US president tells Indo-Pacific leaders crisis is bigger than a European problem
US President Joe Biden speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, the US, April 28 2022. Picture: SAMUEL CORUM/BLOOMBERG
“This is more than just a European issue. It’s a global issue,” Biden said of the crisis in Ukraine at the Quad meeting of the US, Japan, India and Australia. The EU is likely to agree on an embargo on Russian oil imports “within days”, its biggest member Germany has said, as Moscow said its economic ties with China would grow amid its isolation by the West over the Ukraine conflict.
“We will reach a breakthrough within days,” Germany’s economy minister, Robert Habeck, told broadcaster ZDF. “We do not need the Russian servicemen, we only need ours,” Zelensky said. “We are ready for an exchange even tomorrow.” A total of 12,500 Russians were trying to seize Luhansk, the region’s governor, Serhiy Gaidai, said on Telegram. The town of Sievierodonetsk is being destroyed, but Ukraine has forced Russian troops out of Toshkivka to its south, Gaidai said.