Latest political events
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Finland said on Thursday it would apply to join NATO “without delay”, and Sweden is expected to do the same.
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The Kremlin said Finland’s decision to join NATO would “definitely” be a threat to Russia.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has reaffirmed his support for the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, separatist-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine.
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Ukraine said Russia has stolen an estimated $100 million worth of grain and is trying to sell it to other countries.
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More than six million people have fled Ukraine’s borders because of the war.
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Pressure is building for Europe to get its gas out of Russia.
Updates from the field on day 78 of the war
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Human rights in Ukraine the boss has accused Russia to detain and torture civilians.
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According to the Ukrainian military, Russian forces fired on Ukrainian troops in the direction of Zaporizhzhia, a haven for civilians fleeing Mariupol.
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The governor of Belgorod, a Russian border region, said at least one civilian had been killed and six others wounded in Ukrainian shelling.
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Ukrainian authorities say an airstrike has killed at least three people and injured 12 others in the Chernihiv region.
‘Technical-military’ reprisals
In response to Finland’s announcement in favor of joining NATO on Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry warned that “Russia will be forced to take retaliatory measures of a military-technical and other nature to counter emerging threats to their national security.”
The ministry said Finland’s move violated earlier agreements with Russia.
Earlier Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Finland’s entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would “definitely” be a threat to Russia.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, said NATO’s support for Ukraine has “increased the likelihood that an ongoing proxy war will turn into an open and direct conflict between NATO and Russia.”
He also said that “there is always the risk that this conflict will turn into a full-scale nuclear war, a scenario that will be catastrophic for everyone.”
In a comment on the messaging app, Medvedev urged the United States and its allies to think about the possible consequences of their actions and “not choke on their own saliva in paroxysms of Russophobia.”
In the shadow of the battle for Ukraine, NATO special forces are conducting training exercises in Eastern Europe, honing the ability of member states to work together against a common enemy.
Airstrike kills 3 in Chernihiv
Ukrainian military officials said at least three people were killed after a Russian airstrike on a town in the northern Chernihiv region, while 12 others were wounded.
In the early hours of Thursday, Russian troops fired multiple rockets at a school and a student accommodation complex in the city of Novhorod-Siversky, Ukraine’s “North” Operational Command said in a Facebook post.
It added that nearby buildings housing local government offices, university dormitories and private homes also suffered varying degrees of damage.
The accuracy of these claims could not be immediately verified.
Russia said on Thursday that its forces had attacked two ammunition depots in the Chernihiv region.
More than 6 million have fled
The UN refugee agency reports that more than six million people have fled Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s invasion.
Geneva-based UNHCR also said Thursday that the number of refugees who have returned to Ukraine, either partially or fully, has reached more than 1.6 million. He says the number reflects cross-border movements and does not necessarily indicate “sustainable” returns. The agency says it’s too early to draw any conclusions about “definitive trends” in returns.
Matthew Saltmarsh, a spokesman for the agency, also said Thursday that a total of 2.4 million people who left Ukraine moved beyond Ukraine’s immediate border countries that received the bulk of the country’s refugees.
Poland alone has recorded more than 3.2 million people who fled Ukraine. This and other member countries of the European Union have open borders, which makes tracking where people go a complex task.
Lyudmyla Denysova, Ukraine’s human rights chief, claimed Thursday on social media that kyiv is aware of at least two prisons where civilians are detained in the eastern Donetsk region.
He said some 3,000 civilians from Mariupol are being held there by pro-Russian separatists.
According to Denysova, the authorities had received reports of people “tortured, interrogated, threatened with execution and forced to cooperate” and others missing after interrogations.
It also alleged that detainees were in “inhumane conditions,” without adequate access to bathrooms and no room to lie down.
Denysova claimed that some captives had been released after 36 days of signing unspecified documents, but did not provide further details. The Ukrainian authorities are asking the United Nations to intervene.
More cluster munition reports
Ukrainian officials also accused Russia of using cluster bombs and phosphorus munitions in the southern Kryvyi Rih region. The claim could not be immediately verified.
“The occupants are shooting, including with the use of banned cluster and phosphorus munitions,” regional military governor Oleksandr Vilkul said Thursday on Ukrainian television channels. He did not provide details on where and when they were allegedly used.
He said one person was killed and another was injured over the last day.
A cluster munition is a container filled with small explosive bombs that are spread over a wide area and pose a risk to civilians. Bombs have been banned by the Convention on Cluster Munitionsbut Russia has not signed the international treaty.
In March, the UN said it had credible reports that the Russian armed forces had used cluster bombs in populated areas of Ukraine at least two dozen times since the beginning of the invasion on February 24.
Ukraine recovers villages in the northeast
As Russia has refocused the war on the eastern Donbas region, Ukraine has been able to recapture several towns and villages in the northeast of the country, according to British intelligence.
The British military said Russia’s shift in focus left its remaining troops around the city of Kharkiv “vulnerable to the mobile and highly motivated Ukrainian counter-attack force”.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed his determination to wrest separatist-controlled territory from Ukraine in a congratulatory message to the head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine.
In a statement issued by the Kremlin, Putin said: “I am sure that through our joint efforts we will defend the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity” of the Lugansk republic.
The head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk republic, Leonid Pasechnik, said it would never come under Ukraine’s control again and most of its residents want it to become part of Russia.
Grain theft will not go unpunished: minister
The European Commission proposed on Thursday to help Ukraine export its wheat and other grains by rail, road and river to get around a Russian blockade of its Black Sea ports, which prevents those critical supplies, including wheat, barley and oil. of sunflower, arrive at parts. of the world at risk of food insecurity.
In addition to blocking the port, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry accused Russia of stealing grain and trying to sell some on global markets. He cited official estimates indicating that Russia may have already stolen between 400,000 and 500,000 tons of grain worth more than US$100 million.
Ukraine’s foreign minister said on Thursday that everyone involved in the transportation and sale of grain seized by Russia in the occupied areas of the country will face legal consequences.
Reference-www.cbc.ca