Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[EuchreJack]

Eh, close enough.

[brewer bob]

As expected, Finland confirms it will apply for Nato membership:

More on Finland’s announcement that it will apply for Nato membership, from our colleague, Jon Henley.

“Finland has formally confirmed it intends to join Nato, its president, Sauli Niinistö, has said, abandoning decades of military non-alignment in a historic decision triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

With neighbouring Sweden’s ruling party also holding a decisive meeting on whether to join the 30-member defensive alliance next week, Moscow’s onslaught on Ukraine looks set to usher in the expansion of Nato that Vladimir Putin claimed he wanted to prevent.

Finland shares an 810-mile (1,300km) border with Russia and, like Sweden, has maintained strict policies of neutrality then non-alignment since the end of the second world war, viewing Nato membership as a provocation of Moscow.

However, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February has led to a profound change in its thinking, with public support for Nato accession trebling to about 75%. Polls show a majority of between 50 and 60% are also in favour in Sweden.

Three days after Finland’s leaders said it “must apply for Nato membership without delay”, the membership proposal is expected to be laid before parliament for ratification on Monday.

Niinistö called his Russian counterpart, Putin, on Saturday and informed him his country aimed to join Nato, in a conversation he described as “direct and straightforward”. He added: “Avoiding tensions was considered important.”

Russia has repeatedly warned Finland and Sweden against joining Nato, saying such a move would oblige it to “restore military balance” by strengthening its defences in the Baltic Sea region, including by deploying nuclear weapons.

Putin responded to Niinistö’s call by saying Nato membership “would be a mistake, since there is no threat to Finland’s security”, according to a readout of the call released by the Kremlin.

After a cross-party Swedish parliamentary review on Friday said joining Nato would boost Sweden’s national security and help stabilise the Nordic region, leaders of the country’s ruling Social Democrats were also poised on Sunday to jettison the party’s longstanding opposition to Nato membership.

With a decision expected in the early evening, Swedish media reported that – assuming Helsinki sends its application in on Monday – Stockholm is likely to follow suit as early as Tuesday, with the alliance set to launch the accession process immediately afterwards.

Read the full report here.

(As a note about the 75% support for Nato membership in Finland: before Russia invaded Ukraine support was at around 25%. The shift in Finnish attitudes towards Russia and Nato has been swift and dramatic.)

[martinuzz]

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg says that after the Finnish and Swedish foreign ministers have spoken with their Turkish colleague, he is convinced that Turkey will not block Finland and Sweden from becoming NATO members.

[martinuzz]

With the Swedish governing party just voting in favour, the last hurdle for Sweden's application to join NATO is passed.
It is expected Sweden will officialy apply for NATO membership this coming week.

[Random_Dragon]

The defenders at the Azovstal plant in Mariuspol are evidently surrendering.[/img] I suspect the Russians will likely simply execute them given their track record in the area, and it seems like the defenders there would know full well that outcome is likely. :/

[brewer bob]

The defenders at the Azovstal plant in Mariuspol are evidently surrendering.

The Guardian has an article about this:
Fate of hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers unclear as Azovstal resistance ends

Fate of hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers unclear as Azovstal resistance ends

Ukraine says there will be prisoner swap but some Russian officials have said forces could be tried or executed

The fate of hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers who have ended weeks of resistance at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol remains unclear, after the fighters surrendered and were transferred to Russian-controlled territory.

Ukraine’s deputy defence minister said they would be swapped in a prisoner exchange, but some Russian officials said on Tuesday they could be tried and even executed. MPs in Russia’s State Duma said they would propose new laws that could derail prisoner exchanges of fighters who Moscow claims are “terrorists”.

Russian investigators have said they plan to interrogate the soldiers and could charge them with “crimes committed by the Ukrainian regime against the civilian population in south-east Ukraine”.

On Tuesday evening, seven buses carrying Ukrainian soldiers left the Azovstal plant in the port city and arrived at a former prison colony in the Russian-controlled town of Olenivka in Donetsk, Reuters reported.

Russia called the Azovstal operation a mass surrender, while the Ukrainian army said the soldiers defending the steel plant had “performed their combat task” and that the main goal was now to save their lives.

“Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes alive,” said the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in a video address.

[Loud Whispers]

It was inevitable that morale would break eventually under continual bombardment and phosphorous. Though they held out considerably longer than was thought possible; nevertheless, we can only hope the Russian action does not match the bluster

[Strongpoint]

It was inevitable that morale would break eventually under continual bombardment and phosphorous. Though they held out considerably longer than was thought possible; nevertheless, we can only hope the Russian action does not match the bluster

Semi-officially, they were ordered to surrender and I tend to believe that it is true. There is little military reason to hold that place anymore, they don't divert any significant Russian resources. Also, there is a very real possibility that they ran out of ammo, food, or water.


Meanwhile, it looks like Italy offers Ukraine to capitulate

[brewer bob]

A report from the Institute for the Study of War mentions molotov attacks on military comissariats around Russia:

Unknown Russian perpetrators have conducted a series of Molotov cocktail attacks on military commissariats throughout the country this month, likely in protest of covert mobilisation, the Institute for the Study of War has said in its latest assessment of the conflict.

“Russian media and local Telegram channels reported deliberate acts of arson against military commissariats in three Moscow Oblast settlements – Omsk, Volgograd, Ryazan Oblast, and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District between May 4 and May 18.

Ukrainian General Staff main operations deputy chief Oleksiy Gromov said that there were at least 12 cases of deliberate arson against military commissariats in total and five last week.

Russian officials caught two 16-year-olds in the act in one Moscow Oblast settlement, which suggests that Russian citizens are likely responsible for the attacks on military commissariats.”

There have been many reports of poor morale within Russian forces since the start of the war with some reportedly abandoning their equipment and fleeing the battlefield and others refusing to fight at all or even launching legal action against their deployment to Ukraine.

The ISW assessment can be found here.

[EuchreJack]

So apparently Italy is under pressure to end the war by any means necessary.

I'll save my thoughts for the Emotional thread...

[Loud Whispers]

So apparently Italy is under pressure to end the war by any means necessary.

I'll save my thoughts for the Emotional thread...

Reminds me of an MI5 caution that massive arms shipments should also be acknowledged to inevitably carry a risk that people are going to sell their weapons or lose them, with the nightmare situation being some terrorists getting a missile that can take down an airliner. But that's not a new problem.

A report from the Institute for the Study of War mentions molotov attacks on military comissariats around Russia:

Unknown Russian perpetrators have conducted a series of Molotov cocktail attacks on military commissariats throughout the country this month, likely in protest of covert mobilisation, the Institute for the Study of War has said in its latest assessment of the conflict.

“Russian media and local Telegram channels reported deliberate acts of arson against military commissariats in three Moscow Oblast settlements – Omsk, Volgograd, Ryazan Oblast, and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District between May 4 and May 18.

Ukrainian General Staff main operations deputy chief Oleksiy Gromov said that there were at least 12 cases of deliberate arson against military commissariats in total and five last week.

Russian officials caught two 16-year-olds in the act in one Moscow Oblast settlement, which suggests that Russian citizens are likely responsible for the attacks on military commissariats.”

There have been many reports of poor morale within Russian forces since the start of the war with some reportedly abandoning their equipment and fleeing the battlefield and others refusing to fight at all or even launching legal action against their deployment to Ukraine.

The ISW assessment can be found here.

That is an unexpected level of ballsiness

[MaxTheFox]

That is an unexpected level of ballsiness

I know right, Russian anti-Putin partisans are my heroes forever.

[brewer bob]

This is absolutely horrifying. Lyudmyla Denisova (Ombudsman for Human Rights in Ukraine) writes on Facebook about Russian atrocities.

Spoiler: Content warning: sexual assault, child abuse (click to show/hide)

Every day the Ombudsman's Psychological Assistance line receives reports of sexual crimes that make the blood run cold. The atrocities of Russian soldiers know no bounds.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces are liberating towns and villages in the Kharkiv region, and over the past week, most of the calls have come from there. From the victims themselves and their relatives.

Yesterday, in just one hour, 10 people applied for sexual violence, 8 of them were raped minors, including two 10-year-old boys.

In the last 24 hours, we received 56 calls.

Triplets 9 years old, girls who were raped by racists with severe genital injuries. All this in full view of the mother, she's in shock. Izium.

A mother turned, her nine-month-old daughter was raped with a candle in front of her eyes.

A one-year-old boy was raped by two, he died.

Two-year-old girl raped by two, survived.

Men raped were 67 and 78 years old.

Horror and rage is overwhelming!

This is the genocide of the Ukrainian people with special cruelty!  This is a violation not only of the rules of international humanitarian law, but also of its very essence, the morals of the civilized world!

I appeal to the UN Commission for Investigation Human Rights Violations during the Russian military invasion of Ukraine to take into account these facts of genocide of the Ukrainian people.

I call on our partners around the world to increase sanctions pressure on russia, to provide Ukraine with offensive weapons, to join the investigation of rashist crimes in our country!

The enemy must be stopped and all those involved in the atrocities in Ukraine must be brought to justice!

[MaxTheFox]

Well I hope those soldiers die in the most painful manner. If I was an Ukrainian commander and they got captured by my unit, I'd... I won't say it here for forum rules' sake.

[EuchreJack]

Good call, MtF.

Keep the news flowing.  It's hard to digest, but its vital to document.