May 17, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

AerCap Holdings, the aircraft leasing giant that is the world’s largest owner of jets, lost 113 planes when Russia seized them in response to sanctions triggered by the war in Ukraine.

The seizures of the planes and 11 jet engines by Russian authorities caused AerCap to take a $2.7 billion pre-tax charge during the quarter, causing the company to report a net loss of $2 billion, rather than the $500 million profit it would have made without the hit.

The company was able to recover 22 jets and three engines before they were seized by Russian authorities.

It has filed insurance claims to seek to recover the lost aircraft, although some of those claims are with Russian insurance companies. Those policies are backed by Western re-insurance companies, but AerCap stated that “the timing and amount of any recoveries under these policies are uncertain.”

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The tail of an Airbus A321-211 aircraft of Russian airline Aeroflot with registration VP-BOE is seen over the wall of the long term parking for planes of Geneva Airport on March 25, 2022. Due to sanctions imposed on Russia over the country's invasion of Ukraine, Russian carrier Aeroflot was banned from the airspace of whole Switzerland.

Related article World's largest aircraft owner lost 113 planes to Russia due to sanctions

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gave a virtual address on Tuesday at the opening ceremony of the 75th Cannes Film Festival, speaking about the connection of film to reality and the role of cinema during Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship.

Referencing Charlie Chaplin’s 1940s movie “The Great Dictator,” Zelensky said, “it didn’t destroy at the time the real dictator but thanks to cinema and thanks to this film, the cinema ceased to be silent, in every way. Cinema was speaking and it was the voice of the future victory of freedom.”

He said, “once again, just like in the past, there is a dictator today” and “once again, there is war for freedom,” and “once again, just like in the past, cinema should not be silent.”

The President’s address was his latest on a virtual diplomatic world tour to keep global attention on Ukraine’s plight during the invasion. 

In April, Zelensky made an appearance at the 64th annual Grammy Awards offering a speech that began, “The war. What’s more opposite than music.”

The evacuation mission at the Azovstol steel plant in Mariupol continues, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Tuesday.

“Negotiation process with Russia continues on evacuation of our heroes from Azovstal. Evacuation mission continues. It’s overseeing by our military and intelligence officers. The most powerful international mediators are involved,” Zelensky said. 

Ukraine’s military said late Monday that its forces had completed their “combat mission” at the sprawling steel plant, which was for weeks the last major holdout in a city otherwise occupied by Russian troops.

European leaders: The Ukrainian President also said he spoke with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday about “Ukraine’s defense support and our cooperation at the EU level.”

“I informed him about the current situation on the battlefield and the possible development of this situation. I had a substantive and lengthy conversation with French President Macron. We discussed the sixth package of sanctions being prepared in the EU, the negotiation process with Russia, and our heroes’ evacuation from Azovstal,” he said.

The battle for Mariupol’s massive Azovstal steel plant appears to be nearing an end, after hundreds of the remaining Ukrainian soldiers holding out in the facility were evacuated.

The operation to evacuate Ukrainian defenders from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol was the only possible way for their rescue, said Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Malyar during a briefing at the Media Center Ukraine on Tuesday. 

“Unfortunately, military unblocking is impossible in this situation. There could be no other way to rescue them than the way it is happening now. It was the only way out,” Malyar said, adding that “the defenders of Mariupol” have fully fulfilled their combat mission.

Due to the defense of Mariupol, Russian forces were not able to transfer about 20,000 personnel to other regions of Ukraine, and thus failed to capture Zaporizhzhia, according to Malyar.

Here are more of the latest headlines from the Russia-Ukraine war:

The Biden administration is working closely with European allies to try to develop routes to get Ukrainian wheat and corn out of the country after Russia blocked Ukrainian ships from departing with grain that is vital for food supplies around the world, particularly in Africa and the Middle East.

There is no silver bullet to solve the complicated challenge and officials are considering a wide array of options to get the food exports safely out by rail, sea and air, two US diplomats and four European diplomats told CNN. Possible scenarios are being studied and devised whether Russia consents or not. 

The challenge will be a major focus for US Secretary of State Tony Blinken when he convenes a ministerial meeting on food security and chairs a discussion on the matter at the United Nations in New York on Wednesday and Thursday, the diplomats said.  

“This is far from a done deal, there are so many moving pieces, so many things could go wrong with these discussions,” another official familiar with the discussions said. 

Amid concerns about a global food shortage, urgency around the effort is growing as prices for wheat, grain, corn, soybeans and vegetable oil have soared in recent weeks due to Russia’s invasion. However, there is no simple solution available with major obstacles to all modes of transport as the war shows no sign of letting up.

Time is of the essence: Ukraine is set to run out of storage facilities for agricultural products in the next two months, explained an official from the World Food Program. If there is no movement in the coming months Ukrainian farmers will have no place to store next seasons’ crop and they will be not paid enough to sustain their businesses.

Before the war, wheat supplies from Russia and Ukraine accounted for almost 30% of global trade, and Ukraine is the world’s fourth largest exporter of corn and the fifth largest exporter of wheat, according to the US State Department. The United Nations World Food Program — which helps combat global food insecurity — buys about half of its wheat from Ukraine each year and has warned of dire consequences if the Ukrainian ports are not opened up. 

Read more about this here.

The US State Department on Tuesday announced the launch of a new program “to capture, analyze, and make widely available evidence of Russia-perpetrated war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine.”

The program, called the Conflict Observatory, “encompasses the documentation, verification, and dissemination of open-source evidence regarding the actions of Russia’s forces during President Putin’s brutal war of choice,” according to a media note from the State Department.

“The Conflict Observatory will analyze and preserve publicly and commercially available information, including satellite imagery and information shared via social media, consistent with international legal standards, for use in ongoing and future accountability mechanisms,” the note said. “This includes maintaining rigorous chain-of-custody procedures for future civil and criminal legal processes under appropriate jurisdictions.”

The information will be shared publicly via an online platform, the statement added.

The State Department said the program is a collaboration with “Esri, a leading geographic information systems company, Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab, the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative, and PlanetScape Ai,” and the “the U.S. government has also contributed commercial satellite imagery to these efforts.”

The State Department said it expects international partner organizations to join the program. Reports will be available at ConflictObservatory.org website.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will meet the ambassadors of Finland and Sweden on Wednesday, according to a statement from NATO. 

The meeting comes after both countries declared their intentions to apply for membership to NATO earlier this week.

Finland and Sweden will hand in their NATO application Wednesday, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said during a joint news conference earlier today with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö in Stockholm.

The leaders are then scheduled to meet with US President Joe Biden on Thursday.

A CNN team on Tuesday traveled to the eastern Ukrainian town of Bilohorivka, where Russia is believed to have suffered one of the biggest single defeats of the war. There, the charred remains of Russian armored vehicles littered a field just a few hundred meters from the front line.

The Ukrainian military says that last week it destroyed “at least 73 units of equipment,” including T-72 tanks and a variety of infantry fighting vehicles, when a Russian brigade attempted to cross the Siverskyi Donets River.

The high ground above the river was littered with destroyed Russian tanks separated from their turrets, armored personnel carriers, heavy machine guns with barrels twisted into spirals – and the charred body parts of Russian soldiers.

“They had three places to cross,” explained a senior officer, and asked for his name not to be used for security reasons. “They tried the first one, they failed, they were smashed there. On the second one they tried, they got smashed.”

“Well, and on that last one you saw, where they lost the most equipment. There, they tried four times. First time they did not succeed, they were crushed, artillery. Second time the same thing. Each time they increased their efforts, not understanding that we are observing everything. And for every action they take, we have a counter-action,” the officer explained.

He said that the Ukrainians used artillery fire to destroy the Russian pontoon bridge, and used ground forces to push back the armored column.

“They had no time to cross, no time to drop the boats,” he explained. “They all broke through with artillery and gunfire and we watched from the drones as they fell into the water and sank.”

The officer said he believes that Russia has fallen for its own propaganda and is a victim of “outdated” military tactics.

“I remember when I was a cadet they used to say that an American soldier couldn’t even brush his teeth before we killed them all. You see it’s all just propaganda. They are not like that. They have some new things, but for the most part everything is outdated. The tactics are also outdated. And technologically, they are very far behind NATO and American weapons,” he told CNN.

Mykola Kulichenko struggles to recount a tale he shouldn’t be alive to tell. But this Ukrainian man believes he was allowed to cheat death so he might speak for all those who cannot.

By the side of a remote road in the northern Chernihiv region of Ukraine, Mykola shows the unmarked grave in which he and his two brothers were buried three-and-a-half weeks after the war began, in land seized by Russian forces. All three had been shot; he was the only one to survive.

“It’s like being resurrected,” Mykola, 33, told CNN.

Until March 18, life for the Kulichenko family had changed little despite the Russians occupying their village of Dovzhyk since the start of the war. Then, when a Russian column was bombed, Russian soldiers fanned out looking for those responsible. They arrived at the wood-plank house where Mykola lived with his two brothers, Yevhen and Dmytro along with their sister, Iryna – who still hasn’t forgiven herself for not being home that day.

Three soldiers told the brothers to kneel in the front yard while they searched the home looking for anything that would link them to the bombed convoy, Mykola said. According to Mykola, once they found the military medals their grandfather owned and a military bag belonging to 30-year-old Yevhen, who had been a paratrooper, the soldiers were convinced they had something to hide.

Mykola, Yevhen and Dmytro were driven to a basement where they were interrogated for three days, he said. Mykola kept hoping the Russians would release them, but on the fourth day, he said, their mood changed.

Along with his brothers, Mykola was tortured until he lost consciousness. He says they were blindfolded, had their hands and legs bound with tape and were driven in a military vehicle by five Russian soldiers to a desolate plot of land. They were made to kneel, blindfolded, while a pit was dug, Mykola said.

First, he said, he heard a shot behind him, and 36-year-old Dmytro, the eldest of the three, fell to the ground. Next, he felt Yevhen, the youngest, drop by his side.

“I was thinking that I was next,” he said. But the bullet entered Mykola’s cheek and exited next to his right ear. He knew his only hope of survival was to play dead.

The soldiers kicked the brothers’ bodies into the pit, covered them with earth and left, according to Mykola. He can’t say how long he lay buried alive, only that with his hands and legs still bound he somehow managed to maneuver his way out from under his older brother’s corpse and back to the land of the living.

“It was hard for me to breathe, since Dima (Dmytro) was lying on top of me, but using my arms and knees, I was able to push my older brother off to the side of the pit, and then I climbed out,” he said.

In the dark, he staggered through fields to the nearest house, where a woman took him in and cared for him overnight before he was able to get back to his sister, who’d been anxiously waiting for days at their father’s home.

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Ukraine brother survives shooting

Related article He says he was tortured by Russian soldiers, shot in the face and buried alive. This is one Ukrainian man's tale of survival

French President Emmanuel Macron promised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky additional weapons in the days to come in a phone call between the two leaders, according to an Elysée Palace statement. 

Macron confirmed that arms deliveries by France will “continue and increase in intensity in the days and weeks to come, as will the delivery of humanitarian aid,” said the statement.

Macron also said that Ukraine’s application for membership of the European Union would be “examined” during a European Council session in June. The bloc’s consideration will be based on the “opinion that the European Commission would have given, and in the spirit expressed at the Versailles summit by all the member states who declared that Ukraine was part of the European family.”

The leaders also discussed the evacuations of the Azovstal plant as well as “the challenge of food security and possible ways to allow exports of Ukrainian grains, which a large part of the world depends on for its food.”

The telephone conversation between the two presidents lasted for an hour and 10 minutes, according to the Palace, and was “long and substantial.”

In an indication that Russian forces may be extending the range of their attacks, Ukrainian officials say the town of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region was hit by a missile Tuesday.

The missile strike destroyed a five-story building in the town, according to Donetsk regional police. One person had been killed and a 9-year-old child was seriously injured.

“The exact number of victims is being clarified,” police said.

Bakhmut is an important hub for the Ukrainian military and its hospital treats wounded soldiers. It is roughly 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the front lines around Popasna.

“The Russians do not stop the mass shelling along the entire front line from Vuhledar to Bakhmut,” said Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk region military administration.

Strikes on Tuesday morning had damaged a school in Bakhmut and several infrastructure facilities, he added.

Kyrylenko said there had been intense fire in several places along the front lines, including Toretsk and Ocheretyn.

Finland and Sweden will hand in their NATO application Wednesday, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said during a joint press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö in Stockholm.

“Democracy has won,” Niinistö said.

“This whole spring has been a triumph for democracy in Finland” he said, referring to the overwhelming support Finland’s NATO application received in parliament today, and the support among the Finnish people.

“Sweden also looks forward to cooperating together with Turkey within NATO,”  Andersson said.

Her comment addressed Turkish president’s prior statement on Monday that he would not approve Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership over sanctions on Turkey and further accused both countries of housing Kurdish “terrorist organizations.”

“We are looking forward to having a bilateral dialogue with Turkey, and we will of course also have bilateral dialogues with other NATO members during this process. And once we are in NATO, I see an opportunity to evolve our bilateral relationship even further,” Andersson said during the joint news conference.

Finland’s Niinistö said that he also remains “optimistic” on forthcoming discussions with Turkey and that with dialogue the “problem will be solved.”

The Finnish president reacted to Erdogan’s hostility, saying that it was “very surprising,” and that at the beginning of April his support was “very clear.”

“He looked favorable on the Finnish membership application process. Now there are different views,” Niinistö said. 

“We have to discuss further. Our people stand ready to do almost anything to discuss with Turkish officials. We have both requested phone calls with Erdogan, and I remain optimistic,” he continued.

Niinistö also mentioned his upcoming trip alongside the Swedish prime minister to visit US President Joe Biden on Thursday.

“We are on our way to Washington, and there we will have a joint discussion with Biden, and surely many other discussions in the Senate and Congress,” Niinistö said.

US President Joe Biden on Thursday will welcome the prime minister of Sweden and the president of Finland to the White House in a key show of support days after both countries announced they would seek to join NATO.

The leaders are expected to discuss Finland and Sweden’s NATO applications, European security and support for Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

Both countries are looking to join the military alliance after Russia’s assault on Ukraine sparked renewed security concerns across the region. Their historic bids to join NATO represent a dramatic evolution in European security and geopolitics.

Finland and Sweden will hand in their NATO application Wednesday, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said during a joint news conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö in Stockholm.

The US and other NATO leaders have expressed support for Finland and Sweden joining the military alliance. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the US would “strongly support” their NATO applications.

Both Finland and Sweden already meet many of the requirements to be a NATO member, which include having a functioning democratic political system based on a market economy; treating minority populations fairly; committing to resolve conflicts peacefully; the ability and willingness to make a military contribution to NATO operations; and committing to democratic civil-military relations and institutions.

But the move has been met with resistance by Russia and Turkey. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Finland and Sweden’s entry into NATO would not create a threat to Russia, but the “expansion of military infrastructure into this territory will certainly cause our response.”

The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday that Russia “will be forced to take retaliatory steps, both of a military-technical and other nature, in order to stop the threats to its national security arising in this regard.”

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said this week that he would not approve Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership if they sanction Turkey and that delegations from the nations should not bother coming to Turkey to try to convince that nation to approve their country’s NATO membership.

The “largest ever single field deployment” of an International Criminal Court forensics and investigative team has been sent to Ukraine, ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan said in a statement Tuesday.

“I can confirm that today my Office has deployed a team of 42 investigators, forensic experts and support personnel to Ukraine to advance our investigations into crimes falling into the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court … and provide support to Ukrainian national authorities. This represents the largest ever single field deployment by my Office since its establishment,” Khan said.

A “significant number” of Dutch national experts will support this mission, Khan said, adding that “this collaboration will significantly enhance the impact of our forensic and investigative actions on the ground.”

Khan said the team will be able to “collect more testimonial accounts, support the identification of relevant forensic and digital materials and ensure that information and evidence is collected in a manner that strengthens its admissibility in future proceedings before the ICC.”

“The team deployed by my Office today will also engage with a team of French forensic experts on the ground in Ukraine in order to ensure continuity and continuation of their work with respect to the identification of remains, ballistics analysis and the storage and preservation of forensic evidence,” he said. “We will also be engaging with teams deployed by other States in Ukraine in order to comprehensively map existing activities and strengthen coordination across all actors. It is my intention to ensure that this collaborative work is then continued through the consistent presence of my Office on the ground.”

The ICC formally opened an investigation into the situation in Ukraine on March 2.

Khan said that “now more than ever we need to show the law in action,” adding “it is essential that we demonstrate to survivors and the families of victims that international law is relevant to their experience, that the ideals of the Rome Statute can be applied meaningfully in order to bring them some measure of solace through the process of justice.”

In April, Khan visited the Ukrainian towns of Bucha and Borodianka, where mass graves and murdered civilians were discovered after Russian troops withdrew from the area around Kyiv. He called the whole country a “crime scene.”

In rare public criticism of the conduct of Russia’s military operations in Ukraine, a former senior Russian officer has warned on state television that the situation will get worse.

“Let’s not drink ‘information tranquilizers,’ because sometimes information is spread about some moral or psychological breakdown of Ukraine’s armed forces, as if they are nearing a crisis of morale or a fracture,” retired Col. Mikhail Khodarenok said on Monday’s edition of Rossiya One’s 60 Minutes show. “None of this is close to reality.”

Despite pushback from the show’s presenter, Khodarenok said that Ukraine could arm one million people. 

“Considering that European aid will come into full effect and one million armed Ukrainian soldiers can join the fight, we need to see this reality of the near future, and we need to consider that in our operational and strategic calculations. The situation for us will frankly get worse,” he said.

Khodarenok, a regular commentator in Russian media, also commented on Russia’s broader isolation.

“Let’s look at this situation as a whole from our overall strategic position,” he said. “Let’s not swing missiles in Finland’s direction – this just looks ridiculous. The biggest problem with our military and political situation is that we are in total geopolitical isolation. And the whole world is against us — even if we don’t want to admit it.”

Khodarenok warned before the invasion started that it would be more difficult than many anticipated to wage war in Ukraine.

In an article in February, he said, “the degree of hatred (which, as you know, is the most effective fuel for armed struggle) in the neighboring republic towards Moscow is frankly underestimated. No one will meet the Russian army with bread, salt and flowers in Ukraine.”

Expert claims that Russian forces will defeat Ukraine in a short period of time “have no serious grounds,” he had said.

Another column of buses has left the besieged Azovstal steel plant, according to Russian state media.

The buses “allegedly with surrendered militants from the Azovstal plant, accompanied by armored vehicles, moved to the exit from Mariupol,” RIA Novosti reported, adding that no shots were fired at the Azovstal plant for several hours before the column of buses left.

On Tuesday, the spokesperson of the Russian Defense Ministry, Major Gen. Igor Konashenkov, said that 265 militants, including 51 seriously injured, surrendered at the Azovstal and had been evacuated on Monday night.

All those in need of medical care were sent for treatment to the Novoazovsk hospital in the Donetsk People’s Republic, he said.

There’s been no word from the Ukrainian side on another convoy leaving Tuesday. 

Russian authorities denied the US Embassy in Moscow permission to visit detained American and WNBA star Brittney Griner for the third time in a month, US Ambassador John Sullivan said in a tweet posted by the embassy.

“This is unacceptable. We call on @mfa_russia to provide timely consular access, in line with Russia’s intl & bilateral obligations,” Sullivan said.

The WNBA player’s pretrial detention has been extended until June. She is considered wrongfully detained by the State Department. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to Griner’s wife on Saturday. According to a senior State Department official, the top US diplomat told Cherelle Griner that her wife’s release is a top priority for the department and has his full attention.

Blinken said the State Department is working on the case day and night, and said that Cherelle Griner should not hesitate to reach out if there’s anything she is not getting.

The two-time Olympic gold medalist, who has for years played for a Russian basketball team during the WNBA off-season, was arrested in February. Russian authorities said she had cannabis oil in her luggage and accused her of smuggling significant amounts of a narcotic substance — an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison. 

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba discussed arms supplies, new sanctions against Russia and granting Ukraine European Union candidate status during a meeting with his Dutch counterpart Wopke Hoekstra in The Hague on Tuesday, he tweeted.

“Met with my colleague and friend Wopke Hoekstra at the beginning of my visit to The Hague. Commended him and the Dutch government for their efforts to defend peace in Ukraine and Europe. We focused on further arms supplies, new sanctions on Russia, and Ukraine’s EU candidate status,” Kuleba said.

Some European countries cannot give up on Russian oil, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.

“European countries continue to introduce new sanctions on oil and gas markets. All of this is leading to inflation, but instead of admitting their own mistakes, they’re looking for someone to blame,” Putin said during a meeting on oil industry.

“The Europeans recognize that they cannot completely give up on Russian energy resources and it is also obvious that certain EU countries where the share of Russian hydrocarbons is particularly high, for a long time will not be able to give up our energy,” he said, adding that the decisions adopted by the European Union “and the declarations about a full renunciation of Russian energy sources have already caused a rise in prices for oil.”

The operation to evacuate Ukrainian defenders from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol was the only possible way for their rescue, said Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Malyar during a briefing at the Media Center Ukraine on Tuesday. 

“Unfortunately, military unblocking is impossible in this situation. There could be no other way to rescue them than the way it is happening now. It was the only way out,” Malyar said, adding that “the defenders of Mariupol” have fully fulfilled their combat mission.

Due to the defense of Mariupol, Russian forces were not able to transfer about 20,000 personnel to other regions of Ukraine, and thus failed to capture Zaporizhzhia, according to Malyar.

The Finnish parliament has voted in favor of applying for NATO membership. 

“Parliament supports Finland’s application for NATO membership. Parliament adopted the position in accordance with the Foreign Affairs Committee report after a vote 188-8 in favour,” the official Twitter account of the parliament tweeted.

Ukraine expects to carry out an exchange of Russian prisoners of war for the severely injured soldiers evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol late on Monday, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister has said.

“In the interests of saving lives, 52 of our severely wounded servicemen were evacuated yesterday. After their condition stabilizes, we will exchange them for Russian prisoners of war,” Iryna Vereshchuk said Tuesday.

“We are working on the next stages of the humanitarian operation,” Vereshchuk added.

Hundreds of people were evacuated on Monday from the steel plant, the last holdout in a city that had become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance under relentless Russian bombardment.

What Russia is saying: Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that fighters who left the besieged Azovstal plant will be treated in accordance with international laws.

“President [Vladimir Putin] … ordered Minister of Defense to refrain from storming Azovstal for humanitarian reasons and announced that both civilians and the military could leave, the military after laying down their arms,” Peskov said on a regular conference call.

Peskov added that Putin also “guaranteed that they would be treated in accordance with the international laws.”

In a statement on Tuesday, the Russian Investigative Committee said investigators will interrogate what they describe as “the surrendered militants” who were evacuated from the Azovstal plant.

“Investigators of the Russian Investigative Committee, as part of the investigation of criminal cases on the crimes of the Ukrainian regime against the civilian population of Donbass, will interrogate the surrendered militants who were hiding at the Azovstal plant in Mariupol,” the committee’s brief statement said.

Nearly 600 Ukrainian soldiers at the Azovstal plant laid down their weapons on Monday and Tuesday, and most have been taken on buses to the town of Orlivka in the Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic.

CNN’s Anna Chernova and Uliana Pavlova contributed reporting to this post.

Finland’s Ambassador to Russia Antti Helanterya was summoned to the Russian foreign ministry in Moscow on Tuesday and notified of Russia’s decision to expel two Finnish embassy employees as part of a diplomatic response, the ministry said in a statement. 

“The ambassador was presented with a statement of resolute protest in connection with the groundless expulsion from Finland of two employees of the Russian Embassy in Helsinki as part of the EU anti-Russian sanctions campaign, as well as Finland’s confrontational course towards Russia, including the supply of weapons to the Kyiv regime and covering up the crimes of Ukrainian nationalists against the civilian population of Donbass and Ukraine,” according to a statement from the ministry. 

“The Ambassador was informed that, as a reaction to these actions of the Finnish authorities, the Russian side made a decision on the unacceptability of the further stay in the Russian Federation of two employees of the staff of the Embassy of Finland in Moscow,” the ministry said. 

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto has said he is “sure” a dispute with Turkey over Finland’s and Sweden’s potential NATO membership will be resolved.

“In recent days, Turkey’s statements have changed and hardened very quickly. I am sure, however, that we will solve the situation through constructive discussions,” Niinisto said in an address to the Swedish parliament in Stockholm Tuesday.

NATO member Turkey has presented itself as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that he would not approve Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership over sanctions on Turkey and further accused both countries of housing Kurdish “terrorist organizations.” 

Asked by a Swedish parliamentarian about his views on the matter, Niinisto called the recent dispute “surprising.” He recounted that, in a call with Erdogan a month ago, the Turkish President said he had “favorable” views on Finnish NATO membership.

“Now (the problems) have crept up, and that means that we must continue our discussions. I’m optimistic,” Niinisto said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that NATO has “taken into account the territories of Finland and Sweden in its military plans for eastward expansion” for years, and therefore the two countries’ accession to the alliance “makes no difference.”

“Finland, Sweden and other neutral countries have for years participated in NATO’s military exercises. NATO has taken their territories into account in planning its eastward movement,” Lavrov said on Tuesday, state news agency TASS reported. 

“In this context it apparently makes no difference any more (in connection with their admission to NATO),” Lavrov added.

Speaking at an educational conference organized by the Russian Znanie (Knowledge) society in Moscow, Lavrov said Russia doesn’t see why Finland and Sweden should be worried about their security.

“For this reason we see their decision, which Washington and NATO surely lobbied for, as a geopolitical move in the context of Russia’s containment and the implementation of NATO’s plans to spread its activities to the Arctic region,” he said.

“Incidentally, the Finnish President and the Finnish ambassadors everywhere have been saying that they see no threats from Russia. Admission to NATO stems from the changes in the security situation in Europe. But there is no logic here,” he added.

Russia will observe how NATO uses the territories of Finland and Sweden and “make its conclusions,” Lavrov said.

Finland’s government said on Sunday that it intends to join NATO, and on Tuesday Sweden’s foreign minister signed an application declaring the country wants to join the military alliance.

EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell reiterated on Tuesday that the European Council “strongly supports” the application of both countries to join NATO. 

Negotiations with Russia on resolving the conflict have been suspended, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

It was because “Russia is still in its stereotypical mindset,” he said on Ukrainian television Tuesday, adding that Russia doesn’t realize that the war “is no longer going on according to the rules, their plans, and schedule.”

Since the two delegations met in Istanbul, “there’s no significant changes, no progress,” he said. “The resistance of Ukraine, the professional resistance just grows, that’s why there’s no way Russia achieves its goals.”

Podolyak also rejected any territorial concessions.

“The war will not end if we give some of our territories there. This is not acceptable for Ukraine, and it will not be accepted by Ukrainian society. Minsk-2 could be signed by another president. President Zelensky will not sign it. Because any Minsk-2 is a postponement of the war, even more destructive, for example, in a year or two,” he said.

Minsk-2 would have accorded significant autonomy to the territory in the east that has been under the control of Russian-backed separatists since 2014.

Meanwhile, Russian state news agency reported Tuesday that Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko confirmed negotiations are not happening, but he reportedly said it’s because Kyiv withdrew from the process.

Kyiv did not provide a response to the draft treaty proposed by Russia, Rudenko added.

The decision of the foreign ministers of the EU member states to allocate another 500 million euros ($527 million) to Ukraine from the European Peace Fund for weapon purchases is prolonging the conflict, according to Rudenko.

Finnish gas company Gasum says it will not pay for Russian gas in rubles or use Gazprom’s proposed payment scheme for gas.

In a statement, the company said negotiations over a long-term gas contract with Gazprom were now in dispute, and it would now take Gazprom to arbitration.

Gasum said it had been in contract discussions with Gazprom since last year, but in April Gazprom sent a letter saying it required payments in rubles.

Gasum said it “does not accept Gazprom Export’s requirement to switch to ruble payments and will consequently not make payments in rubles or under Gazprom Export’s proposed payment arrangement.

“Overall, this is something that Gasum cannot accept and has decided to take the disputes regarding the supply contract to arbitration based on arbitration in the contract.

“The matter will be considered in arbitration.”

Gasum warned that would lead to an increased risk of its natural gas supplies from Russia being halted. The company said it has been preparing for this situation with its customers and the government.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in March that “unfriendly” nations would have to pay rubles, rather than the euros or dollars stated in contracts.

Buyers could make euro or dollar payments into an account at Russia’s Gazprombank, which would then convert the funds into rubles and transfer them to a second account from which the payment to Russia would be made.

Gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria were cut off after they refused to pay in rubles and other big European gas companies have told CNN they are working on ways to pay for Russian gas, while not breaking EU sanctions.

Russian forces have continued to shell border areas after a night of missile attacks and cross-border clashes in the Sumy region, according to the Ukrainian military.

The armed forces Operational Command (North) said there had been more than 80 impacts in border areas on Tuesday morning. 

Almost all the shelling was aimed at the border village of Boyaro-Lezhachi, which was previously shelled last week, and at the end of April.

It is unclear why the Russians are targeting border villages with such intense fire. Some of the villages have already been evacuated and there are no obvious infrastructure targets in the areas that have been shelled.

Some background: This comes a day after Ukraine’s State Border Service said Russian troops opened fire across the frontier in the Sumy region, adding that “border guards fought enemy saboteurs” who tried to enter Ukrainian territory from the village of Lokot.

The State Border Service claimed the Russians had “fired mortars, grenade launchers, machine guns and automatic rifles. Border guards fought the saboteurs and forced them to retreat beyond the state border.”

Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine lies 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the border with Russia, and Sumy was one of the first cities to be attacked in the Russian invasion.

Analysts say the Russian attacks on Sumy and also across the international border into the Chernihiv region are likely intended to tie down Ukrainian units that might otherwise be deployed to the main front lines in Donbas.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a tweet Tuesday that he and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have discussed the situation at the military front.

The two leaders also spoke about strengthening sanctions and pressure on Russia, as well as the prospect of peace, he added.

Zelensky said in a post published to his verified Twitter account that he and Scholz had “productive talks.”

“We look forward to Germany’s further assistance on Ukraine’s path to full EU membership,” he added.

Some background: The meeting between Zelensky and Scholz follows earlier tensions between Kyiv and Berlin. In recent months, the German government and Scholz came under pressure from Ukraine and politicians at home for not doing enough to help Ukraine defend itself against the Russian invasion.

But at the end of April, Germany agreed to deliver Gepard anti-aircraft tanks to Ukraine, and later said it will supply Kyiv with seven self-propelled howitzers.

Last week, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Germany had now moved in “the right direction.”

Kuleba said last Thursday that the decision about Ukraine’s membership of the European Union, due to be taken at the European summit at the end of June, will largely define the future of Europe.

”The EU needs Ukraine as much as Ukraine needs the EU,” Kuleba said. 

The battle for the massive Azovstal steel plant in the besieged city of Mariupol appears to be nearing an end, after hundreds of the remaining Ukrainian soldiers were evacuated overnight.

Here’s the latest:

The Ukrainian winners of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 have said they will tour Europe to raise funds for the needs of the army and charitable foundations of Ukraine.

The band Kalush Orchestra won Saturday’s contest, surfing a wave of goodwill from European nations to clinch the country’s third Eurovision win.

Frontman Oleg Psyuk said during a press conference at the Lviv Media Center Ukraine on Tuesday: “We are going to tour Europe to raise funds for Ukraine and the Armed Forces. We will soon announce on our Instagram page the city where we will perform.”

According to Psyuk, the band members plan to popularize Ukrainian language in music and want to promote the country’s culture.

He added that the band is going to put the statuette of the Eurovision winner up for auction, and donate the proceeds to support the army.

Finland “must apply for membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to strengthen its security,” the country’s parliamentary foreign affairs committee has said.

The committee’s recommendation marks the completion of another legislative step required for Finland to formally seek NATO membership.

It added that a “failure to respond would lead to a narrowing of Finland’s foreign, security and defence policy.”

NATO presents the “strongest possible additional protection” for Finnish security, the committee said.

The committee’s stance signals their agreement with the Finnish government’s intention for Finland to join NATO.

Some background: Last week, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin announced their intentions to join NATO.

Marin formally presented that desire at a press conference on Sunday, ditching decades of neutrality and ignoring Russian threats of possible retaliation as the Nordic country attempts to strengthen its security amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Finland’s accession to NATO would bring the US-led military alliance up to Finland’s 830-mile border with Russia, but could take months to finalize as the legislatures of all 30 current NATO members must approve new applicants.

The Swedish government has also signaled that it wants to apply for NATO membership.

NATO has what it calls an “open door policy” on new members – any European country can request to join, so long as they meet certain criteria and all existing members agree.

The European Council “strongly supports” the application of Sweden and Finland to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the bloc’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell reiterated Tuesday.

“They will receive a strong support I’m sure from all member states because it increases our unity and it makes us stronger,” Borrell told reporters ahead of a European Council meeting on defense in Brussels, adding that he “hopes” NATO will be able overcome Turkey’s objections.

Turkey, which has presented itself as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine, has expressed reservations about integrating Sweden and Finland into the alliance.

Some background: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday that he would not approve Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership if they sanction Turkey. 

It follows comments by Erdogan last week that he was not looking “positively” at the prospect of the two Nordic countries joining NATO, accusing both Sweden and Finland of housing Kurdish “terrorist organizations.”

Russian missiles targeted western Ukraine overnight damaging railway infrastructure close to the border with Poland, according to the head of the Lviv regional military administration. 

Maksym Kozytskyi said the location hit was near the town of Yavoriv, which is also home to a large military base. He said there were no reports of casualties. 

Air defense systems shot down three missiles, he added. 

City mayor Andriy Sadovyi said that no sites in the city of Lviv itself had been struck. 

On Twitter, Sadovyi said there had been two missile salvos on the region overnight. Air defenses had worked well, Sadovyi said, adding that it was not clear if the city itself had been a target. 

A series of explosions were heard in central Lviv around 00:45 local time (5:45 p.m. ET), shortly after air raid sirens had sounded in the city. A member of CNN’s team in the city saw air defenses lighting up to the northwest – in the direction of Yavoriv about 25 miles away. 

Yavoriv has been struck at least three times since the start of the war. In the first attack, on the military base there, on March 13, more than 30 people were killed. 

Sites in Lviv have also been hit by Russian missiles strikes in recent weeks, including an aircraft parts plant, a fuel depot and several electrical substations. 

Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde on Tuesday morning signed an application declaring the country wants to join NATO.

The move marks a formal step by Stockholm toward joining the US-led military alliance — ending decades of military neutrality — as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparks a dramatic evolution in European security and geopolitics.

“It feels very big, very serious, and it feels like we have arrived at a conclusion which is the best for Sweden,” Linde said.
“We don’t know how long it will take, but we calculate that it could take up to a year.
“Now this week, this application will be submitted, together with Finland, in a day or so, and then it will be processed by NATO.” 

Some context: Sweden’s Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said Monday that the country should join NATO together with neighboring Finland to “ensure the safety of Swedish people.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the entry of the two Nordic countries into NATO will not create a threat to Russia, but military expansion into the territory will “certainly cause our response.”

Ukrainian soldiers are advancing to the north and northeast of Kharkiv, according to the head of the northeastern city’s regional military administration, as a weeks-long counter-attack gathers pace.

Oleh Syniehubov told Ukrainian television Tuesday that fighting was underway northeast of Ukraine’s second-largest city, toward the town of Vovchansk, along the Russia-Ukraine border.

The town has become a resupply route for Russian forces as they try to sustain their offensive into the Donetsk and Luhansk regions further south. Disrupting that supply line could compromise the Russians’ ability to reinforce their offensive towards Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

“Active hostilities are taking place in settlements north of the region,” Syniehubov said. “The enemy is focused on holding positions. Our troops have to repel (them on) every inch of our territory.”

Syniebuhov added that Ukrainian advances had helped reduce — but not eliminate — Russian artillery attacks on Kharkiv. There had been “relative silence for the last two weeks,” Syniebuhov said. “However, the enemy sometimes hits with artillery strikes.”

There were strikes in the Saltivka and Shevchenkivskyi districts close to Kharkiv on Monday, Syniebuhov added.

Syniebuhov said Russian shelling of other parts of the Kharkiv region continued.

Ukrainian authorities said Tuesday there had been heavy casualties in Russian missile strikes far from the front lines, but on the ground Russian efforts to advance were being repulsed.

In the Chernihiv region north of Kyiv, Vyacheslav Chaus, head of the military administration, said the Russians “fired missiles at the village of Desna this morning. There are dead and many wounded.”

It’s unclear what the target was. Chaus gave no further details. Desna is some 40 miles (about 64 kilometers) from the border with Belarus. 

Russian missile and artillery strikes have increased in several border areas recently as a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the northeast gathers momentum.

In the northeastern Sumy region, the General Staff of the Ukrainian military said Tuesday that Russia had fired artillery across the border.

Dmytro Zhyvytskyy, head of the Sumy region military administration, said Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups had tried to cross the border. “There was a very serious battle. Mortars, grenade launchers, small arms were used,” he said.

Russian officials also reported exchanges in the area. Roman Starovoit, governor of Russia’s Kursk region, said that at dawn Tuesday, large-caliber weapons were fired at a border village and several houses were damaged. He said there were no casualties and Ukrainian border guards had fired back.

Along the front lines in Luhansk and Donetsk, Ukraine reports continuing efforts by Russian forces to advance in several areas but all claims were repelled. The General Staff said in the heavily contested area around Severodonetsk, the Russians had attacked the town of Syrotne but “suffered losses during the fighting and withdrew its forces.”

But artillery fire and airstrikes continued.

The head of the Luhansk military administration, Serhii Hayday, said the Russians hit two hospital buildings and a production facility in Severodonetsk and there were also airstrikes in the Popasna area. Altogether, he said, 10 civilians were killed in the latest shelling.

The main hospital in Severodonetsk had been hit again, Hayday said, while airstrikes in villages further west had destroyed several homes. Video from the area shows large craters among heavily damaged houses. 

Russian casualties: Vadym Denysenko, an adviser at the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, told Ukrainian television Tuesday that “enemy losses are numerous.”

“The main events are now around Severodonetsk. The enemy is trying to make an operational encirclement,” he said.

He also said overnight missile strikes in the far west of Ukraine had struck a district near Lviv, but provided no further details.

After nearly three months under relentless attack from Russia, Ukrainian forces have completed their “combat mission” in the besieged city of Mariupol, according to a statement by the country’s military.

Here’s the latest:

A Ukrainian military base about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the border with Poland was targeted in a Russian missile attack early Tuesday morning, according to information from Maksym Kozytsky, the head of the Lviv regional military administration.

Kozytsky gave no further details in a late-night Telegram post, saying only that further information would be released in the morning.  

A series of explosions were heard in central Lviv around 12:45 a.m. local time (5:45 p.m. ET), shortly after air raid sirens had sounded in the city. A member of CNN’s team in the city saw air defenses lighting up to the northwest — in the direction of the Yavoriv military facility about 40 kilometers away.

In his first Telegram statement shortly after the all-clear sounded at 1:15 a.m. local time (6:15 p.m. ET), Kozytsky said only that air defense systems had responded to the attack. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi, in a post on his Facebook page, said he could not confirm any information about possible missile strikes in Lviv itself. 

Yavoriv has been targeted at least three times since the start of the war. In the first attack on March 13, more than 30 people were killed. 

Sites in Lviv have also been hit in Russian missiles strikes, including an aircraft parts plant, a fuel depot and several electrical substations.

Ukrainian forces have completed their “combat mission” in the besieged city of Mariupol, according to a statement by the country’s military.

Commanders of units stationed at the city’s massive Azovstal steelworks plant have been ordered “to save the lives of their personnel,” the statement by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine also said.

Hundreds of people were evacuated on Monday from the steel plant, the last holdout in a city that had become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance under relentless Russian bombardment.

Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar described the evacuation operation in a separate video statement, noting that some Ukrainian forces remain at Azovstal.

“Fifty-three seriously injured people were evacuated from Azovstal to a medical facility in Novoazovsk for medical care,” she said. “Another 211 people were taken to Olenivka through the humanitarian corridor.”

An “exchange procedure” will see the evacuees eventually brought home, Malyar also said.

“Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes alive,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday in a statement about the evacuation, thanking the Ukrainian military and negotiators, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations.
“The 82nd day of our defense is coming to an end. A difficult day. But this day, like all others, is aimed precisely at saving our country and our people,” Zelensky said.

The Russian Defense Ministry had earlier said that a ceasefire had been established to allow the passage of wounded Ukrainian servicemen, according to state news agency RIA Novosti.

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TOPSHOT - A view shows the Azovstal steel plant in the city of Mariupol on May 10, 2022, amid the ongoing Russian military action in Ukraine. (Photo by STRINGER / AFP) (Photo by STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article Ukraine declares 'combat mission' over in Mariupol amid evacuation

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that he would not approve Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership if they sanction Ankara. 

“First of all, we would not say ‘yes’ to those who impose sanctions on Turkey joining NATO, which is a security organization. Because then NATO would not remain a security organization anymore, it becomes a place where representatives of the terror concentrate,” Erdogan said. 

Speaking at a news conference in Ankara, Erdogan said Swedish and Finnish delegations should not bother coming to Turkey to try to convince Turkey to approve the country’s NATO membership. 

Turkey’s foreign minister held “some” meetings with Swedish and Finnish counterparts, Erdogan said, adding that none of the two countries had a clear stance against terror organizations.

“Even if they say ‘we are against them,’ on the contrary they have statements saying that they do not hand over the terrorists that they need to hand over to Turkey,” he said. 
He added that Sweden is a “nest” for terror organizations, saying it allows terrorists to speak in parliaments. 
“They have special invitations to terrorists. They even have pro PKK MPs in their parliaments. How are we going to trust them?”

Erdogan reiterated the same stance last week when he told a news conference in Istanbul that he was not looking at the prospect of Finland and Sweden joining NATO “positively,” accusing both countries of housing Kurdish “terrorist organizations.”

The PKK, or Kurdistan Worker’s Party, which seeks an independent state in Turkey, has been in an armed struggle with Turkey for decades and has been designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and European Union.