Chris Lange, FISM News
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Sweden’s governing party on Sunday said that it has approved a bid for NATO membership hours after Finland announced its intention to seek membership in the international military alliance.
Moscow warned that the West will experience “far-reaching consequences” with the Nordic expansion of NATO in an attempt to frame the move as a mistake that will only serve to ratchet up military tension – a threat the alliance seems willing to face. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the process for Finland and Sweden to join should move swiftly following a statement he made last week that the bloc will welcome the two nations “with open arms.”
There could be a snag in the plans, however. NATO membership require a unanimous consensus among the 30-nation alliance, and Turkey’s President Erdogan said on Friday that he is not necessarily “favorable” to admitting Finland and Sweden unless they meet certain conditions, including banning what he called “terrorist organizations” in their countries and ending export bans on Turkey.
On Saturday, an Erdogan adviser told Reuters, “We are not closing the door. But we are basically raising this issue as a matter of national security for Turkey.”
McConnell visits Kyiv
During a visit to Sweden on Sunday, Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Finland and Sweden would be “important additions” to NATO and that the U.S. should waste no time in ratifying their membership.
McConnell led a delegation of GOP senators in a surprise visit to Kyiv Saturday, meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Kentucky senator, alongside Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX), John Barrasso (R-WY), and Susan Collins (R-ME), called on President Biden to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.
McConnell also voiced support for the most recent $40 billion aid package that Biden has asked Congress to pass. The package has caused a schism in the GOP with several legislators, including Sen. Rand Paul, saying that the aid needs to be put on pause considering the current domestic needs that America is facing.
“Well, it’s no secret. Rand and I have a different world view of the importance of Americans’ role around the world,” the GOP leader commented according to the Washington Examiner. “So, that was not surprising. And it won’t create a problem. We’ll get the job done by Wednesday.”
Zelenskyy praised the U.S. for its bipartisan support in the meeting.
Russia lost two-thirds of its military power, UK Defense Ministry says
Meanwhile, Britain’s Defense Ministry said the Russian army has lost roughly a third of the military power it committed to Ukraine since its Feb. 24 invasion and has failed to gain any significant territory.
“Under the current conditions, Russia is unlikely to dramatically accelerate its rate of advance over the next 30 days,” the Ministry said, according to a BBC report.
During a meeting with top diplomats from the alliance in Berlin, Germany Sunday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the war “is not going as Moscow had planned.”
“Ukraine can win this war,” he asserted, adding that NATO members must continue providing military support to Kyiv.
Strikes continue on Mariupol steel plant
Meanwhile, Russian forces continued artillery and air strikes around the battered Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, where the city’s last defenders remain. A British military expert said it appears that incendiary or phosphorous weapons appear to have been used in the attacks, Reuters reported. Efforts have been underway to rescue the besieged soldiers trapped inside, many of whom have been seriously wounded. The men are said to be suffering from a dire lack of food, water, and medicine and are living in unsanitary conditions.
Turkey’s presidential spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said his country had offered to evacuate wounded Ukrainian soldiers and civilians by ship from Azovstal, according to Turkey’s state broadcaster TRT. Ukrainian officials have been urgently attempting to negotiate with Moscow for the safe evacuation of the wounded troops, but there has been no announcement as to the status of negotiations.
Ukrainian troops push Russian forces back in Kharkiv
On Sunday, Ukrainian forces defending the Kharkiv region in the northeast announced that they had forced Kremlin troops back to the Russian border in a morale-boosting victory.
Elsewhere, Moscow has been focusing its latest attacks on the Donetsk region in the east, where its forces have targeted civilian and military sites in multiple towns. A chemical plant and nearly a dozen high-rise buildings were hit in Siverodonetsk in the Donbas, regional Gov. Serhii Haidaii said. Russian missiles also destroyed “military infrastructure facilities” in the Yavoriv district of western Ukraine close to the Polish border.