Putin tells visiting Abbas of Russia’s ‘great pain’ at Palestinian plight

Russian President Vladimir Putin tells visiting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that Moscow was pained by the plight of his people and backed their aspiration to create a full-fledged state.

Putin says Moscow was paying attention to events in the Middle East despite the demands of its own war in Ukraine. He does not refer directly to Ukraine’s week-old incursion into western Russia, an operation that has caught Russia’s military off guard and forced more than 130,000 people to flee their homes.

“Everyone is well aware that Russia today, unfortunately, must defend its interests and defend its people with arms in hand. But what is happening in the Middle East, what is happening in Palestine, of course, does not go unnoticed on our part,” Putin said, according to a Kremlin transcript.

“And of course, we are watching with great pain and anxiety the humanitarian catastrophe that has unfolded in Palestine,” he adds.

Abbas says Russia is “one of the dearest friends” of the Palestinian people. “We believe in you, we trust you and we feel your support,” he told Putin.

He says the United Nations Security Council — where Russia is one of five veto-holding powers — must act to “stop the actions that Israel is taking,” after judges at the top UN court said in an advisory ruling last month that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and maintenance of Israeli settlements there are illegal.