Turkey has agreed to withdraw its objection to Sweden and Finland becoming a member of NATO, a breakthrough that bolsters the alliance amid Europe’s worst safety disaster in a long time following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We now have an agreement that paves the way for Finland and Sweden to join NATO,” Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated Tuesday at a summit in Madrid, hailing the “historic decision.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had voiced opposition to granting the two Nordic countries membership, insisting they change their stance on Kurdish rebel groups that Turkey considers terrorists.
NATO admission requires a unanimous vote from member states, and after weeks of negotiations it appears to have been achieved. Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said Tuesday the three countries’ leaders had signed a joint agreement to break the impasse.
Though relatively small in population — both under 11 million — Sweden and Finland have strong, modern armed forces and have expressed a commitment to boost their defense budget after the Russian invasion, which also prompted their pursuit of NATO membership after decades of nonalignment.
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Latest developments:
►President Joe Biden opened his three-day visit to a NATO summit Tuesday in Madrid by pledging to beef up the American military presence in Europe, saying the number of Navy destroyers based in Rota, Spain, would increase from four to six. Biden said more such announcements will be coming during the meetings.
►Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said the European Union had reduced its dependence on Russian gas from 40% to 25% and continues to invest in renewable energy.
►Ukraine will start trading electricity with European countries this week via the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity. Ukraine was previously part of the Integrated Power System that also includes Russia and Belarus.
►A Russian court docket has rejected an enchantment by imprisoned opposition chief Alexei Navalny.
►16 Ukrainian servicemen, including two officers, were released in a prisoner exchange. Five were wounded, Ukraine authorities said. The number of Russians released was not immediately revealed.
Ukraine fighting to retain last city it controls in Luhansk
Ukrainian forces are consolidating on higher ground in Lyschansak, the last major city in the Luhansk region not controlled by Russia, and continue to disrupt Russian command and control with strikes deep behind enemy lines, the British Defense Ministry said in an assessment Tuesday.
Over the last few days, Russia launched “unusually intense” strikes across Ukraine using long-range missiles, the ministry said. On Monday, a missile strike that hit a shopping mall in central Ukraine killed at least 18 people and injured dozens more.
“These weapons have been designed to tackle targets of strategic significance, however Russia continues to expend them in massive numbers,” the assessment said. Moscow also fielded the core elements of six armies yet achieved only tactical success in the city of Sieverodonetsk.
“The Russian armed forces are more and more hollowed out,” the assessment says. “They at the moment settle for a stage of degraded fight effectiveness, which might be unsustainable in the long run.”
Russian ‘totally insane terrorists’ blamed in deadly mall missile strike
The deadly Russian missile strike at a crowded Ukraine shopping mall was one of the “most defiant acts of terrorism in European historical past,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. Zelenskyy spokesman Kirill Timoshenko said at least 20 had died in Monday’s blast while local officials in the central city of Kremenchuk said at least 18 were killed. At least 40 people were missing as rescue workers searched through the rubble.
“Only completely insane terrorists who shouldn’t have any place on Earth can strike missiles at such a goal,” Zelenskyy said.
Timoshenko said at least 59 people were injured, 25 of them requiring hospitalization.
The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting in New York on Tuesday to discuss the attack. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said warplanes fired missiles at a nearby depot containing Western weapons that caught fire. Ukraine officials deny the depot held weapons and say the mall itself was hit by the missile.
French president Macron: ‘Russia cannot and should not win’
French President Emmanuel Macron, who has suggested a middle-ground approach to ending the war in Ukraine that wouldn’t embarrass Russia, has hardened his stance after Monday’s missile strike in a crowded mall left at least 18 people dead and 59 wounded.
Calling Monday’s attack in the central Ukraine city of Kremenchuk “a brand new battle crime, Macron pledged the West’s continued help for Kyiv, saying Tuesday, “Russia cannot and should not win.”
The airstrike on a mall with greater than 1,000 individuals occurred as leaders from the Group of Seven nations met in Germany, and it rekindled pictures of the bombing of a theater in Mariupol that killed an estimated 600 people, horrifying a lot of the world. The newest assault on civilians was a part of an intense barrage of Russian hearth throughout Ukraine, together with in the capital of Kyiv, and has drawn new consideration to the battle even because it drags on.
Kyiv mayor to NATO international locations: You’re subsequent if Russia’s not stopped
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko issued not solely a plea for Western allies to present his nation “whatever it takes” to repel Russia’s invasion but in addition a warning that a few of their very own international locations may very well be focused by the Kremlin except it is stopped.
“Wake up, guys. This is happening now. You are going to be next. This is going to be knocking on your door just in the blink of an eye,” Klitschko stated in Madrid, the place NATO leaders are assembly.
Attending the summit along with his brother Wladimir, like him a former heavyweight boxing champion, Klitschko rejected the notion of conceding any Ukrainian territory to Russia to finish the battle.
“Bully the bully, it’s the only way how to stop it,” Vitali Klitschko stated. “And in this case, Russia is the bully.”
President Joe Biden’s household not welcome in Russia
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated Tuesday that it added 25 individuals to the listing of Americans banned from getting into Russia “as a response to the ever-expanding U.S. sanctions against Russian political and public figures.” Included are first woman Jill Biden and the couple’s daughter Ashley. The president was included on a earlier listing. The newest listing additionally contains 4 senators the ministry blames for “the formation of the Russophobic course” in Congress. They are Republicans Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins and Ben Sasse and Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand.
“It just goes to show you that the Russian capacity for these kinds of cynical moves is basically bottomless,” nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan stated. “So it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise to any of us that they would do something like this.”
The U.S. and different international locations have hit quite a few Russian oligarchs with sanctions which have led to seizure of huge yachts and different property.
Ukraine: Russians abduct Kherson mayor
Kherson Mayor Ihor Kolykhaiev has been kidnapped by Russian forces that occupy the southern metropolis of virtually 300,000, a mayoral adviser stated. Halyna Liashevska stated the mayor had remained in the town after the Russians swept in out of a way of responsibility to his constituents. Russian forces have routinely kidnapped pro-Ukrainian activists and different public figures in the cities they overrun. Kolykhaiev was escorted out of his workplace in handcuffs, Liashevska stated.
Control of the area provides Russia an important “land bridge” connecting its mainland to Crimea, which Russia took from Ukraine in 2014. Separatists have referred to as for a referendum geared toward leaving Ukraine to turn into part of Russia.
Contributing: The Associated Press
