Ukraine faces a 'make or break' year on the battlefield, as another Trump presidency looms

Elsewhere, countries like China — which in March released a 12-point peace proposal aimed at ending the war that was dismissed by the U.S. and its allies as too favorable to Russia — and India have taken a more neutral stance, while stepping up their purchases of Russian energy trading at a discount on world markets as Western countries buy less. “I call them the abstainers,” said Karin von Hippel, the director general of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a London-based think tank. “Countries that are playing both sides, supporting Ukraine while doing energy deals with Russia.”