(AFP)-Finland on Saturday sought to allay Moscow’s concerns over NATO membership, amid fierce fighting in eastern Ukraine that has raged and slowed the long-awaited Russian advance.
Meanwhile, the wives and parents of Ukrainian militants trapped in the bowels of a besieged steel mill in the south of the country have made a desperate appeal to China to free them.
And the G7 has pledged to continue tightening the screws on the Kremlin with new sanctions, promising that it will never recognize the borders it has been trying to redraw with devastating force.
In one of the worst conflicts in Europe since WWII, more than six million people fled for their lives, and damage to civilian infrastructure is estimated at $90 billion, according to Kiev.
A top Ukrainian general has predicted a tipping point in the coming months and the war could end by the end of the year.
In Turin, Italy, away from the war, the Ukrainian Kalush Orchestra is a favorite bettor to win the world’s biggest live music event, the Eurovision Song Contest, to a wave of crowd support.
But here, too, the war cast a shadow.
“On the third day of the war, we have a group of members who took part in the defense of the territory of Kyiv,” said the lead singer of the group, Oleg Psyuk.
“We are very worried for him and hope to see him safe when we return.”
Boris announces Finnish plans to join NATO as British troops promised to protect Finland and Sweden from Russia https://t.co/9EDyJvzuat
– Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) 12 May 2022
Finland and Sweden are ready to abandon decades of military cohesion and join NATO as a defense against fears of further Russian aggression.
Moscow warned Finland, with which it shares a 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) border, would take “retaliatory measures”.
Hours after a Finnish grid operator said Russia had cut the power overnight, President Sauli Niinistö met with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
“The interview was direct and straightforward and conducted without aggravating,” Niinisto’s office said in a statement.
“Avoiding tension is thought to be important. Finland started the phone call.”
But Putin said it was a “mistake” for Finland to join NATO and insisted that Russia “has no threat to Finland’s security”.
Finland’s bid for NATO membership is expected to be announced this weekend.
Expert: Islamist extremists continue to openly recruit in Sweden https://t.co/uEV0qawKMb
– Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 15, 2021
Both Helsinki and Stockholm must first persuade NATO member Turkey to be on the side of the informal meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers in Berlin.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday accused the two countries of harboring “terrorist organizations”. Both Sweden and Finland have significant Kurdish communities.
Ankara regularly accuses Stockholm of detaining members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been designated a terrorist organization by the UK, the European Union and the US.
He was also outraged by Sweden’s recognition of the Armenian massacres in the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1917 and allegations of human rights abuses.
Both Scandinavian countries said they were unaware of Turkey’s concerns. Erdogan may be playing a tough game to reverse Washington’s refusal to sell him fighter jets, analysts told AFP.
Israeli researchers: Turkish Greek, Armenian and Syriac Christians destroyed by ’30 years of genocide’ https://t.co/aRjCReVK4W
– Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) 19 May 2019
In Ukraine, the government and military said they thwarted a Russian offensive in eastern Donbas by crushing Moscow’s attempt to include the south and east.
Russia, which sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, has increasingly turned its attention to eastern Ukraine since late March after failing to capture the capital, Kiev.
The governor of the eastern Luhansk region, Sergei Gaidai, said Ukrainian forces thwarted Russian attempts to cross the river and encircle the city of Severodonetsk.
Defense and military intelligence officials in London and Washington said Russian forces had suffered heavy losses trying to cross the river and had not made much progress.
The Ukrainian General Staff said the troops managed to drive Russian forces out of Kharkov, Ukraine’s second city in the northeast and a priority target for Moscow.
“The main enemy efforts are focused on ensuring the removal of its units from the city of Kharkov,” the source said.
Meanwhile, Kharkov Oblast Governor Oleg Sinegubov said in a Telegram video that Ukrainian forces have launched an offensive against the northeastern city of Izyum.
The head of Ukrainian military intelligence, Major General Kirill Budanov, said that the coming months will be decisive for the course of the war.
“The tipping point will come in the second half of August,” he told UK television Sky News.
“Most of the active conflicts will end by the end of this year.”
PHOTO: Russian troops withdraw from Kharkov, press attack on Donbass https://t.co/P7fOBwOm7n
– Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) 14 May 2022
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that his forces will fight to retake all occupied and besieged territories, including the southern port city of Mariupol.
There, the city’s last defenders are hiding in a maze of underground tunnels and bunkers at the massive Azovstal steelworks under intense bombing.
“The next phase of the evacuation mission – rescuing the seriously injured doctors – is undergoing very tough negotiations. There are a lot of people,” Zelensky said.
The United Nations and the Red Cross helped evacuate women, children and the elderly from the facility earlier this month.
However, local officials said about 600 members of the Ukrainian Azov Regiment were injured and needed medical attention.
Five wives and a father of militants trapped in a factory in Kiev went directly to Chinese President Xi Jinping to intervene.
“China has great influence on Russia and Putin personally. We want him to intervene,” one man said, Stavr Vychniak.
“Remember who the real threat to the world is,” a Chinese government spokesperson wrote in a sarcastic infographic titled “US Bombing List: Democracy World Tour,” listing military interventions during the occupation of Ukraine. /7OCryth6ry.
– Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 27, 2022
Source: Breitbart
