Further Russian Retreat Seen in East Ukraine, Another Setback for Putin

KRAKOW, Poland — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia confronted a collection of setbacks Monday over the Ukraine invasion, as his faltering army appeared pressured to additional shrink its objectives and an emboldened NATO practiced conflict video games with the alliance’s two latest candidates on his nation’s doorstep.

To make issues worse for Mr. Putin, his personal allies in Russia’s counterpart to NATO didn’t rally round him at a summit assembly in Moscow, resulting in the optics of an more and more remoted Kremlin in full show on Russia’s state-run tv.

One of many few brilliant spots for Mr. Putin was the choice by Ukraine’s army late Monday to lastly finish the resistance of holdout fighters on the Azovstal metal mill within the southeast port of Mariupol, which had been below Russian siege for weeks.

Outgunned, wounded and ravenous, the fighters had develop into heroes to many Ukrainians, however have been evacuated in what amounted to a give up, with the Ukrainian army saying that 264 service members, 53 of them “critically wounded,” had been taken by bus to areas managed by Russian forces.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine stated the choice had been meant “to avoid wasting the lives of our boys.”

However that Russian victory in Mariupol got here as Mr. Putin confronted what may very well be the most important enlargement of NATO in many years.

The picture of Mr. Putin on his again foot was fueled additional by two of the most important names in world enterprise — McDonald’s and Renault — asserting their departure from Russia, including to the company exits that, mixed with Western sanctions, have delivered a extreme setback to the nation’s financial system.

And in what can be a change of place, Mr. Putin appeared to melt his sturdy objections to NATO membership for Finland and Sweden, which participated in its army workout routines within the Baltics on Monday. Solely final week, Mr. Putin had warned the 2 Nordic international locations that becoming a member of NATO can be a mistake.

France, Denmark, Norway and Iceland have been among the many NATO members on Monday that stated they welcomed Sweden and Finland to affix.

Nonetheless, their functions might take time.

Turkey, which has accused the 2 candidates of sheltering anti-Turkish Kurd extremists, has held out the opportunity of utilizing its leverage for concessions earlier than approving their memberships, which require consent from all 30 NATO international locations. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has expressed confidence that “we are going to attain consensus.”

In one other sign of Western resolve to confront Russia, the Senate voted 89-11 Monday evening to advance the $40 billion Ukraine support bundle permitted final week by the Home, establishing a vote to ship the measure to President Biden’s desk as early as Thursday.

Taken collectively, the developments on Monday created one of many starkest contrasts but between the Russia of now versus that of Feb. 24, when columns of Russian tanks and tens of hundreds of its troopers poured into Ukraine from the east, north and south, in what appeared on the time like an unstoppable juggernaut that would finish Ukraine’s independence as a sovereign nation.

It quickly grew to become clear that regardless of Russia’s harmful and indiscriminate aerial bombardments, its vaunted armed forces confronted main battlefield flaws and suffered heavy losses, and that Ukraine’s outnumbered defenders have been in lots of locations driving them again, helped by an outpouring of Western army assist.

Inside weeks, the Russians have been pressured to retreat from the Kyiv space within the north and refocus their invasion on seizing the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces that type the Donbas area of jap Ukraine, the place Russian-backed separatists have been preventing since 2014.

However Russia’s drive to take Donbas, regardless of its preliminary success, now seems to be stumbling as properly, army analysts stated. Other than Mariupol, the Russians have but to grab any important metropolis there.

Within the final week, the Russians retreated from the suburbs of the northeast metropolis of Kharkiv, lower than 40 miles from the Russian border. In a symbolic sign of their current battlefield successes, a small variety of Ukrainian troops photographed themselves Monday on the border, having evaded Russian forces close by.

The Institute for the Research of Struggle, a Washington-based group, stated in its newest appraisal that Russian forces had possible deserted their purpose of encircling tens of hundreds of Ukrainian troopers in Donbas and had halted their very own try to seize Donetsk, focusing as an alternative on capturing Luhansk.

In what gave the impression to be an additional setback, the institute additionally stated Russia had possible run out of combat-ready reservists, forcing it to combine forces from non-public army corporations and militias with its common military.

Western army analysts have repeatedly cautioned that Russia stays by far the larger drive, and that the conflict might final for months or years. Russia nonetheless controls a swath of southern Ukraine seized early within the invasion and has blockaded Black Sea ports, choking Ukraine’s financial lifelines.

However Russia’s miscalculations and rising isolation due to the conflict have overshadowed its good points.

Among the many most seen indicators of backlash in opposition to Russia have been the large-scale NATO workout routines in Estonia, the previous Soviet republic — exactly the kind of army show that the Kremlin sees as a menace. Whereas the workout routines had lengthy been deliberate, their significance was elevated by the participation of Finland and Sweden and by the host of the workout routines, Estonia, which shares a border with Russia.

For Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, whose dad and mom grew up within the repressive Soviet period, Ukraine’s wrestle can’t be concluded with the appeasement of Russia.

“I solely see an answer as a army victory that would finish this as soon as and for all, and in addition punishing the aggressor for what he has executed,” Ms. Kallas stated in an interview with The New York Instances. In any other case, she stated, “we return to the place we began.”

The NATO drill, known as Hedgehog, was one of many largest in Estonia because it grew to become impartial in 1991, with 15,000 personnel from 14 international locations.

In Moscow, the place Mr. Putin convened a gathering of Russia’s reply to NATO — the six-member Collective Safety Treaty Group — just one member, Belarus, spoke as much as assist him on Ukraine.

It was presupposed to be a celebratory assembly to commemorate the group’s founding 30 years in the past. Nevertheless it changed into an indication of discord amongst a few of Mr. Putin’s pleasant neighbors.

Talking first within the televised portion of the summit, President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus — who has supported Mr. Putin’s conflict however has not despatched troops — criticized different members for having insufficiently backed Russia and Belarus within the face of Western sanctions.

He pointed to the alliance’s choice to ship forces to Kazakhstan in January to guard the federal government from protests — but argued it had left Russia largely by itself over Ukraine.

“Are we simply as linked by bonds of solidarity and assist now?” he requested, after mentioning the alliance’s assist of the Kazakh authorities. “Possibly I’m unsuitable, however as current occasions have proven, it appears the reply is not any.”

Kazakhstan has stated it will not assist Russia circumvent worldwide sanctions. In a United Nations vote on March 2 condemning the invasion of Ukraine, Belarus was the one post-Soviet nation to take Russia’s aspect.

“Take a look at how monolithically the European Union votes and acts,” Mr. Lukashenko stated at Monday’s summit, sitting at a spherical desk with the opposite leaders. “If we’re separate, we’ll simply be crushed and torn aside.”

As if to verify Mr. Lukashenko’s level, the leaders of the opposite members — Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan — didn’t point out Ukraine of their televised remarks.

The Ukraine invasion has put these international locations in a tricky spot. All of them have shut financial and army ties to Russia, however Mr. Putin’s invasion of a sovereign neighbor units a foreboding precedent for international locations seeking to diversify their international coverage past Moscow.

Mr. Putin, talking on the summit, once more tried to justify his invasion by falsely claiming that “neo-Nazism has lengthy been rampant in Ukraine.” However he took a extra measured tone in discussing the possible accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO — the newest proof that Mr. Putin seems to be making an attempt to restrict, for now, an escalation of his battle with the West.

“Russia, I wish to inform you, pricey colleagues, has no downside with these states,” Mr. Putin stated, including that NATO’s enlargement to incorporate Sweden and Finland poses “no direct menace to us.”

Nonetheless, he didn’t rule out unspecified retaliation if Finland and Sweden have been to increase their “army infrastructure” as NATO members, warning that “we are going to have a look at what that will probably be primarily based on the threats which can be created.”

Marc Santora reported from Krakow, Poland, Anton Troianovski and Rick Gladstone from New York, and Matthew Mpoke Bigg from London. Reporting was contributed by Steven Erlanger from Tallinn, Estonia, Andrew E. Kramer and Valerie Hopkins from Kyiv, Ukraine, Eric Schmitt and Catie Edmondson from Washington, Cassandra Vinograd from London, Lauren Hirsch from New York, Liz Alderman from Paris, and Neil MacFarquhar and Safak Timur from Istanbul.