to have annexed almost a fifth of Ukraine, while the West has promised tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Kyiv.

“This visit by a US president to Ukraine, the first in 15 years, is the most important visit in the history of Ukrainian-American relations,” Zelensky said.

“Of course, for the Kremlin, this will be seen as further evidence that the United States has bet on the strategic defeat of Russia in the war and that the war itself has irreversibly turned into a war between Russia and the West,” said Russian journalist Tatyana Stanovaya. political scientist.

However, Putin is expected to brief Russia’s political and military elite on the conflict in Ukraine, the biggest confrontation with the West since the Cold War, in a speech to members of both houses of parliament.

He is also expected to elaborate on the international situation and lay out his vision for Russia’s development after sweeping Western sanctions were imposed on it, the Kremlin said.

The performance is scheduled to start at 11 am Greek time in Moscow.

EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Josep Borrell said the EU would approve additional sanctions until February 24, which marks the anniversary of the invasion, which Russia calls a “special military operation” in defense of Russian sovereignty.

Fronts and China

Russia is trying to establish full control over the two eastern provinces that make up the industrial region of Donbass. He sent thousands of recruits to Ukraine for a winter offensive, but has so far made little headway in attacks on the frozen trenches on the eastern front in recent weeks.

Kyiv and the West see this as an incentive for Putin… to trumpet victories a year after the outbreak of the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II and beyond.

On Monday, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi called for a negotiated settlement to the war in Ukraine during a stop in Hungary ahead of a visit to Moscow.

Ukraine says any diplomatic solution requires the withdrawal of Russian troops from its territory.

Publicly, China remained neutral despite signing a “borderless” friendship pact with Russia weeks before the invasion.

Washington has said in recent days that it is concerned that Beijing might start supplying weapons to Moscow. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the United States was “not in a position to make demands on China.”

Ukraine expects to receive large shipments of Western weapons in the coming months, which will help it launch a planned counterattack. In recent weeks, Ukrainian forces have claimed to have inflicted massive casualties while fending off attacks by Russian troops.

The UK Ministry of Defense noted that Russian losses included two elite brigades of thousands of marines who may have become “ineffective in combat” due to casualties suffered during failed invasion attempts at Bulendar.

“If the Russian spring offensive does not bring any results, then it is likely that tensions within the Russian leadership will increase,” the British Ministry of Defense said.

Source: Reuters.