Sweden to apply for NATO membership
After more than 200 years of being a nonaligned nation, Sweden will join neighboring Finland in applying for membership in NATO, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson announced Monday.
She called it “a historic change in our country’s security policy” as she addressed lawmakers, most of whom have expressed support for seeking entry into NATO. The formal application was expected later Monday.
“We will inform NATO that we want to become a member of the alliance,” she said. “Sweden needs formal security guarantees that come with membership in NATO.”
In addressing NATO expanding to include Finland and Sweden, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, “Russia has no problems with those states,” according to state-owned Tass news agency. But Russia’s “reaction will depend on the nature of the threats that will emerge for us,” he added. Putin has cited Ukraine’s desire to join NATO as one of the reasons for the invasion.
Russia agrees to cease-fire for injured troops at steel plant
The Russian Defense Ministry said Monday said there is an agreement for injured Ukrainian troops at the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol to leave the plant for medical treatment under a local cease-fire.
The Defense Ministry on Monday said in a statement that following talks with Ukrainian representatives at the site, a so-called humanitarian corridor would be organized to transport wounded troops to a medical facility in the town of Novoazovsk. That town has been held by Russia-backed separatists since before the wider invasion of Ukrainian territory in February.
There was no word on whether the wounded would be considered prisoners of war.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Ukrainian side. It was not clear how many wounded Ukrainians might leave the site and if any had so far done so.
Poland may help export Ukraine’s grains
Poland’s agriculture minister said Monday that Ukraine’s grain exports could be routed through Poland as long as Russia’s war prevents them from departing Black Sea ports.
Henryk Kowalczyk, the agriculture minister and a deputy prime minister, spoke in Warsaw alongside U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Ukraine’s agriculture secretary and the European Union’s commission for agriculture, who is Polish.
Ukraine is a bread basket whose exports to world markets have been disrupted, threatening to exacerbate food shortages, hunger and inflation across the world.
Vilsack denounced Russia’s theft of Ukraine’s grain and its use of hunger as a tool of war. He said the U.S. would do what it could to prevent Russia from profiting from the theft.
Kowalczyk said that Poland’s ports on the Baltic Sea are prepared to be put to use to transport Ukraine’s grain abroad.
Poll: American support for US efforts in Ukraine remains strong
Americans are holding steady in their support of U.S. efforts to back Ukraine in its war against Russia, a new Monmouth University poll out Monday finds.
More than three-quarters of those polled back the economic sanctions imposed on Moscow, just a few ticks down from a poll in March, 77% now versus 81% then. The U.S. ban on Russian gas and oil imports holds strong support across political leanings at 78%.
As the U.S. continues to send military equipment to Ukraine to repel Russian forces, 77% of those polled support the action, with 88% of Democrats approving, 77% of Republicans and 70% of independents, the poll found.
Before the Feb. 24 invasion, the Pentagon deployed troops to Europe to support NATO allies. Now, 66% of Americans still support that move, similar to shortly after the war began, at 69%.
Pentagon: Russia gains a little, loses a little in Ukraine
Heavy fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces continues in the eastern Donbas region, with Russia making incremental gains over the weekend, according to a senior Defense Department official.
Ukrainian forces continue to kill and wound Russian troops and destroy their equipment on a daily basis, said the official, who discussed battlefield intelligence on condition of anonymity. Of the 90 U.S. howitzer cannons sent to Ukraine, 74 are shelling Russian forces, the official said.
British intelligence assessments released Sunday indicated Russia has lost one-third of the ground forces it assembled for the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, and also said the Russian offensive in the east is significantly behind schedule. Russian losses of equipment such as temporary bridges and surveillance drones have further hindered their advance. Significant Russian advances are unlikely over the next month, the assessment concluded.
The U.S. Defense official declined to peg the percentage of Russian losses but noted that President Vladimir Putin had deployed 80% of Russia’s ground combat forces for the fight in Ukraine. That amounted to 150 Russian battalions.
On Monday, Russia had 106 of the battalions inside Ukraine with very few on the border, the official said. Each Russian battalion tactical group has about 700 to 1,000 troops.
In other developments, Russia fired about six missiles in the last 24 hours at a major training center near the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, the official said. The strikes, likely fired from a Russian submarine in the Black Sea, caused little damage.
Near Kharkiv, Ukrainian forces have pushed Russian troops away from the city in Ukraine’s northeast, the official said. The Russians have retreated to within 2 miles of their country’s border.
GOP senators visit Sweden and Finland
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., along with fellow Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, John Cornyn of Texas and John Barrasso of Wyoming visited Sweden and Finland on Monday, following a weekend in eastern Europe.
“It was a special honor to visit both these strong, proud nations during the exact days when both countries’ governments were concluding their deliberations and preparing to formally move forward with joining NATO,” McConnell said in a statement issued Monday as the group returned to the U.S.
McConnell said the nations’ applications for NATO membership have his support. The senators met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Saturday.
Belarusian troops mass at Ukraine border
Belarus has deployed forces, including special operations and air defenses, to the border of Ukraine, possibly in an effort to keep Ukrainian troops occupied there so they cannot fight Russians in the Donbas region, according to a new assessment from the British Ministry of Defense on Monday.
“Despite early speculation, to date Belarusian forces have not been directly involved in the conflict,” the ministry said on Twitter.
Belarus served as a staging area before Russia’s invasion in February. Moscow continues to use Belarus as a launchpad for missile strikes and sorties. “Belarusian President (Aleksandr) Lukashenko is likely balancing support for Russia’s invasion with a desire to avoid direct military participation with the risk of Western sanctions, Ukrainian retaliation and possible dissatisfaction in the Belarusian military,” the ministry said.