EGN NEWS DESK
The trade is the second in simply two days. On Friday, 49 Ukrainian captives had been pictured rejoicing after being launched, together with members of the nation’s nationwide guard, border service and civilians. Among them was Leniye Umerova, a Crimean Tatar who was arrested by Russian safety forces on the occupied Ukrainian peninsula final yr after returning to go to her sick father.
At the identical time although, the Kremlin has escalated its confrontation amid rising expectations that the U.S. may give Kyiv the inexperienced mild to hit Russian navy installations throughout the border utilizing long-range weapons donated by its Western allies. Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed the transfer could be tantamount to NATO changing into immediately concerned within the warfare — regardless of having already constantly sought to painting his invasion as a battle in opposition to the West.
Asked on Friday what he made from the threats, U.S. President Joe Biden mentioned solely: “I don’t suppose a lot about Vladimir Putin.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer raised the difficulty on a go to to Washington the identical day, with London having lengthy pushed for the weapons guidelines to be relaxed. Ukraine desires to make use of British-made Storm Shadow missiles to take out Russian rocket websites, however would want the White House to log off as a result of sure elements are American-made.
“Russia is a nuclear energy, and it will be irresponsible to completely ignore that,” mentioned Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at Washington’s hawkish Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former Republican Senate adviser. “But Putin has made threats alongside these strains earlier than and his constant technique is to play into fears of escalation as a method to deprive Kyiv of the weapons and assist it wants.”
“Since Feb. 24, 2022, we’ve seen over and over the dynamic the place Zelenskyy says I want this or that system after which we see a ‘no’ from the Biden administration, then we see a ‘perhaps,’ then a ‘sure,’ ” Bowman mentioned. “And, as time passes, all that occurs is Ukrainians die, Russia advances.”
