“Putin has thrown Assad under the bus to prolong his war in Ukraine,” commented former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. “His resources are scarce, and he is not as strong as he pretends.”For observers of Russia’s war on Ukraine, Assad’s departure raises some striking historical parallels. And unlike Assad, whose forces appeared to surrender Damascus without a fight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held fast as Russian troops approached Kyiv. Assad’s flight from Syria was more than a moment for Ukrainians to revel in a symbolic setback for Putin. He will insist that it is now up to the West and Ukraine to change their stance,” she said, noting Trump’s calls on Putin to end the war in Ukraine.

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Persons: Bashar al, Assad, Vladimir Putin’s, “, Putin, ”, Ilya Yashin, “ Putin, Dmytro Kuleba, Viktor Yanukovych, Mezhyhirya, Yanukovych, Volodymyr Zelensky, Ashraf Ghani, revel, Zelensky, Emmanuel Macron, Donald Trump, Trump’s, Trump, nodded, Assad – “, Omar Sanadiki, Putin’s, Tatiana Stanovaya, ” Putin Organizations: CNN, Kremlin, Assad, Yanukovych, Notre Dame Cathedral, Kyiv, West, International Criminal Court Locations: Moscow, East, Russian, Ukraine, Ukrainian, Russia, Damascus, Mezhyhirya, Kyiv, United States, waver, Afghanistan, Syria, France, Tartus, Hmeimim, Syria’s Latakia, Syrian, Iran, Crimea, Ukraine’s Donbas