Sweden wants NATO; Azovstal wounded evacuated
Editor’s note: This page summarizes the news from Ukraine on Monday, May 16th. Follow here for the latest updates and news from Tuesday, May 17thwhen Russia’s invasion continues.
After more than 200 years as an alliance-free country, Sweden will join neighboring Finland to apply for membership in NATO, a potential historic shift motivated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson warned that the Nordic country would be in a “vulnerable position” during the application period and urged its citizens to prepare for the Russian response.
“Russia has said it will take countermeasures if we join NATO,” she said. “We can not rule out that Sweden will be exposed to, for example, disinformation and attempts to intimidate and divide us.”
In his speech on NATO’s expansion to include Finland and Sweden, Russian President Vladimir Putin said: “Russia has no problems with these states,” according to the state news agency Tass.
But Turkey quickly came up with strong objections, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accusing the countries of not taking a “clear” stance against Kurdish militants and other groups that his country considers terrorists, and of imposing military sanctions on Turkey.
Countries can only join NATO if all current members agree.
USA TODAY ON TELEGRAM:Join our Russia-Ukraine war channel to get the latest updates straight to your inbox
Recent developments:
►McDonald’s said it has begun the process of selling its Russian interests, which includes 850 restaurants that employ 62,000 people. It is the latest company to announce a withdrawal from Russia following its attack on Ukraine.
►Sweden’s Secretary of Defense will meet on Monday in Washington Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, on The Nordic nation’s Ministry of Defense announced.
The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office said on Sunday that 227 children had died and more than 400 had been injured since the invasion began.
High explosions were reported near the western Ukrainian city of Lviv rock
The western Ukrainian city of Lviv was shaken by the number of powerful explosions early on Tuesday morning.
An Associated Press team in the city witnessed the glare of bright explosions that lit up the night sky west of the city shortly after midnight local time. Witnesses counted at least eight explosions accompanied by distant barriers. The city is currently under curfew from 11pm to 6am
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi told Facbeook that there was no confirmed information about the missiles that hit the city.
“Let us thank those who protect our heaven for this!” Said Sadovyi. “In the morning we will provide more accurate information. Take care of yourself and do not ignore air alarms!”
Ukraine says 260 fighter jets have been evacuated from Azovstal’s steel plant in Mariupol
More than 260 Ukrainian fighters were evacuated on Monday from the Azovstal steelworks in the ruined city of Mariupol and taken to areas under Russian control, the Ukrainian military says.
Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar said 53 seriously injured fighters were taken to a hospital in Novoazovsk, east of Mariupol. Another 211 soldiers were evacuated to Olenivka through a humanitarian corridor. An exchange would be arranged for them to return home, she said.
Malyar said missions were underway to rescue the remaining warriors inside the facility, the last stronghold of the resistance in the ruined southern port city of Mariupol.
Earlier on Monday, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced an agreement for the wounded to leave the steelworks for treatment in a city held by pro-Moscow separatists.
There were no immediate words as to whether the wounded should be considered prisoners of war.
US support for US efforts in Ukraine remains strong: opinion poll
The United States stands firm in its support for the United States’ efforts to support Ukraine in its war against Russia. a new study from Monmouth University on Monday.
More than three quarters of respondents support the economic sanctions against Moscow, just a few steps from a survey in March, 77% now against 81% then. The US ban on Russian gas and oil imports has strong support over political stances of 78%.
As the United States continues to send military equipment to Ukraine to repel Russian forces, 77% of respondents support the action, with 88% of Democrats approving, 77% of Republicans and 70% of independents, the survey showed.
Prior to the February 24 invasion, the Pentagon deployed troops to Europe to support NATO allies. Now 66% of Americans still support this move, similar to that shortly after the start of the war, 69%.
– Katie Wadington
PUTINS FAMILY:US sanctions target Putin’s Russian family, but a larger shadow family may remain
Pentagon: Russia wins a little, loses a little in Ukraine
Fierce fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces continues in the eastern Donbas region, where Russia has made gradual success over the weekend, according to a senior Defense Ministry official.
Ukrainian forces continue to kill and wound Russian troops and destroy their equipment on a daily basis, said the official, who discussed battlefield intelligence on condition of anonymity. Of the 90 US howitzers fired at Ukraine, 74 are fired on by Russian forces, the official said.
The British intelligence service’s assessments released on Sunday showed that Russia had lost a third of the ground forces it had gathered for the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, and also said that the Russian offensive in the east was well behind schedule. Russian losses of equipment such as temporary bridges and surveillance drones have further hampered their advance. Significant Russian progress is unlikely in the coming month, the assessment concluded.
The US defense official declined to say the percentage of Russian losses, but noted that President Vladimir Putin had deployed 80% of Russia’s ground forces for the fight in Ukraine. It amounted to 150 Russian battalions. On Monday, Russia had 106 of the battalions inside Ukraine with very few at the border, the official said. Each Russian battalion’s tactical group has about 700 to 1,000 soldiers.
– Tom Vanden Brook
McDonald’s says it is no longer sustainable to run a business in Russia
When the American fast food giant McDonald’s announced that it would sell its operations in Russia due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine, it said that it is no longer sustainable, nor is it compatible with McDonald’s values.
The company temporarily closed its stores in early March but still paid employees. McDonald’s now wants a Russian buyer to hire its workers and pay them until the sale is completed. McDonald’s opened its first restaurant in the then Soviet Union in 1991.
McDonald’s will be one of the first restaurant companies to remove all of its operations from Russia. Until now, many companies had resisted a complete closure due to the well-being of employees, but the overall issue of the war weighed too much.
– Scott Gleeson
GOP senators visit Sweden, Finland
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Along with fellow Republican senators Susan Collins of Maine, John Cornyn of Texas and John Barrasso of Wyoming visited Sweden and Finland on Monday, after a weekend in Eastern Europe.
“It was a special honor to visit both of these strong, proud nations on the exact days when the governments of both countries concluded their deliberations and prepared to formally join NATO,” McConnell said in a statement issued on Monday. when the group returned to NATO. USA
McConnell said that nations’ applications for NATO membership have his support. The senators met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Saturday.
Belarusian troops gather at the border with Ukraine
Belarus has deployed forces, including special operations and air defense, to the border with Ukraine, possibly in an attempt to keep Ukrainian troops occupied there so that they can not fight Russians in the Donbas region, according to a new assessment by the British Ministry of Defense on Monday.
“Despite early speculation, Belarusian forces have so far not been directly involved in the conflict,” he said. said the ministry on Twitter.
Belarus served as a resting place before Russia’s invasion in February. Moscow continues to use Belarus as a launching pad for missile attacks and sorties.
“The President of Belarus (Alexander) Lukashenko is likely to balance support for Russia’s invasion with a desire to avoid direct military involvement, with the risk of Western sanctions, Ukrainian reprisals and possible dissatisfaction in the Belarusian military,” the ministry said.
– Katie Wadington
UKRAINE WAR DECLARED:Evacuations, accusations and denials: Key events in Russia’s war in Ukraine in 5 photos
NATO: Russian military offensive “loses momentum” in Ukraine
Almost three months later shock the world by invading UkraineRussia’s military progress in Ukraine is “losing momentum” and “not going as planned”, according to NATO officials.
“The brutal invasion (of) Russia is losing momentum,” NATO Deputy Secretary-General Mircea Geoana told reporters in Berlin. “We know that with the bravery of the Ukrainian people and army, and with our help, Ukraine can win this war.”
Top NATO diplomats, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, met on Sunday in Berlin to discuss further aid to Ukraine.
While Moscow lost ground on the diplomatic front, Russian forces also failed to make territorial gains in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine said it was repelling Russian offensives in the east, and Western military officials said the campaign, which Moscow launched there after its forces failed to capture the capital Kyiv, has slowed to a snail’s pace.
Will Putin use a nuclear weapon?
From almost the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has provoked the use of a nuclear weapon.
But most political scientists, nuclear experts, Western officials and experienced Kremlin observers say it is highly unlikely that he would detonate a nuclear weapon to break a stalemate over Russia’s stalled offensive in Ukraine, now in its third month.
“If the conflict in Ukraine essentially remains an open conflict between Russian and Ukrainian forces, where the West plays more of a proxy role, if we stay where we are today in terms of Western involvement in the conflict, I see no probability whatsoever,” said Dmitri Trenin, until recently head of the Carnegie Moscow Center think tank.
Read more at Putin’s strategy here.
– Kim Hjelmgaard
Contribution: Associated Press