Sweden and Finland submitted their applications for NATO membership on Wednesday, a direct result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which claimed that nearly 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers holed up in the Azovstal factory in Mariupol in the south of the country, had surrendered.
Another highlight in Ukraine on Wednesday: the start in kyiv of the trial of a Russian soldier tried for a war crime, the first of its kind since the start of the conflict on February 24.
In Brussels, the ambassadors of Sweden and Finland – the latter country shares a 1,300 km border with Russia – presented their candidature file to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who hailed “a historic moment in a critical moment for our security”.
Turkey opposes their integration and could block the process, but consultations are underway to try to overcome Ankara’s opposition, according to a diplomatic source. “We hope to conclude quickly,” said Mr. Stoltenberg.
Surrenders in Azovstal, according to Moscow
On the Azovstal site in Mariupol, “959 (Ukrainian) fighters, including 80 wounded, have taken themselves prisoner” since Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
Information that kyiv had not commented on in the middle of the morning.
Ukraine assured last week that more than 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers – including 600 wounded – were in this huge steel complex, the last bastion of resistance in the city ravaged by Russian attacks.
The Russian army is concentrating its efforts “on blocking our units near Azovstal”, with artillery fire and air strikes, the Ukrainian general staff reported on Wednesday morning.
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense hailed “Ukrainian heroes” who had “fulfilled their mission”. He had also indicated that they would be exchanged for Russian prisoners to allow them to return to the country “as quickly as possible”, which seemed to confirm that some of these men were indeed in Russian hands.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky nevertheless said on Tuesday that “the evacuation mission” of the soldiers still inside the Azovstal steelworks “continued”, without specifying the number of soldiers concerned. This mission notably involves “the most influential international mediators”, according to the president, who discussed it with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on the telephone on Tuesday.
The total capture of Mariupol, a strategic port city on the Sea of Azov besieged from the beginning of March by the Russians and dearly defended by the Ukrainians at the cost of vast destruction, would constitute an important step forward for Moscow in this conflict.
It would allow him to control a strip of territory ranging from the Crimean peninsula, which the Russians annexed in 2014, to the territories of Donbass (east) already in the hands of pro-Russian separatists.
“clear signal”
Nearly three months after the start of the invasion of Ukraine, a 21-year-old Russian soldier, accused of having killed a civilian, appeared on Wednesday before the Ukrainian courts for a war crime, a first.
This trial, which is due to start at 11:00 GMT, is “a clear signal”, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said on Twitter. “No executioner […] will not escape justice,” she promised, saying that she had opened more than 11,000 war crimes investigations, at a time when international institutions are also investigating the abuses committed by Russian troops.
In The Hague (Netherlands), the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, announced the deployment to Ukraine of a team of 42 investigators and experts, i.e. the largest mission in terms of staff ever sent to Ukraine. the ground by the ICC.
And Washington announced on Tuesday the creation of a “conflict observatory”, initially endowed with six million dollars, to “collect, analyze and widely share evidence of war crimes” that they attribute to Russia in Ukraine.
“Prolonged phase”
On the ground, the war is entering a “prolonged phase”, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Tuesday.
Along the front line in the Donetsk region (east), seven people were killed and six injured, according to the Ukrainian presidency.
In the neighboring region, that of Lugansk, four people were killed on Wednesday, said its governor Serguiï Gaïdaï, who also announced the discovery of two bodies in the village of Pryvillia.
Russian forces are trying to break through near Popasna and towards Severodonetsk, one of the major cities in the region under Ukrainian control, he added, citing “the intensification of shelling on the civilian population”.
Russian forces are conducting “offensives along the line of contact” in the Donetsk region, and partially in that neighboring Lugansk, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry warned on Tuesday.
The Russian army is trying “to encircle and destroy the regrouping of the Ukrainian armed forces in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions”, partly in the hands of pro-Russian separatists, confirmed Mr. Reznikov, who spoke on Tuesday before the ministers of European Union Defense and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
After weeks of heavy fighting around small villages in these regions, but also that of Kharkiv (north-east), the Russian army is progressing little by little.
In Sydorovié, AFP journalists saw fields in flames and witnessed bombardments against this small village.
And “the enemy is reinforcing” its troops “to carry out an offensive in the direction of Polohy and Orikhiv”, not far from Zaporijjia, in the south-east of Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian general staff.
The east of the country has been the priority objective of Russian troops since their withdrawal from the vicinity of the Ukrainian capital at the end of March.
However, Russian strikes continue to target the rest of the country, killing eight and injuring 12 in Desna, a village about sixty kilometers north of kyiv which is home to a large military training camp, according to local relief. .
Another Russian attack hit a Ukrainian military base in the western Lviv region on Tuesday morning, just 15 kilometers from the border with Poland, according to Maxim Kozitsky, the governor of the Lviv region.
Mr. Reznikov, Ukrainian Defense Minister, called on Ukraine’s Western allies for more coordination in arms deliveries to kyiv.
Paris will intensify its deliveries to Ukraine “in the days and weeks to come”, promised Mr. Macron to Mr. Zelensky during their call on Tuesday.
The latter also addressed the Cannes festival during a video message broadcast during the opening gala, to call for a cinema that does not remain “silent” in the face of the war in Ukraine.