In a first since the Ukraine invasion in February this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin has publicly admitted that the situation in the four annexed areas of Ukraine was proving “extremely difficult”. Besides cautioning about the difficulties, Putin ordered the Federal Security Services (FSB) to ensure the “safety” of people living in those areas. “The situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions is extremely difficult,” Putin said in a video address to security workers translated by Reuters. He made these remarks on the occasion of Security Services Day on Tuesday.
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The Russian President also called on counterintelligence officers to step up efforts to “derail activities by foreign spy agencies and quickly track down traitors, spies and saboteurs”, Reuters reported. The statement comes amid the renewed calls by Kyiv for more weapons after Russian drones hit energy targets in a third air strike on power facilities in six days. “Weapons, shells, new defence capabilities … everything that will give us the ability to speed up the end to this war,” the media report quoted Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as saying.
Russia’s move to declare four partially occupied regions in Ukraine’s east and south as their part drew criticism from Kyiv and its other western allies. Western countries have imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia and the rouble slumped to an over seven-month low against the dollar on Tuesday after the European Union agreed to cap prices of gas, a major Russian export, Reuters’ report further stated.
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On Monday, Putin made his first visit to Belarus since 2019, where he and his counterpart extolled ever-closer ties at a news conference late in the evening but hardly mentioned Ukraine. However, the visit was seen by Ukraine as Russia’s effort to drag Belarus in the ongoing war. Notably, Zelenskyy will be visiting Washington for a summit with President Joe Biden and to address Congress in his first known trip outside the country since Russia’s invasion began in February. The Ukrainian President took to Twitter and wrote that the visit was “to strengthen resilience and defence capabilities” of Ukraine and discuss cooperation between his country and the US with Biden.