UKRAINE
WITH every day that passes the war in Ukraine deepens and its ramifications widen. Around the same time on Friday that Russian president Vladimir Putin was announcing his “claimed annexation” of four regions of Ukraine and ranting against the West, Russian forces were facing another major battlefield defeat in the key north-eastern city of Lyman.
I use the word “claimed” in reference to Putin’s announcement because annexations are only such if generally recognised and this is not the case internationally in this instance. Speaking just a few days ago United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres was at pains to underline that very point.