Russia-Ukraine war: Ukraine claims battlefield successes in northeast region; Sweden joins Finland in seeking NATO berth

Ukraine counter-attacked Russian forces on the eastern front on Monday with fighting reported near its second-largest city of Kharkiv, after Western military agencies said Moscow's offensive in the Donbas region had stalled.

A Ukrainian serviceman patrols during a reconnaissance mission in a recently retaken village on the outskirts of Kharkiv, east Ukraine. (AP)

Ukraine counter-attacked Russian forces on the eastern front on Monday with fighting reported near its second-largest city of Kharkiv, after Western military agencies said Moscow’s offensive in the Donbas region had stalled. Ukrainian interior ministry adviser Vadym Denisenko said in televised comments that fighting near Kharkiv was “our counter-offensive”.

Ukraine claims battlefield successes in northeast as Russians fall back

Ukrainian troops counter-attacking against Russian forces in the country’s northeast have pushed them back from the city of Kharkiv and advanced as far as the border with Russia, Ukrainian officials said on Monday.

The developments, if confirmed, would signal a further shift in momentum in favour of Ukrainian forces nearly three months into a conflict that began when Russia sent tens of thousands of troops over the border into Ukraine on Feb 24.

Sweden ends neutrality, joins Finland in seeking NATO berth

Sweden’s prime minister announced Monday that Sweden will join Finland in seeking NATO membership in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The historic shift, which comes after more than 200 years of military nonalignment in the Nordic country, is likely to upset Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russia will not ‘simply put up with’ NATO’s Nordic expansion

Russia said on Monday that the West should have no illusions that Moscow will simply put up with the Nordic expansion of the US-led NATO military alliance to include Sweden and Finland, casting the move as a mistake that would stoke military tension.

Vladimir Putin, Russia’s paramount leader since the last day of 1999, has repeatedly cited the post-Soviet enlargement of the NATO alliance eastwards towards Russia’s borders as a reason for the invasion of Ukraine.

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➡️ Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday urged other members of a Russian-dominated military alliance to stand united, and accused the West of hoping to prolong the conflict in Ukraine to try to weaken Russia as much as possible.

➡️ McDonald’s Corp said on Monday it had initiated a process to sell its business in Russia after 30 years of operating its restaurants in the country, following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

➡️ Russia said on Sunday it had pummelled Ukrainian positions in the east with missiles, targeting command centres and arsenals as its forces seek to encircle Ukrainian army units in the battle for Donbas.

➡️Ukrainian border guards repelled an incursion by a Russian sabotage and reconnaissance group in the northeastern region of Sumy on Monday, the governor of the Sumy region said.

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➡️ Ukraine said on Monday troops defending the country’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, had repelled Russian forces and advanced as far as the border with Russia.

➡️ Sweden will send diplomats to Turkey to try to overcome Ankara’s objections to its plan to join NATO, Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist said, with a formal decision to hand in an application expected on Monday.

➡️Turkey must maintain a delicate diplomatic balance following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine so that it remains able to help facilitate an eventual negotiated end to the war, President Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman said in an interview. Ibrahim Kalin, who is also Erdogan’s chief foreign policy adviser, said that while Ankara has criticised Moscow’s Feb. 24 invasion and actions on the battlefield it would do no good to take a more punitive stance against Russia.

➡️Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto confirmed on Sunday that his country would apply for membership of the NATO military alliance. The announcement came after Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Thursday they both favoured NATO membership, in a major policy shift prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia, which shares a long land border with Finland, has said it would be a mistake for Helsinki to join the transatlantic alliance and that it would harm bilateral ties.

(Compiled from Reuters and Associated Press reports)

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