Brics Summit Puts Putin Under Pressure as Leaders Urge Peace in Ukraine

At a summit Vladimir Putin was hosting, several of the leaders he most needs told him in public to stop escalating the war in Ukraine. That is how Kyiv read the Brics gathering on Wednesday, day 974 of the invasion, and the statements from the room give its reading some support.

China's president, Xi Jinping, told the summit there must be "no escalation of fighting" in Ukraine. He set out three principles: no spillover from the battlefield, no escalation, and no adding oil to the fire by the parties involved. The aim, he said, was to ease the situation as soon as possible. Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, called for avoiding escalation and starting peace negotiations. India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, did not name any conflict, but said his country supports dialogue and diplomacy, not war.

In private talks, according to Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov as reported by Russian state media, Putin welcomed offers from several Brics leaders to mediate. He also told them his forces were advancing. Ukraine's foreign ministry said Moscow had planned to use the summit to split the world and had instead shown that the world majority remains on Ukraine's side in seeking a comprehensive, just and sustainable peace.

Another thread concerned North Korea. The United States has said for the first time that it has seen evidence of North Korean troops in Russia. South Korean lawmakers say about 3,000 soldiers have been sent to support the Kremlin's war, and that Kim Jong-un's government has promised about 10,000 by December. White House spokesperson John Kirby said that if those troops engage in combat in Ukraine, they would be legitimate military targets, "fair game."

Belarus's president, Alexander Lukashenko, who keeps power by running what is effectively a Russian client state, called the idea that North Korean troops would fight in Ukraine "rubbish" in interviews broadcast Wednesday. He said Putin would never try to persuade another country to send its army into what Russia calls its special operation. Any foreign forces on the contact line, even Belarusian, would be a step toward escalation, he argued. Ukraine's allies would point to that involvement, and Nato troops would end up deployed to Ukraine.

On the ground, the war's pressure on civilians continued. Ukrainian authorities announced a mandatory evacuation of children and their families from Borova, in the north-eastern Kharkiv region, where Russian forces have been advancing. The governor of Donetsk said earlier that all children had been removed from the frontline town of Myrnograd, and that only several dozen remained in nearby Pokrovsk, a transport hub and the main target of Russian advances. In the Zaporizhzhia region, which the Kremlin claims to have annexed along with Donetsk and two other regions, authorities said a drone attack killed two men, aged 40 and 73.

In Washington, the White House National Security Council said the Biden administration is working to deliver $10bn in military aid to Ukraine, part of a $20bn US commitment within a $50bn loan coordinated with the G7 and the EU. President Joe Biden said the loans would be repaid from interest earned on immobilised Russian sovereign assets. "Make no mistake: Russia will not prevail in this conflict," he said, adding that tyrants will be responsible for the damage they cause.

The council said $10bn is planned as economic aid by December, but a further $10bn needs approval from US lawmakers. What to watch next is whether Congress gives that approval, and whether North Korea's deployment grows toward the 10,000 troops it has reportedly promised.