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Latest on Ukraine: Finland to Join NATO Tuesday

by VOA News

   New developments:
     * Poland said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to visit
       the country Wednesday for talks with President Andrzej Duda and to
       meet with Ukrainians who have taken refuge in Poland.
     * The Financial Times reported that Russian security officers are
       "confiscating passports of senior officials and state company
       executives" amid worries about information leaks and defections
     * In Kostiantynivka, eastern Ukraine, six civilians were killed and
       eight wounded from Russian shelling Sunday morning, a senior
       Ukraine official said, [1]according to Reuters.
     * A top Ukrainian official [2]outlined the plan Kyiv would take after
       the country reclaims control of Crimea, including dismantling the
       bridge that links the peninsula to Russia.

   NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Finland will join the
   military alliance on Tuesday, less than a year after the country
   submitted its application in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

   Stoltenberg told reporters ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers
   that Finland brings a well-trained, well-equipped military to the
   alliance after Turkey became the final existing member to give its
   approval in a process that must be unanimous.

   Stoltenberg also said he is "absolutely confident" that Sweden will
   follow Finland as a new NATO member, and that it is a priority for that
   to happen as soon as possible.

   Turkey has expressed opposition to Sweden's bid, mainly due to what
   Ankara says is Sweden being too lenient toward groups that Turkey
   considers terrorists. Stoltenberg said he believes Sweden has fulfilled
   steps it agreed to in talks with Turkey to allay those concerns.

   He also said Russian President Vladimir Putin had demanded less of a
   NATO presence on the alliance's eastern flank ahead of Russia's
   full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and that with the bids of Finland and
   Sweden, Putin ended up with the opposite.

   "He's getting more NATO presence in the eastern part of the alliance
   and he's getting two new members in Finland and Sweden," Stoltenberg
   said.

   As the NATO foreign ministers prepare for their talks, Stoltenberg said
   there is an urgent need for both lethal and non-lethal support for
   Ukraine and called on allies to "sustain and further step up" their
   support. He said Ukraine needs economic aid as well.

   Bakhmut fight

   Ukrainian and Russian forces gave competing reports late Sunday about
   the status of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the site of months
   of fierce fighting between the two sides.

   The head of Russia's paramilitary Wagner group said his forces had
   raised a Russian flag over the administration building in Bakhmut and
   had taken control "from a legal point of view."

   Ukraine's military said Russian forces were continuing to assault
   Bakhmut, but that Ukrainian troops were "courageously holding the city
   as they repel numerous enemy attacks.

   Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address
   Sunday that the situation in Bakhmut was "especially hot" on Sunday.

   US detainees

   U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, called for the immediate
   release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, whom Russia
   has accused of spying, as Blinken spoke with Russian Foreign Minister
   Sergey Lavrov by telephone Sunday.

   A statement by U.S. State Department principal deputy spokesperson
   Vedant Patel did not mention the journalist by name.

   Responding to Blinken, Lavrov said that Gershkovich's fate will be
   determined by a Russian court and told Blinken it was unacceptable for
   Washington to politicize the case. Lavrov said the journalist was
   caught "red-handed," though Russia has yet to present any evidence.

   The statement said Blinken also sought the release of U.S. citizen Paul
   Whelan, who has been detained for 1,553 days after being sentenced to a
   16-year sentence at a Russian penal colony after being convicted of
   espionage.

   U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, who was freed from a Russian
   penal colony in a prisoner exchange last year, has urged the Biden
   administration to keep using "every tool possible" to secure the
   release of the U.S. reporter.

   The Kremlin asserts Gershkovich was using journalism as a cover for
   spying, something the newspaper has vehemently denied. The Wall Street
   Journal has demanded the immediate release of Gershkovich, calling his
   arrest Thursday "a vicious affront to a free press," while The New York
   Times published [3]a statement from a coalition of news organizations
   expressing deep concern about Gershkovich's detention.

   Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence
   France-Presse and Reuters.

References

   1. https://www.reuters.com/world/ukraine-says-least-three-killed-six-wounded-russian-shelling-east-country-2023-04-02/
   2. https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-crimea-9da550b396f42cc267a4808bf99d5e6d
   3. https://www.nytco.com/press/statement-from-a-coalition-of-news-organizations-regarding-the-detention-of-wsjs-evan-gershkovich-in-russia/