by Russia-Ukraine war live updates: Finland’s president to address NATO membership; E.U. fails to agree on Russian oil embargo
Yesterday at 12:50 a.m. EDT|Updated today at 10:30 p.m. EDT
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to justify his invasion of Ukraine by citing the possibility of NATO expansion, but now, more than 11 weeks into the war, the military alliance could grow by two, with Sweden and Finland poised to apply for membership and Finnish President Sauli Niinisto expected to announce Thursday his position on joining.
If Niinisto voices support, it would mark a significant step toward the alliance for Finland, which shares an 800-mile border with Russia. Officials have said the two Scandinavian countries could apply in concert, and the United Kingdom on Wednesday signed security agreements with both Finland and Sweden, promising military support if Russia attacks — a move that would aid them if Moscow retaliates during the accession process. The Kremlin said it was monitoring closely the prospect of NATO enlargement.
Elsewhere in Europe, diplomats failed to make a deal on a long-sought Russian oil embargo. The European Union, which proposed the ban last week, would like to cut off one of Moscow’s key sources of funding, but Hungary has objected, and talks on Wednesday again ended without an agreement.
Here’s what else to know
- The Senate is expected to vote in the coming days on a nearly $40 billion aid package for Ukraine that the House overwhelmingly approved Tuesday night.
- Ukraine said it would stop the transit of some Russian gas running through its borders into Europe starting Wednesday morning local time.
- Ukraine is willing to turn over Russian prisoners in exchange for the evacuation of injured fighters at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, a top official said Wednesday.
- Ukraine’s prosecutor general announced Wednesday that a Russian soldier in custody will be the first to stand trial for an alleged war crime during the conflict. The 21-year-old is accused of killing an unarmed 62-year-old civilian by the side of a road in a village in the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine in late February.
- The Washington Post has lifted its paywall for readers in Russia and Ukraine. Telegram users can subscribe to our channel.
Canada to charter flights for Ukrainians and family members
The Canadian government announced Wednesday that it will charter three flights for Ukrainians who want to travel to Canada.
Flights will be available May 23, May 29 and June 2 from Poland to the Canadian cities of Winnipeg, Montreal and Halifax, respectively, according to a news release.
The flights for Ukrainians and family members will be for individuals approved through a Canada-Ukraine authorization program for emergency travel. The Canadian government said it would also provide up to two weeks of temporary accommodations for those who may not have other places to stay.
Nearly 6 million refugees have fled Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion, according to data tracked by the U.N. refugee agency.
“Millions of Ukrainians have been displaced and forced to flee their homes, and these charter flights will help make sure that those who want to come to Canada have the support they need,” Sean Fraser, Canada’s minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship, said in a statement.
Ukraine regains territory, and crime scene investigators move in
TSYRKUNY, Ukraine — To get to the crime scene, the police investigators drove about 30 minutes northeast of downtown Kharkiv — past neighborhoods in ruins, destroyed Russian military vehicles, a field littered with blast craters, and plumes of dark smoke rising a few miles in the distance, where fighting between the Ukrainian and Russian militaries was ongoing.
The Ukrainians had expelled Russian forces from the town of Tsyrkuny, less than 20 miles from the Russian border, just three days earlier — part of a Ukrainian counteroffensive that has reclaimed a significant swath of territory in the Kharkiv region this month.
Now the police investigators were eager to visit the village, where they had a report of two civilian bodies lying on the side of a dirt road. The women had been killed by a Russian land mine weeks earlier, the police said. And just as forensic scientists would visit the site of a killing in prewar times to collect evidence, they needed to do the same here in their quest to gather evidence of potential Russian war crimes — a process taking place across the country that led to the announcement of a first prosecution on Wednesday, a 21-year-old Russian soldier who is in custody.
Zelensky praises U.S. lend-lease program, new aid
In the early weeks of the war in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky used his nightly video addresses as a bully pulpit, thanking countries for their support and urging them to do more.
The United States often found itself on the receiving end of Zelensky’s criticism, with the Ukrainian leader demanding more weapons and tougher sanctions to combat Russia’s increasingly brutal assault.
But lately, amid a formidable tide of new measures and aid, Zelensky has praised the U.S. response. In his Wednesday evening speech, for example, Zelensky began by noting that the House of Representatives had the day before approved nearly $40 billion in military, economic and humanitarian support. The Senate is expected to follow suit in the coming days.
“I am grateful to the people of America and to all our friends in Congress and administration for their support,” he said.
Zelensky then spent the next several minutes discussing the Lend-Lease Act of 2022, which President Biden signed into law on Monday. The measure, which is based on a 1941 law used to aid U.S. allies during World War II, will give Biden more unilateral authority to send military equipment and supplies to Ukraine, expediting the process.
The bill “is important and even historic,” Zelensky said.
“Simply put,” he said, “lend-lease is a scheme to give us everything we need for defense.”
Updates from key cities: Ukraine pushes back around Kharkiv
A Ukrainian counteroffensive continues north of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Meanwhile, Russian advances in the south and east appear to be stalled amid fierce Ukrainian resistance.
Here are updates from key cities:
Kharkiv region: Ukraine said Wednesday that its armed forces had recaptured the village of Pytomnyk while pushing Russian troops back in the Kharkiv region in the northeast part of the country, which has seen intense fighting and aerial bombardment.
Kherson: This Russian-occupied region in southern Ukraine plans to ask President Vladimir Putin to make it a part of Russia, state news agencies said Wednesday, citing a pro-Moscow official in the region. Kherson was the first major city to fall to Russian forces that swept into the country in late February.
Mariupol: Ukraine has offered to turn over Russian prisoners in exchange for the evacuation of seriously injured fighters holed up at a steel plant in this shattered southern port city. There was no immediate response from Russia regarding the proposal and Ukraine said Wednesday that negotiations were ongoing. Russian attacks at the plant have intensified since the evacuation of about 300 civilians via humanitarian corridors.
Snake Island: The Ukrainian military successfully struck Russian air defenses and resupply vessels in the Black Sea with Turkish-made Bayraktar drones and continues to combat Russian forces near Snake Island, Britain’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday in an intelligence update. This small outcrop, around 90 miles south of Odessa, was among the first parts of Ukraine to come under Russian fire when the invasion began. The island is strategically significant: if Russia solidifies control of the island, it could dominate the northwestern region of the Black Sea.
David L. Stern, Brittany Shammas, Ellen Francis and Amy Cheng contributed to this report.
U.S. not ‘actively helping them kill generals of any kind,’ official says
The United States is sending billions of dollars in military equipment to Ukraine, including heavy artillery, drones and antitank missiles. Administration officials have publicly enumerated those contributions, practically down to the number of bullets. But they are far more cautious when describing another decisive contribution to Ukraine’s battlefield success: intelligence about the Russian military.
Information about the location and movements of Russian forces is flowing to Ukraine in real-time, and it includes satellite imagery and reporting gleaned from sensitive U.S. sources, according to U.S. and Ukrainian officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the cooperation.
“The intelligence is very good. It tells us where the Russians are so that we can hit them,” one Ukrainian official said, using his finger to pantomime a bomb falling on its target.
Ukrainian refugees say they’re forced into ‘filtration camps’
RIGA, Latvia — Russian authorities are forcing Ukrainians who seek safety to submit to strip searches and interrogations, placing some refugees in guarded camps, stripping them of their vital documents and in some cases forcing them to remain in Russia, according to displaced Ukrainians, volunteers helping refugees, and Ukrainian and Western officials.
At least 1 million Ukrainian civilians have fled the fighting into Russia, according to Russian Defense Ministry numbers that the Ukrainian government also accepts as valid. In many cases, especially in the devastated city of Mariupol, many residents were effectively forced into Russia with no option to seek refuge on friendlier soil. In other cases, especially in the breakaway territories of eastern Ukraine, the travel to Russia was voluntary.
Almost everyone has had to pass through “filtration camps,” a perilous process in which Ukrainians are strip-searched and interrogated. People suspected of having sympathies to the Ukrainian military are being detained and tortured, according to refugees, representatives of volunteer organizations, and Ukrainian and U.S. officials.
Ukraine says it has recaptured village in Kharkiv region
Ukraine said Wednesday that its armed forces had recaptured the village of Pytomnyk while pushing Russian troops back in the Kharkiv region.
Oleksandr Shtupun, spokesman for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said in an operational update shared on Facebook that the village “was liberated.” He said Russian forces had “moved to the defense in order to slow down the pace of the offensive of our troops.”
Bellissimo. Sweet liberation. After 75 days under Russian occupation some of the residents of Pytomnyk were finally rescued. pic.twitter.com/8YxaoiQePy
— Ian Pannell (@IanPannell) May 11, 2022
The Kharkiv region is in the northeast part of the country and home to its second-most populous city. It has seen intense fighting and battering by artillery and air bombardment.
Officials in Kyiv and Washington have said Ukrainian troops are having success in counterattacks in the area, deterring Russian forces from pushing into the capital of the same name.
Sanctions force Russia to use dishwasher chips in military gear, U.S. official says
Russia is having a harder time manufacturing military equipment and other goods because of U.S.-led sanctions blocking the country from importing computer chips, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told a Senate hearing Wednesday.
Two Russian tank manufacturers have had to idle production, according to Raimondo, whose department oversees the export controls enacted by the United States and its allies after Russia’s invasion began.
“We have reports from Ukrainians that when they find Russian military equipment on the ground, it’s filled with semiconductors that they took out of dishwashers and refrigerators,” Raimondo added, noting that she recently met with Ukraine’s prime minister.
“U.S. exports of technology to Russia have fallen by nearly 70 percent since we imposed these export controls,” she told the hearing, which was reviewing the Commerce Department’s latest budget request.
The export controls were designed to “cripple their ability to continue a military operation. And that is exactly what we are doing,” Raimondo said.
Ukraine offers prisoner exchange to evacuate injured Azovstal fighters
Ukraine is proposing to turn over Russian prisoners in exchange for the evacuation of injured fighters at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a Telegram post Wednesday that Ukraine offered Russia a proposal in which seriously wounded Ukrainian soldiers would be allowed to flee through a humanitarian corridor. In exchange, captured Russians would be handed over in accordance with established rules for prisoner exchanges.
“There is no agreement yet,” she wrote. “Negotiations are ongoing.”
The plight of the injured soldiers has become the focus when it comes to control of the facility — the last sliver of Mariupol still in Ukraine’s hands. Russia has called on the Ukrainian troops to surrender, while Ukraine wants the injured fighters to be allowed to flee. Hundreds of civilians who were trapped at the sprawling complex have already been evacuated.
“Defenders of Azovstal do not want to surrender,” Vereshchuk said. “This is worthy of respect.”
There was no immediate response from Russia regarding the proposal.
Russian attacks at the plant have intensified since the evacuation of about 300 civilians, with Petro Andryushchenko, an aide to the Mariupol mayor, writing Wednesday in a post on Telegram that Azovstal was being attacked, with Russia “again using tanks.”
“If there is hell on earth, it is right there,” he said.
The leader of the pro-Russian Donetsk separatist group, meanwhile, was quoted in Russian- government-owned news agency Tass on Wednesday saying that the hands of pro-Moscow forces are “no longer tied” since the civilians have left.
Where are Russia’s barrels of oil going?
Despite the European Union’s drastic measures to wind down imports of Russian oil, Moscow still has plenty of buyers — and at prices steep enough to keep government revenue high and its coffers flush.
Before the war with Ukraine, Russia sold about half of its 7.85 million barrels a day of crude and refined oil to Europe. But with the war and the E.U.’s vow to abruptly end its reliance on Russian oil and gas, the Kremlin has been benefiting from high world prices while looking for new customers and reorienting its export strategy toward Asia.
The windfall shows how hard it is to punish a major oil and gas power such as Russia when so much of the world — especially developing countries — depends on fossil fuels.
Even with “severe oil production cuts” expected this year, Russia’s tax revenue “will increase significantly to more than $180 billion due to the spike in oil prices,” according to Rystad Energy, an independent research firm advising investors. The figure is 45 percent higher than in 2021.
Finland’s president says Putin’s actions sparked potential NATO membership
When asked how Russian President Vladimir Putin might react to Finland joining NATO, the nation’s president said he would tell the Russian leader: “You caused this. Look at the mirror.”
During a news conference with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto underlined that “this is not the first time we’re discussing NATO.”
The remarks come as militarily nonaligned Finland and Sweden are expected to apply to join NATO, a move that NATO and U.S. officials have said they would embrace.
“They have made it very clear in earlier years that if you join NATO, [Russia] will do whatever, they have explained, some contra-steps,” Niinisto said. “What they are, that is for us to guess.”
But he said the situation has changed, in part because of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
“They are ready to attack a neighboring country,” he said. “So when you ask whether — how they see [Finland potentially joining NATO], if that would be the case that we join, what my response would be, that ‘you caused this. Look at the mirror.’”
U.K. agrees to defend nonaligned Sweden, Finland in event of an attack
By Christine Armario1:38 p.m.
The United Kingdom has signed mutual security agreements with Sweden and Finland, vowing to defend the militarily nonaligned nations if they were to be attacked.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Sweden and Finland on Wednesday to sign the accords. Per the agreement, the U.K. will support both nations’ armed forces if they “face crisis or come under attack.” Britain and each country also promised to intensify intelligence sharing, accelerate joint military training and jointly tackle new challenges like cyberthreats.
“These are not a short-term stopgap, but a long-term commitment to bolster military ties and global stability, and fortify Europe’s defenses for generations to come,” Johnson said.
The agreement comes as Finland and Sweden are expected to apply to join NATO; NATO and U.S. officials have said they would be welcomed additions. If Finland were to join, it would double NATO’s land border with Russia.
At a news conference, Johnson said the U.K. security agreement is “formalizing and making clear something that needs to be made explicitly in the context of today — and that is in the event of an attack on either of us, we will come to each other’s support upon request.”
Johnson did not detail what specific measures Britain would take, saying only, “the nature of that assistance will depend on the request of the other party.”
Russian hypersonics ‘not a major game changer’ in Ukraine, defense chief says
Russia’s use of hypersonic weapons in Ukraine is “not a major game changer to this point,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
And the fact that Russia is brandishing its hypersonic arsenal in Ukraine does not mean Russian President Vladimir Putin is any closer to using a nuclear weapon, Austin added.
“I think he’s trying to create a specific effect with the use” of hypersonics, Austin told members of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense, noting that that type of weapon “moves at a speed that’s very difficult to interdict.”
But Putin “has options,” Austin added. “He can launch a cyberattack, he can employ chemical weapons … but I don’t think this necessarily takes him to the use of a nuclear weapon.”
Austin, who appeared alongside Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Pentagon Comptroller Mike McCord, made the comments in response to a line of questioning from Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.) during a hearing to discuss the Pentagon’s fiscal 2023 budget request. The military has asked Congress to increase funding for development of hypersonic weapons, which have long been in development but saw fresh notoriety in the wake of China launching tests last year and Russia utilizing hypersonic weapons in its invasion of Ukraine.
Milley told lawmakers that Russia’s use of such weapons in Ukraine marks “the first time” that he has seen “hypersonic munitions in a combat situation.”
Russia’s war may slow global transition to green energy, Kerry warns
A prolonged conflict in Ukraine could complicate efforts to keep the global temperature rise within 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels, U.S. climate envoy John F. Kerry said in an interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper.
But despite the geopolitical challenges that Russia’s invasion has intensified, there are still ways for countries to get around the disruptions by using cleaner natural gas produced in the United States and turning to renewable energy sources, Kerry added.
“I’d take a gas-fired power plant in the near term — I emphasize near term — over coal or oil any day of the week,” he told the Guardian. “But for the long run, gas is going to have to abate and live up to low emissions standards just like everybody else.”
Since the Feb. 24 invasion, the West’s desire to wean itself off Russian exports, along with rising oil and gas prices, have left world leaders hunting for new sources of energy. But standing in their way are some European Union countries’ heavy reliance on Russian energy and the pressure on the Biden administration to lower gasoline prices ahead of this year’s midterm elections. Resistance from Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) has bogged down the Democratic Party’s bill that includes tax credits for renewable energy producers and other incentives to boost the clean hydrogen and battery storage industries.
Yet Kerry projected optimism and argued that the climate pledges made at the COP26 U.N. conference in Glasgow in November were never meant to be fulfilled in just a few years. “These are promises for 2030. A hiccup of a number of months may be something that we can work around or get through,” he said.