Pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin mounted on the battlefield and in the halls of world power as Ukrainian troops pushed their counteroffensive on Saturday to advance further into partially retaken northeastern Ukraine. At a high-level summit in Uzbekistan, Putin vowed to press his offensive in Ukraine despite recent military setbacks, but also faced concerns from India and China about the protracted conflict. “I know this time is not war,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the Russian leader in televised remarks as they met Friday in Uzbekistan. “We discussed it with you several times on the phone, that democracy and dialogue touch the whole world.” At the same summit a day earlier, Putin acknowledged China’s unspecified “questions and concerns” about the war in Ukraine, while thanking Chinese President Xi Jinping for his government’s “balanced position” on the conflict. The hasty withdrawal of Russian troops this month from parts of a northeastern region they seized early in the war, along with rare public reservations expressed by key allies, underscored the challenges Putin faces on all fronts. Both China and India have maintained strong ties with Russia and tried to remain neutral in Ukraine. Xi, in a statement, expressed support for Russia’s “core interests” but also wanted to work together to “bring stability” to world affairs. Modi said he wanted to discuss “how we can move forward on the path of peace”, adding that the biggest concerns facing the world are the problems of food security, fuel and fertilizer security. “We have to find some way out and you too have to contribute to that,” Modi stressed in a rare public rebuke. The comments cast a shadow over a summit that Putin hoped would shine a light on his diplomatic status and show he was not so internationally isolated. On the battlefield, Western defense officials and analysts said on Saturday that Russian forces were apparently setting up a new defensive line in northeastern Ukraine after Kiev troops broke through the previous one. Britain’s Ministry of Defense said the new front line is likely to be between the Oskil River and Svatove, 150 kilometers (90 miles) southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. The new line emerged after a Ukrainian counteroffensive punctured the previous line of war, allowing Kiev’s troops to retake large swathes of land in the northeastern Kharkiv region bordering Russia. After Russian troops retreated from the city of Izium, Ukrainian authorities discovered a mass grave site, one of the largest discovered so far. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said more than 440 graves had been found at the site, but the number of victims was not yet known. Zelensky said the graves contained the bodies of hundreds of civilian adults and children, as well as soldiers, and some had been tortured, shot or killed by artillery shelling. He reported evidence of atrocities, including a body with a rope around its neck and broken arms. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are crossing the Oskil River in the Kharkiv region and have placed artillery there, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said on Saturday. The river, which flows south from Russia into Ukraine, has been a natural break in the emerging front lines since Ukraine launched its counteroffensive about a week ago. “Russian forces are likely too weak to prevent a further Ukrainian advance along the entire Oskil River,” the institute said. Videos released online on Saturday showed Ukrainian forces continuing to retake territory from Russian forces in the country’s war-torn eastern region, although their veracity could not be independently verified. One video showed a Ukrainian soldier walking past a damaged building, then pointing to a colleague hanging the blue-and-yellow flag of Ukraine over a cell phone tower. The soldier identified the occupied village as Dibrova, northeast of the city of Sloviansk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Another video showed two Ukrainian soldiers in what appeared to be a bell tower, with one saying they had recaptured the village of Shchurove, just northeast of Sloviansk. The Ukrainian military and the Russians did not comment on the two villages. Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian forces continued to pound towns and villages with deadly rocket attacks and shelling. A Russian missile attack early Saturday caused a fire in Kharkiv’s industrial district, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said. Firefighters extinguished the fire. Syniehubov said the remains suggested the Russians fired S-300 surface-to-air missiles at the city. The S-300 is designed to hit missiles or aircraft in the sky, not targets on the ground. Analysts say Russia’s use of the missiles suggests it may be running out of some precision munitions. Bombing of the nearby town of Chuhuiv later on Saturday killed an 11-year-old girl, Syniehubov said. In the southern Zaporizhzhia region, much of which is occupied by Russians, one person was injured when Russian forces shelled the town of Orikhiv, Ukrainian regional governor Oleksandr Starukh told Telegram. He said Russian troops also shelled two villages in the area, destroying several civilian facilities. Explosions were also reported on Saturday in Russian-held areas of Zaporizhzhia. Russian official Vladimir Rogov told Telegram that at least five explosions were heard in the city of Melitopol. The city’s Ukrainian mayor, Ivan Fedorov, said the blasts occurred in a village south of the city where Russian troops had been transporting military equipment. Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region also came under fire from Russians overnight, according to its governor, Valentin Reznichenko. “The enemy attacked six times and fired more than 90 deadly missiles at peaceful towns and villages,” he said. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s atomic energy company Energoatom said a convoy of 25 trucks was bringing diesel fuel and other critical supplies to the threatened Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – Europe’s largest, which was shut down a week ago amid fears nearby fighting could lead to radioactive fallout. The trucks were allowed through Russian checkpoints on Friday to deliver spare parts for repairs to damaged power lines, chemicals to run the plant and additional fuel for backup diesel generators, Energoatom said. The six-reactor plant was seized by Russian forces in March, but is operated by Ukrainian engineers. Its last reactor was shut down on Sunday after repeated power outages due to bombings compromised critical security systems. The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Saturday that one of the nuclear plant’s four main external power lines had been repaired. The Russian military on Saturday blamed Ukraine for renewed artillery shelling of the power plant. Ukrainian authorities did not immediately look into the claim. In Russia, one person was killed and two others were injured Saturday in shelling, according to Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Russian border region of Belgorod, who blamed the Ukrainians. The claim could not be verified.
