Russia losing on, and off, battlefield
KYIV, Ukraine — Moscow suffered another diplomatic setback Monday in its war with Ukraine as Sweden joined Finland in deciding to seek NATO membership, while Ukraine’s president congratulated his soldiers who reportedly pushed back Russians near the border.
Russian forces pounded targets in the industrial heartland of eastern Ukraine known as the Donbas and the death toll, already many thousands, continued to climb with the war set to enter its 12th week on Wednesday.
The eastern city of Sievierdonetsk came under heavy shelling, with at least 10 people killed, said Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region. In the Donetsk region, Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Facebook that nine civilians were killed in shelling there.
But Ukrainian troops also advanced as Russian forces pulled back from around the northeastern city of Kharkiv in recent days. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked his forces who reportedly pushed all the way to the Russian border in the Kharkiv region in a symbolic gain.
Video showed Ukrainian soldiers carrying a post that resembled a Ukrainian blue-and-yellow-striped border marker. Then they placed it on the ground while a dozen of the soldiers posed next to it, including one with belts of bullets draped over a shoulder.
“I’m very grateful to you, on behalf of all Ukrainians, on my behalf and on behalf of my family,” Zelenskyy said in a video message.
Ukrainian border guards said they also stopped a Russian attempt to send sabotage and reconnaissance troops into the Sumy region, some 146 km northwest of Kharkiv.
Russia has been plagued by setbacks in the war, most glaringly in its failure early on to take the capital of Kyiv. Much of the fighting has shifted to the Donbas but also has turned into a slog, with both sides fighting village-by-village.
Howitzers from the U.S. and other countries have helped Kyiv hold off or gain ground against Russia, a senior U.S. defense official said.
The official said Ukraine has pushed Russian forces to within a half-mile to 2.5 miles of Russia’s border, but could not confirm if it was all the way to the frontier.
The official said Russian longrange strikes also appeared to target a Ukrainian military training center in Yavoriv, near the Polish border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
A glimmer of hope emerged for wounded Ukrainian troops trapped in the remains of a giant steel plant, the last stronghold of resistance in the shattered port city of Mariupol.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced an agreement for the wounded to leave the steelworks for treatment in a town held by proMoscow separatists.
The international response to the Russian invasion picked up pace.
Sweden said it will seek NATO membership following a similar decision from neighbour Finland in a historic shift for the counties away from nonalignment.
Sweden’s Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said her country would be in a “vulnerable position” during the application period and urged her fellow citizens to brace themselves.
“Russia has said that that it will take countermeasures if we join NATO,” she said. “We cannot rule out that Sweden will be exposed to, for instance, disinformation and attempts to intimidate and divide us.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, a NATO member, accused Sweden and Finland of failing to take a “clear” stance against Kurdish militants and other groups Ankara considers terrorists, and of imposing military sanctions on Turkey.