NATO allies expect Finland and Sweden to gain membership quickly, five diplomats and officials told Reuters, paving the way for an increased troop presence in the Nordic region during the ratification period of a year.
In the wider Nordic region, Norway, Denmark and the three Baltic states are already members of NATO, and the addition of Finland and Sweden would likely anger Moscow, which believes that enlargement of NATO poses a direct threat to its own security.
Russian President Vladimir Putin cited this issue as a reason for his actions in Ukraine, which also expressed a desire to join the alliance eventually.
On the front line, Ukraine said on Wednesday it had pushed back Russian forces in the east and shut off gas flows on a route through Russian-held territory, raising the specter of an energy crisis. in Europe.
The Ukrainian armed forces headquarters said it had recaptured Pytomnyk, a village on the main road north of the second city of Kharkiv, about halfway to the Russian border.
“The occupying forces have moved to defend themselves in order to slow down the pace of our troops’ offensive,” he said. “The colony of Pytomnyk … has been freed”.
The advance appears to be the fastest Ukraine has mounted since it ousted Russian troops from the capital kyiv and northern Ukraine in early April.
If maintained, it could allow Ukrainian forces to threaten the supply lines of Russia’s main attack force, and bring artillery to rear logistics targets within Russia itself.
The Kremlin calls its actions in Ukraine a “special military operation” aimed at demilitarizing a neighbor threatening its security. He denies targeting civilians.
Ukraine claims that it poses no threat and that the deaths of thousands of civilians and the destruction of cities show that Russia is waging a war of conquest.
GAS SUPPLIES
Ukraine’s decision on Wednesday to cut off Russian gas supplies through territory held by Russian-backed separatists is the first time the conflict has directly disrupted shipments to Europe.
Gas flows from Russian export monopoly Gazprom to Europe via Ukraine fell by a quarter after kyiv said it was forced to halt all flows on one route, via the transit point from Sokhranovka in southern Russia.
Ukraine has accused Russian-backed separatists of siphoning off supplies.
If the supply cut continues, it would be the most direct impact to date on European energy markets.
Moscow has also imposed sanctions on the owner of the Polish part of the Yamal gas pipeline which transports Russian gas to Europe, as well as on the former German unit of Gazprom, whose subsidiaries ensure gas consumption in Europe.
The implications for Europe, which buys more than a third of its gas from Russia, were not immediately clear.
Berlin said it was reviewing the announcement. A spokesman for the economy ministry said the German government was “taking the necessary precautions and preparing for various scenarios”.
BURNING TANKS
As the fighting continued, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, across the border from Kharkiv, said a village had been shelled from Ukraine, injuring one person.
Ukrainian authorities have so far confirmed few details of the advance in the Kharkiv region.
“We have successes in the direction of Kharkiv, where we regularly repel the enemy and liberate population centers,” said Brigadier General Oleksiy Hromov, deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the Ukrainian General Staff. .
In southern Ukraine, where Russia has seized a swath of territory, kyiv said Moscow was considering staging a mock referendum on independence or annexation to make its occupation permanent.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that it was up to the residents of the Russian-occupied Kherson region to decide whether they wanted to join Russia, but that any such decision must have a clear legal basis.
Russian forces also continued to shell the Azovstal steelworks in the southern port of Mariupol, the last stronghold of Ukrainian defenders in a town
“If there is a hell on earth, it is there,” wrote Petro Andryushchenko, an assistant to the mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boichenko, who has left the city.
According to Ukraine, it is likely that tens of thousands of people were killed Mariupol. The Ukrainian authorities claim that between 150,000 and 170,000 of the city’s 400,000 inhabitants still live there among the ruins occupied by the Russians.