UKRAINE WRAP | US and France discuss how to support Finland and Sweden's bids to join NATO

May 22 2021 - 19:44

US and France discuss how to support Finland and Sweden's bids to join NATO

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and France's new foreign minister Catherine Colonna discussed the NATO alliance including how best to support Finland and Sweden's membership bids in a call on Sunday, the U.S. State Department said in a statement.

Blinken and Colonna also agreed on the importance of continuing support to Ukraine and maintaining "significant costs" on Russian President Vladimir Putin over the invasion of Ukraine, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in the statement.

Russia calls its military action in Ukraine a "special operation."

-Reuters

May 22 2021 - 18:22

Senegal president says he will visit Moscow and Kyiv in coming weeks

Senegalese President Macky Sall said he would visit Moscow and Kyiv in the coming weeks in his capacity as chairman of the African Union, which he said wanted to see de-escalation in Ukraine and peace through dialogue between the two sides.

Speaking at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Sall said: "We do not want to be aligned on this conflict, very clearly, we want peace. Even though we condemn the invasion, we're working for a de-escalation, we're working for a ceasefire, for dialogue ... that is the African position."

-Reuters

May 22 2021 - 17:10

Zelenskyy promises reciprocal rights for Poles in Ukraine

Polish citizens in Ukraine will be granted the same rights that Ukrainian refugees in Poland are currently receiving, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday during a visit to Kyiv by his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda.

Poland has granted the right to live and work and claim social security payments to over 3 million Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Earlier on Sunday, a Ukrainian ruling party lawmaker said that Zelenskyy had announced the imminent tabling of a parliamentary bill to give Polish citizens "special legal status" in Ukraine. 

-Reuters

May 22 2021 - 15:42

Russia-backed mayor of Ukraine nuclear plant town wounded by explosion - reports

The Russian-appointed head of the occupied Ukrainian town next to Europe's largest nuclear power plant was injured in an explosion on Sunday, a Ukrainian official and a Russian news agency said.

Andrei Shevchuk, who was appointed mayor of Enerhodar following the Russian army's occupation of the town, was in intensive care following the attack, Russia's RIA news agency reported, citing a source in the emergency services.

"We have accurate confirmation that during the explosion the self-proclaimed head of the 'people's administration' Shevchuk and his bodyguards were injured," Dmytro Orlov, who Ukraine recognises as mayor of the town said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

Enerhodar is a town with a pre-war population of over 50,000. Many residents work at the two power plants located next to the town, one of which is the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest nuclear power station in Europe. Ukraine has previously complained that Russia's occupation of the plant raises the risk of a nuclear disaster.

Reuters was not able to independently confirm the attack.

Ukraine last week said it had attacked an armoured train carrying Russian troops in the occupied southern Ukrainian city of Melitopol. 

-Reuters

May 22 2021 - 10:13

TIMELINE: Russia's invasion of Ukraine enters fourth month

Russia heads into the fourth month of its invasion of Ukraine on Tuesday with no end in sight to the fighting that has killed thousands, uprooted millions and reduced cities to rubble.

After abandoning its assault on the capital, Kyiv, Russia is pressing on in the east and south in the face of mounting sanctions and a fierce Ukrainian counter-offensive bolstered by Western arms.

May 22 2022 - 08:39

Russia says 963 Americans are banned from entering, adds 26 new Canadians

Russia said on Saturday it had so far banned 963 Americans from entering the country - including previously announced moves against President Joe Biden and other top officials - and would continue to retaliate against what it called hostile US actions.

The largely symbolic travel bans form part of a downward spiral in Russia's relations with the West since its February 24 invasion of Ukraine, which prompted Washington and its allies to impose drastic sanctions on Moscow and step up arms supplies to Ukraine.

Separately, the Foreign Ministry said it had added 26 new names to a list of Canadians it has barred from travelling to Russia, including defence chiefs, defence industry executives and Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, the wife of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

May 22 2022 - 08:37

Ukrainian director denounces Russian presence at Cannes

Ukrainian director Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk criticised the Cannes Film Festival for including a Russian director in its line-up, as the debut filmmaker's "Pamfir" was shown at Cannes' Directors Fortnight on Saturday.

The festival has banned official Russian delegations from attending, but Russian dissident Kirill Serebrennikov, who has spoken out against the invasion of Ukraine, premiered his in-competition film "Tchaikovsky's Wife" at the festival on Wednesday.

"When he's here, he is part of the Russian propaganda, and they can use him," Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk told Reuters on Saturday.

May 22 2022 - 06:44

Ukraine's Zelenskiy talked to Italian PM, urged more Russia sanctions

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he talked to Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Saturday and stressed the importance of more sanctions on Russia and unblocking Ukrainian ports.

Zelenskiy tweeted that he had also thanked Draghi for his "unconditional support" of Ukraine's bid to become a member of the European Union. Draghi had initiated the call, he said.

Reuters

May 22 2022 - 06:40

Ukraine ruled out a ceasefire or concessions to Moscow while Russia intensified an offensive in the eastern Donbas region and stopped providing gas to Finland, as Polish President Andrzej Duda prepared to address the Ukrainian parliament on Sunday.

After ending weeks of resistance by the last Ukrainian fighters in the strategic southeastern city of Mariupol, Russia is waging a major offensive in Luhansk, one of two provinces in Donbas.

Reuters

May 21 2022 - 08:30

Russia ramps up assault aiming to seize Ukrainian province for separatists

Russian troops bombarded a riverside city on Friday in what appeared to herald a major assault to seize the last remaining Ukrainian-held territory in a province it claims on behalf of separatists.

Ukrainian officials said Russian forces had launched massive artillery bombardment against Sievierodonetsk, one of the last Ukrainian-held bastions in Luhansk, one of two southeastern provinces Moscow and its proxies proclaim as independent states.

The city, and its twin Lyshchansk on the opposite bank of the Siverskiy Donets river, form the eastern part of a Ukrainian-held pocket that Russia has been trying to overrun since mid-April after failing to capture the capital Kyiv.