Political analyst Carlo Massala told T-Online that Vladimir Putin's plan is working. Namely, he is counting on Western societies to show weakness and hesitation in their support for Ukraine.
According to Masala, this became evident when US $60 billion in aid was blocked in Congress and the EU did not step in to help Kiev decisively.
„This shows how leery European governments are now about putting even more into Ukraine,” Masala said. Against this background, Russia announced that it had captured a bastion of Ukraine in the Luhansk region, focus.de reported.
The Russian army has announced that it has fully captured the village of Belogorovka (Белохоривка in Ukrainian) in Luhansk Oblast, eastern Ukraine, and has taken up better positions in the area. Belochorivka is a small settlement with a population of 800 people before the war, but it has become a symbol of the Ukrainian resistance in the Luhansk region.
The information from Kyiv is different. Ukraine said its armed forces were repelling Russian attacks near the village of Belochorivka in eastern Luhansk region, which Russia earlier announced it had captured, Reuters reported. "The defense forces have been holding back the advance of the enemy, who is trying to move forward in the Belochorivka region, for quite a long time," the Ukrainian General Staff said on Facebook.