a joint news conference yesterday with one of his only remaining allies, the president of belarus, lukashenko, putin vowed to push on with the invasion, pledging russia s military operation will continue until its full completion. the new york times reports it this way, the operations goals, he said, centered on the donbas region in eastern ukraine, where pro-russia separatists have been fighting since 2014. it was the first time mr. putin himself had effectively defined a more limited aim for the war, focusing on control of the donbas and not all of ukraine, which mr. putin and his subordinates have said shouldn t be an independent country. the russian leader also blamed ukraine for the peace talks failing, claiming moscow has no choice but to press on after he said russia was falsely accused of committing war crimes in bucha. it should be noted, even while those peace talks were taking place, most were spectacle russia was serious about reaching an agreement. meanwhile, for the f
in a virtual meeting monday, between president joe biden and prime minister, but mr. biden didn t specifically ask the indian leader to take a side. india s neutral position caused increasing concern in washington. later, america s top diplomat pressed india and other countries to use their leverage with russia to end the war. take a listen. india has to make its own decisions. about how it approaches this challenge. we as a general proposition are consulting with all allies and partners on the consequences of the war. atrocities committed against the people. in our judgment it s important all countries especially those with leverage press putin to end the war. the president of belarus is visiting russia today for talks with vladimir putin. belarus is one of the few
forces around the capitol, they re firing missiles from belarus. the president of belarus acting hand and hand with russian president putin this week. they re trying to change the narrative saying the russians are not targeting civilians, but in this city of three million people, there s civilians. they re trying to get back to a normal life. as russia continues its attack on the capitol and across the country, reinforcing their soldiers in the east, they re expected to be more violent days ahead. martha? martha: i m thinking of the woman that you spoke to and her panic attack. it s terrifying to hear the sirens overhead and to not know what is coming. that report was so personal and really took us inside one couple and what life is like there. martha: it s really hard when you talk to civilians like that in ukraine who felt that once the russians retreated, that they would have a break, be able
directly, but the u.s. and europe have come up with a battery of new sanctions they claim will cripple russia s economy if it moves further against ukraine. putin s goal from the call is unclear. yesterday he was playing hockey with the president of belarus, the russian leader is in the process of strengthening a political union with belarus and he may also want to add ukraine to russia s expanding domains. russia says it has no hostile intentions toward ukraine and is merely trying to defend itself against nato expansion. u.s. and ukrainian officials do not agree. richard, thank you. that s the backdrop. so, mike, looking ahead, what is the white house s main objective now going into today s meeting? reporter: well, joe, again, it was president putin who requested this meeting. while white house officials are saying they don t quite know why he has requested it, they said
there is no sign of that, and ukraine has fearfully denied. it the russian foreign ministry says it denies biden s accusation it s intending to invade ukraine. now, the russian public is getting plenty of information and misinformation about what is going on in ukraine. former cnn moskow bureau chief jill dougherty tells us more about the information war already being fought. reporter: vivid images on russian tv in almost every newscast showing pictures of people being evacuated from the donbas region in the eastern part of ukraine into russia. women and children saying that they fear that they will be attacked by ukraine. but ukraine saying it has no intention to attack. meanwhile politically president putin met with the president of belarus, mr. lukashenko. and president putin saying there is a way to solve this, that the