New charges of war crimes, diplomatic isolation include strong allies like India and China. The Russian regime looks more and more like a boxer on a leash.

Pressure builds on Friday with Discovery of 450 corpses almost all of them carry traces of violent deaths, which were confirmed visually by special media correspondents, mainly Western ones, in the (northeast) city of Izum, which was taken over by the Ukrainian army earlier this week. According to investigators, some may have been killed by artillery fire, but others had signs of torture and were shot in the head.

For Westerners, Moscow will be held accountable

A mass grave remembering war crimes was found in Butcha, north of Kyiv, in late March. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that a dozen torture chambers had been found in the Kharkiv region, “a widespread practice in the occupied territories”. He added “that’s what the Nazis did. This is what the russians (Russian fascists) did, promising to find those responsible “on the battlefield and in court”.

The announcement of this gruesome discovery caused a new wave of outrage in the West. The Czech Presidency of the European Union has called on Saturday for the establishment of a special international tribunal I. The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, assured that the Russian executive should be “accountable”, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated that she wanted Russian President Vladimir Putin to appear before an international tribunal for war crimes. The first from a Union leader.

Russia is acting “horribly and this is seen and repeated every time a wave of Russia withdraws from the part of territory it has occupied in Ukraine. We saw what he left behind,” said the head of America’s diplomacy, Antony Blinken. US President Joe Biden, for his part, warned the Kremlin against the temptation to use tactical chemical weapons or even nuclear weapons, as “it would change the course of war in a way not seen since World War Two”. Russia “will be more pariah in the world than ever before”, the American president added.

Putin with bare hands

To be precise, without being completely pariah, the Kremlin faces increasing diplomatic isolation vis–vis even its allies. Behind warm hugs and photos of informal alcoholic drinks between leaders, Vladimir Putin gained nothing during the so-called Shanghai group summit, uniting his country, China, India, Turkey, all Central Asian countries, in Samarkand, which ended in Saturday.

In the historic city of Uzbekistan, he wanted to prove to the West that Russia was not isolated in the East. Between official photos and frozen smiles, between geopolitics and energy, he has doubled down on one-on-one meetings with his “allies” to pose as a counterweight to Western influence.

However, according to Vladimir Putin’s own admission, Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed “concern” for him behind the scenes. That’s been a lot for China tends to favor Moscow usually in the face of the West being presented as hegemonic. Concerns that could be better understood as a Western recession as energy shortages would severely threaten China’s interests with its deeply extroverted economy. China’s bilateral trade with the West is about twenty times greater than with Moscow.

In plenary, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Putin’s Turkish counterpart, called on him to end the conflict “as soon as possible”. Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the president of Uzbekistan who hosted the summit and is in the midst of “perestroika” in his country, continues to promote the benefits of “dialogue”. As for Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, as head of Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic dependent on older brother Russia, he openly stressed the importance of respecting “territorial integrity”.

India disapproves of war

Other leaders only mentioned the “Ukrainian crisis”, a word that was careful not to irritate Vladimir Putin while signaling a very embarrassing distance for the Kremlin. Lightning came from Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India but not critical of the Kremlin for now. Like Beijing, New Delhi has abstained during the infamous UN vote in late February, which had condemned, by 145 votes out of 193, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In front of the press at the start of their bilateral meeting, the Prime Minister of India launched into Vladimir Putin: “I know that the time is not with war”. The start of a refusal, or a simple call for negotiations as the Indian Foreign Minister explained at the briefing? “Clever ministry flats to protect the economic stakes. But this is indeed the first time Modi, no doubt under pressure from the United States, has dared to reject Putin, de facto condemn his war,” a member of the Indian delegation told Les Echos.

Vladimir Putin may think to assuage this criticism by promising his colleagues that he intends to end the war as soon as possible… before convincing otherwise, four hours later, that he will “take his time”. He assured that the Russian army was advancing, at its own pace (..). Plans don’t require changes.”

A progress that is not yet clearly visible on the front. Ukrainian troops armed by the West have taken over territory equivalent to the French department in the last ten days, especially in the Northeast. The fighting and bombing continued. Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure was again targeted by Russian artillery this weekend. Small arms fighting appeared to have opposed, Saturday night, Russian and Ukrainian units in the city of Kherson.