Newsweek: Putin's allies are starting to distance themselves from him

The American magazine Newsweek published a

saying that Russia's allies, who maintained relations with it after its attack on Ukraine, and did not previously condemn the attack, are beginning to distance themselves from it.

The report said that - with the war raging for more than 7 months, and the recent Ukrainian counter-attacks boosting hope for victory against Russia - some allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin "turned away from his regime and aggression."

They will not recognize the annexation of the four Ukrainian regions

He stated that Kazakhstan (Russia's ally and its neighbor to the south and is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization) announced its opposition to the referendum that the Kremlin will hold in 4 Russian-controlled regions in eastern and southern Ukraine.

The Kazakh Foreign Ministry said it would not recognize the possible Russian annexation of eastern Ukraine.

The Newsweek report added that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has established diplomatic and economic ties with Russia since the start of the war, said last week that Moscow should not be allowed to keep any of the Ukrainian territory it seized.

He also stressed that the Russian attack itself "cannot be justified."

Even Belarus

After the partial mobilization was announced in Russia, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko also said last week that his forces would not mobilize alongside Russian forces, leaving Putin to deal with the troop shortage himself.

At the United Nations General Assembly last week, Russia faced heavy criticism for its attack on Ukraine from countries that called for an end to the violence from the start, the report noted.

But even some countries that remained friendly to Moscow or neutral about its offensive, such as Brazil and India, expressed their desire to end the war.

On his part, Indian External Affairs Minister S.

Jaishankar calls for "objective and independent" investigations to be carried out into potential violations of human rights and international law.

He specifically referred to the alleged Russian killings in the Ukrainian city of Bucha, where Putin's military has been accused of war crimes.

Putin did not hug

During the meeting in Uzbekistan, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not embrace the Russian president, telling him that "today's era is not an era of war."

Modi also indicated moving toward the "path of peace" while emphasizing his desire for New Delhi and Moscow to remain allies.

At the United Nations meeting last week, Belarus, an ally of Putin, spoke of its support for Moscow, but also called for an end to the fighting, which it described as a "tragedy".

China, which kept buying Russian oil amid the war and voted against the UN resolution in April, said facilitating peace talks was an "urgent priority".

Despite reaffirming Russian-Chinese relations months after the start of the Ukraine war, Putin acknowledged at the Uzbekistan summit that Chinese leader Xi Jinping had expressed his "questions and concerns" about the war.