May 16 Buonasera Mag
Sweden, China, McDonald's, fierce battles, EU FM meetings, war crimes tribunal
Catching up…
EA Worldview’s Ukraine Up-date- hop over to Scott’s amazing hourly Ukraine up-date page. I’ll fill in with some bits and bobs.
Here are some other stories we’re following…
Politico EU: in a monumental decision, Sweden’s governing Social Democrat Party on Sunday backed the idea of the country joining NATO, ending its traditional position of neutrality after 200 years. It will be making its application together with Finland.
"We are leaving one era and beginning another," Swedish PM Magdalena Andersson tells a press conference. "We expect it shouldn't take more than a year" for the alliance's 30 members to unanimously ratify Sweden's membership application, Andersson adds.
Samuel Ramani: The Chinese Foreign Ministry's position on Finland's NATO membership: "China has noticed Finland’s proposal to join the Nato. Sino-Finnish relationship has always been friendly. Finland’s application to join the Nato will of course add new factor in the bilateral relations".
McDonald’s and Renault are leaving Russia for good.
U.S. allies delivered 10 airlifts of military aid for Ukraine into the region in the past 24 hours: senior U.S. defense official The weapons are coming from 7 different nations.
A senior US defence official has given an assessment of the situation, saying Ukrainian forces have pushed back Russian troops to within three to four kilometress (1.9-2.5 miles) of the Russian border, Reuters reported.
ISW: Russian forces making tactical mistakes in east. A failed attempt by Russian troops to set up a pontoon bridge across the Siversky Donets River on May 11 “showed a stunning lack of tactical sense” and allowed “Ukrainian artillerymen to kill hundreds and destroy scores of vehicles with concentrated strikes,” the Institute for the Study of War said. The report also added that rumors about a planned referendum to annex Kherson Oblast to Russia suggest “considerable confusion within the Russian leadership at various levels” about how to move forward and secure the occupied territories.
Life in Kharkiv is slowly returning to normal. Pictures of volunteers planting flowers in the center of town: welcomed signs of life after the horrific video footage we all saw of buildings in the the centre being destroyed by Russian missiles.
Stoltenberg: 'Ukraine can win this war.' NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on May 15 that Russia’s war in Ukraine is not going as the Kremlin had planned. “Russia failed to take Kyiv. They’re pulling back from around Kharkiv, their major offensive in Donbas has stalled. Russia is not achieving its strategic objectives,” Stoltenberg said.
The BBC: Lukashenko, speaking at a summit of the leaders of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) in Moscow, said "hellish sanctions" against his country and Russia could have been avoided if the group had spoken with a united voice and has urged all the members to stand united.
The Russian army is deliberately targeting Ukrainian literature, destroying all books in Ukrainian in cities that they occupy. “We have dozens of testimonies. Nazis behaved like this, and now them,” Ukrainian authorities say.
Putin is alive and kicking. Rumours abound saying that Putin has cancer. They started in a Telegram chat known to disseminate information, disinformation and misinformation. He’s fine and continues to threaten Europe.
Macron appoints Labor Minister Elisabeth Borne as his prime minister.
🏢 Politico EU: EU Foreign Ministers Meeting today
EU foreign ministers meet today in Brussels, with Russia set to top the agenda. It’s now been 12 days since EU Commission President von der Leyen announced the EU’s 6th package of sanctions at the EU Parliament but the Commission is locked in a standoff with Hungary, which continues to block the measure. Ukraine’s FM Kuleba will also be in attendance.
The bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell previewed Friday that the EU is set to sign off on another €500 million for the European Peace Facility, which will allow Ukraine to procure military equipment (this brings the total EU military funding for Kyiv to €2 billion). Political signoff by ministers is expected today, though the technical details will be signed off by PSC (Political and Security Committee) ambassadors.
🔥 In Russia, they tried to burn four military registration and enlistment offices in three days
Over the past three days, four military registration and enlistment offices in different regions of Russia have burned down. In total, at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, more than ten military commissariats were attacked by arsonists. In all cases, buildings were bombarded with Molotov cocktails.
⌛️ David Sacks, What Is China Learning From Russia’s War in Ukraine?
Beyond Europe, the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is being felt most keenly 5,000 miles away, on the island of Taiwan. Many Taiwanese worry that they might be the next to suffer an invasion by a more powerful neighbor. Those fears are not unreasonable. While Ukraine and Taiwan differ in many ways, as relatively young democracies living alongside larger authoritarian neighbors with long-standing designs on their territory, the two face strikingly similar strategic predicaments.
📃 Reuters- U.S.' Blinken says talked to Turkish FM, confident consensus on Sweden, Finland
U.S. Secretary of State Blinken said he had spoken to his Turkish counterpart on Ankara's concerns regarding Sweden and Finland's entry into NATO and that after Sunday's meeting of foreign ministers he was confident a consensus could be reached.
"I heard almost across the board, very strong support (for Sweden, Finland) joining the alliance."
⛑️ Azovstal…
Olga Tokariuk: A breathtaking photo from Azovstal by Orest, one of Ukrainian defenders there. It was his powerful photos of wounded soldiers at the steelworks that made the rounds few weeks ago. Orest also is the person filmed singing 'Stefania' Ukraine's Eurovision winning song, at Azovstal.
It's heartbreaking that thanks to internet connection (Starlink) we can feel that Azovstal defenders are so close, get their news and images, yet we are unable to save them. I hope and trust that a solution with the involvement of third country can still be found.
⚠️ Russian abductions…
⚖️ The first war crimes case in Ukraine…
⚠️ Sarah Rainsford, The children's camp that became an execution ground
It is easy to miss the killing spot at first in the gloom. But in a cold, damp basement on the edge of the woods that made Bucha a popular get-away spot before the war, five Ukrainian men were forced to their knees and shot in the head.
👊 Support for Ukraine in London on Sunday…
📺 WTF news…
Livia and I are joined by Andrei Soldatov on our LiberiOltre YT show on Tuesday night 9:30pm CET.
We’ll be talking to Andrei about the latest news about what is going on in the Kremlin and its relationship with the military and intelligence services.
Along with his partner Irina Borogan, Andrei opened Argentura.ru dedicated to information about Russian intelligence services and has co-authored many books, including The Red Web (2015) and The New Nobility (2010).
We’re signing off…thanks for reading…
Scott & Mo