Live Updates | Erdogan: Sweden must strengthen Turkish security – WHIO TV 7 and WHIO Radio
ANKARA, Turkey – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country has opposed Sweden and Finland joining NATO, called on Stockholm on Monday to take “concrete measures” that would alleviate Turkey’s security concerns.
Turkey has said it opposes the two Nordic states ‘membership in the alliance, citing their alleged support for the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or the PKK and other groups that Turkey sees as terrorists. The country also demands the lifting of a military export ban on Ankara.
“We can in no way ignore the fact that Sweden is imposing sanctions on us,” Erdogan said on Monday during a ceremony to mark the docking of a submarine. “Turkey’s legitimate expectations of (an end to) support for terrorism and sanctions must be met.”
In his speech, Erdogan did not refer to Finland in the middle of reports that most of Turkey’s complaints are directed at Sweden, which has a large group of Kurdish exiles.
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IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS IN RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
– Russian sentenced to life in Ukraine 1st war criminal trial
—’They destroyed everything ‘: Flee the devastation in Ukraine
– Russian offensive turns to important city of Donbasheavy shelling
– ‘A long journey’: Volunteers from Belarus fighting for Ukraine
– After 3 months of war, life in Russia has changed profoundly
Russia’s allegation of Mariupol’s capture fuel for concern for prisoners of war
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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OTHER DEVELOPMENT:
A Russian-installed governor in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region says that as of Monday, the region will officially become a dual-currency area – Russian rubles and Ukrainian hryvnia.
Vladimir Saldo also said that a branch of a Russian bank will be opened in the region, according to the news agency RIA Novosti.
Russian forces have taken control of the Kherson region, which borders the Donetsk region to the east and Crimea to the south, early in the war and installed a pro-Kremlin administration there. An official in this administration has announced plans to appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin to incorporate the region into Russia.
Putin has previously said that Russia does not plan to occupy Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that the inhabitants of Ukrainian regions must “decide how and with whom they want to live.”
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KYIV, Ukraine – A Ukrainian court has sentenced a 21-year-old Russian soldier to life in prison on Monday for killing a Ukrainian civilian in the first war crimes trial held since the Russian invasion.
Sgt. Vadim Shishimarin was accused of shooting a Ukrainian civilian in the head in a village in the northeastern Sumy region during the early days of the war.
He pleaded guilty and testified that he shot the man after being ordered to do so. He told the court that an officer insisted that the Ukrainian man, who was talking on his mobile phone, could point out his place to the Ukrainian forces.
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KYIV, Ukraine – An official in Mariupol sounded the alarm on Monday about the growing threat of an epidemic in the ravaged port city taken by the Russians, which pointed to unhealthy conditions exacerbated by the weather.
Mayor’s adviser Petro Andryushchenko told Telegram that rainwater and sewage cause rainwater to spread across the city “along with rotting garbage and poison.”
“The threat of an epidemic becomes a reality for every thunderstorm,” Andryushchenko wrote, adding that Russian forces in the city “continue to ignore sanitary challenges and are only committed to arranging” good photos “depicting fictitious” life improvements “.
The official said Mariupol “desperately needs a new wave of evacuations.”
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The head of the Russian-backed separatist region in eastern Ukraine says Ukrainian fighters from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol captured by Russian forces are being held in the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk and will face “international court” there.
“The plan is to arrange the international tribunal on the territory of the republic as well,” Denis Pushilin was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency. Pushilin added that “the Charter of the General Court is currently being drafted.”
Pushilin previously said that 2,439 people from Azovstal were detained, including some foreign nationals, although he did not provide any details.
Family members of the steelworks warriors, who came from a variety of military and law enforcement units, have pleaded for their rights as prisoners of war and eventually return to Ukraine.
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MOSCOW – On Monday, the Russian military released images of demining specialists working at the recently taken over Azostal steelworks in the conquered port city of Mariupol.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense was quoted by state news agency RIA Novosti as saying that in the last two days, more than 100 explosives have been destroyed.
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KYIV, Ukraine – Russian forces are shelling overnight in the Dnipropetrovsk region of southeastern Ukraine, its governor Valentyn Reznichenko said on Monday morning.
The Dnipropetrovsk region borders the Donetsk region, which is still the focus of the Russian offensive in the east.
According to Reznichenko, the Russians used the Uragan or “Hurricane” multi-rocket launch system and the shelling hit “between the two settlements.” No one was injured, he added.
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LONDON – British military officials say Russian forces in Ukraine have experienced a mortality rate similar to that suffered by the Soviet Union during its nine-year war in Afghanistan.
The British Ministry of Defense, in a briefing published on Monday morning, says that the high number of casualties during the first three months of the war is due to poor tactics, limited air coverage, lack of flexibility and a command strategy that reinforces failures and repeats mistakes.
The ministry says the death toll could weaken support for the war among the Russian public, which has been vulnerable to losses in previous wars.
“As victims suffering in Ukraine continue to increase, they will become more apparent, and public dissatisfaction with the war and a willingness to express it may grow,” the ministry said.
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