Ukraine said on Monday that its forces had repulsed Russian troops in the Kharkiv region in a counter-offensive that allowed the Ukrainians to reach the Russian border.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense posted a video showing what it said was its troops at the border, in which a soldier told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: “We are here.”
A senior U.S. defense official said Ukrainian troops were within three or four kilometers of the Russian border.
After averting Russian progress towards Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, Ukrainian forces have regained territory in the region and tried to pressure Russia from its position in Izyum as it focuses on the eastern Donbas region.
“The Kremlin dreamed of capturing Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa, then at least the Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” Zelenskyy adviser Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted on Monday. “Now Russian troops are concentrated in the Luhansk region due to a lack of forces. We are continuing the treatment of imperialist greatness madness and getting Moscow to face reality.”
Ukrainian military rests in a newly recaptured village north of Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, May 15, 2022
Zelenskyy said in a video speech late Sunday that Ukraine was preparing for new Russian attacks in the Donbas and southern Ukraine.
“The occupiers still do not want to admit that they are in a dead end and their so-called ‘special operation’ has already gone bankrupt,” Zelenskyy said.
In Washington, the senior U.S. defense official reported heavy artillery fire in Donetsk on Monday, but said Russian gains were “uneven, slow, incremental, short and small.”
“We know that the Russians continue to make sacrifices,” the official said. “They continue to lose equipment and systems every day.”
Western allies with Ukraine continue to send more weapons to Kiev forces, with 10 airlift deliveries from seven nations in the past 24 hours, the US defense official told reporters during a background call on Monday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Monday that Moscow would respond if NATO strengthened its military presence in Finland and Sweden after the two Nordic countries declared on Sunday that they wanted to join the US-dominated Western military alliance.
Putin told the leaders of a Russian-dominated military alliance of former Soviet states that the expansion of NATO by 30 countries was used by the United States in an “aggressive” way to worsen world stability.
The Russian leader said there was no direct threat from NATO by adding the two countries to his alliance, but said: “The expansion of military infrastructure into this territory would really provoke our response.”
“What that (answer) will be – we will see what threats are created for us,” Putin said at the Grand Kremlin Palace. “Problems are created for no reason at all. We will react accordingly.”
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin announced their application for NATO membership on Sunday at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki.
“This is a historic day,” Niinisto said. “A new era begins.”
Hours later, Sweden also said it would seek NATO membership, putting an end to two centuries of military freedom of alliance. On Sunday, the Swedish ruling party put down its opposition to joining the military alliance.
On Monday, Sweden’s Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson told lawmakers in the Riksdag that joining NATO was “a historic change in our country’s security policy.”
“We will inform NATO that we want to join the alliance,” she said. “Sweden needs formal security guarantees that come with NATO membership.”
A building damaged by several shelling stands in Kharkiv, Ukraine, May 15, 2022.
The two Nordic countries’ NATO applications are likely to proceed quickly, with the Alliance’s Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, saying in recent days that they will be welcomed.
“Finland and Sweden are already NATO’s closest partners,” said NATO Deputy Secretary-General Mircea Geoana on Sunday in Berlin, where members met to discuss their continued support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion and expansion of the Atlantic Alliance.
Russia turned off electricity to Finland as a clear retaliation for its attempt to join NATO. Finland gets 10% of its energy from Russia and the vacuum is now filled by Sweden.
Turkey initially expressed concern that Finland and Sweden would join the security alliance, but said on Saturday that it did not close the door on the possibility. Each NATO enlargement requires the unanimous consent of the existing members.
“I’m not so worried,” Niinisto said of Turkey’s stance.
NATO and the United States said on Sunday that they were both convinced that Turkey would not stand in the way of Finland and Sweden joining NATO. Turkish officials told Berlin’s foreign ministers on Sunday that they wanted the Nordic countries to stop supporting Kurdish militant groups in their territory and lift the ban on certain arms sales to Turkey.
The top diplomats from the United States and Ukraine met on Sunday in Berlin to talk about Russia’s invasion and the impact it has had not only on Ukraine but the rest of the world.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba of the support Ukraine has from its allies and discussed this week’s group of seven industrialized nations and NATO foreign ministers’ meetings.
Cindy Saine contributed to this report. Some information for this story came from the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Source: sn.dk