President Putin in his first job in the Kremlin .. Antaloy Chubais resigns

A senior aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin has resigned over the war on Ukraine, it was reported on Wednesday.

Two sources told Reuters that Antaloy Chubais has left Russia and does not intend to return to it again.

Chubais is the first senior official to break from the Kremlin since the war in Ukraine began a month ago.

The Kremlin confirmed that Chubais resigned on his own.

Reuters was unable to contact him because he apparently turned off his phone, while the sources did not mention his whereabouts.

Chubais was one of the main architects of Boris Yeltsin's economic reforms in the 1990s, and President Putin was in his first job in the Kremlin.

The man later ran large state companies under Putin and held political positions, most recently serving as the Kremlin's special envoy to international organizations.

The slow progress of the Russian army in Ukraine has sparked criticism and divisions within Russia's ruling authority.

After four weeks of war that displaced a quarter of Ukraine's 44 million people, Russia has failed to seize a single major Ukrainian city or isolate the government, while Western sanctions have shut it out of the global economy.

The Russian forces suffered heavy losses and were frozen for at least a week on most fronts, facing supply problems and fierce resistance.

Moscow says its goal is to disarm its neighbor and that it will plan its "special military operation", and denies targeting civilians.

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