As the war in Ukraine enters its second month, Russia has still failed to take the largest Ukrainian cities, and is now trying to divide Ukraine, instead.
Russia says its main focus is now taking control of the eastern Donbas region.
The head of Ukrainian military intelligence says Russia wants to split Ukraine in two, similar to how East and West Germany were created after World War Two.
Ukrainian forces have retaken several villages around Kharkiv in the east and near Sumy in the north, threatening Russian army supply lines.
Russian forces continued to pound the strategic port city of Mariupol needed to link Russian gains in the East and South.
Former CIA director and retired four-star general David Petraeus on ABC’s This Week program called Mariupol the “Ukrainian Alamo.”
“It’s fighting to the last defender, and pinning down multiple Russian battalions and doing it very heroically, but ultimately it looks as if it’s going to have to collapse and it’s going to be taken.”
Meanwhile, in the western city of Lviv, Russia released new video of missile strikes targeting fuel depots and defense infrastructure.
Addressing his nation, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy accused the West of lacking the courage to take on Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling on NATO to give his country more tanks and planes.
In Warsaw, Poland, Joe Biden delivered a speech in which he issued Vladimir Putin a blunt warning.
“Don’t even think about moving on one single inch of NATO territory. We have sacred obligation,” Biden said. “We have a sacred obligation under Article V to defend each and every inch of NATO territory with the full force of our collective power.”
Then Biden seemed to call for an end to Putin’s rule. “For God’s sake, this man cannot stay in power,” Biden said.
Secretary of State Blinken quickly walked back Biden’s words saying, “We do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia or anywhere else for that matter.”
A Russian official told Reuters, “That’s not for Biden to decide. The president of Russia is elected by Russians.”
CBN News Senior International Correspondent George Thomas is covering the war from Ukraine. He said Biden’s comment plays into Putin’s narrative. “I think in many ways it only validated what Putin has always felt that this threat from the United States is very clear and present,” he explained.
In a new interview with independent Russian journalists, President Zelenskyy said Ukraine might be willing to become a neutral nation and agree to not join NATO in exchange for peace.
The interview was not shown inside Russia.
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