Russia is considering a possible downgrading of relations with the west due to the deeper involvement of the US and its allies in the Ukraine war, but no decision had yet been taken, the Kremlin said on Thursday. A downgrading of relations – or even breaking them off – would illustrate the gravity of the confrontation between Russia and the west over Ukraine after an escalation in tensions over the war in recent months. Relations were maintained even during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when the cold war is thought to have come closest to nuclear war.
Ukraine’s military said on Thursday its forces had forced Russian troops out of a district in the town of Chasiv Yar on the war’s eastern front seen as Moscow’s next target in its slow advance through the area. Nazar Voloshyn, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern group of forces, told the Ukrinform news agency that Russian forces had moved out of Chasiv Yar’s “Kanal” district along the Siverskyi Donets-Donbas canal that runs along the town’s eastern edge. However, a Russian report said Moscow’s forces had destroyed a communications tower near the town and made further headway. It was not possible to independently verify either report.
The Ukrainian president met the European Union’s 27 leaders in Brussels to sign a security pact, two days after his country began formal membership talks to join the bloc – a historic step that was unthinkable before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the EU-Ukraine security agreement would “enshrine the commitment of all 27 member states to provide Ukraine with extensive support, regardless of any internal institutional changes”.
Zelenskiy also told EU leaders that Russia’s spring offensive in Kharkiv showed that international pressure on the Kremlin was “not enough”. “Thanks to the bravery of our people and the decisions of you, of our partners, we stopped this Russian offensive,” he said. “But this new Russian offensive proved that the existing pressure on Russia for the war is not enough.”
The French far-right National Rally (RN) will not allow Russia to absorb Ukraine if it comes to power in legislative elections, party leader Jordan Bardella said Thursday. “I will not let Russian imperialism absorb an allied state like Ukraine,” Bardella said in a televised debate, pledging both “support for Ukraine and avoiding an escalation with Russia”.
At the same time, RN’s former parliamentary leader Marine Le Pen said she expected the party to win an absolute majority in France’s general election, form a government and take over at least some defence and armed forces decision-making, including on Ukraine. Le Pen has previously maintained friendly relations with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and has argued for closer ties with Moscow.
The Nato chief, Jens Stoltenberg, said on Thursday the “resilient” military alliance could ride out any political changes in major powers ahead of crunch elections in the US and France. The high-stakes votes on either side of the Atlantic both feature hard-right candidates – Donald Trump and Le Pen – who have been historically hostile to the military alliance and known for warm relations with Russia, its chief adversary.
