Despite US President Joe Biden’s urging that members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations take a firmer stance on the Ukraine war, the U.S.-ASEAN Summit ended Friday without a condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a sign of geopolitical complexities in the region as the administration seeks to broaden the coalition against Moscow beyond Europe. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
Producer: Bakhtiyar Zamanov
…

For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.

The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT:

1:05 a.m.: Al Jazeera reports that India, the world’s second biggest exporter of wheat, has banned all exports of that crop, effective immediately. The New York Times reports that the decision is an attempt to protect India’s food security and that of its neighbors. Meanwhile, wheat prices are rising worldwide because of the conflict in Ukraine.

12:02 a.m.: The New York Times reports that Ukraine’s general prosecutor has 41 Russian suspects for war crimes. The prosecutor’s office is investigating more than 11,000 suspected war crimes.

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

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to Germany and France on Saturday for NATO and trade meetings, as Finland says it wants to join NATO in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia has warned it will respond to what it calls a hostile move. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.
…

The possible expansion of NATO will be a focus of talks Saturday, as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to Berlin for an informal NATO foreign ministerial meeting.

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin have expressed their approval for joining the alliance, a move that would complete a major policy shift for the Scandinavian countries in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday his country does not support Finland and Sweden joining NATO, citing their support of what Turkey considers terrorist organizations, such as Kurdish militant groups.

“We are following developments concerning Sweden and Finland, but we are not of a favorable opinion,” Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul. Any NATO enlargement requires the unanimous consent of the existing members.

US stance

U.S. officials said they were working to “clarify Turkey’s position,” while reiterating that the “United States would support a NATO application by Finland and/or Sweden should they choose to apply.”

“We strongly support NATO’s Open Door policy,” U.S. Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried told reporters Friday. “I think that it’s important to remember that a fundamental principle the U.S. is defending in terms of its support for Ukraine is the right of every sovereign country to decide its own future foreign and security policy arrangement.”

Both Sweden’s and Finland’s foreign ministers will participate in the North Atlantic Council informal dinner Saturday in Berlin. From Germany, Blinken heads to France on Sunday, where he will attend the second ministerial meeting of the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council, known as the TTC.

U.S. President Joe Biden talked with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Finland’s Niinisto on Friday.

“President Biden underscored his support for NATO’s Open Door policy and for the right of Finland and Sweden to decide their own future, foreign policy, and security arrangement,” the White House said in a readout of the call, adding the leaders “reiterated their shared commitment to continued coordination in support of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people affected by the war.”

Impact of NATO expansion

The German Marshall Fund’s Michael Kimmage told VOA that Finland’s joining NATO would shake up the security order in Europe, both for NATO and for Russia.

“It’s a very, very long border, and of course it brings NATO very close to — or will bring NATO if it all goes through — very close to St. Petersburg. And at the same time, it will give NATO a lot more territory right on the Russian border to defend. So those are big steps. Those are big changes,” Kimmage said.

Russia has warned against NATO expansion and said Finland’s and Sweden’s joining would bring “serious military and political consequences.”

“The expansion of NATO and the approach of the alliance to our borders does not make the world and our continent more stable and secure,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoygu for the first time since February 18.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement that Austin “urged an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine and emphasized the importance of maintaining lines of communication.”

US aid to Ukraine

Austin also spoke Friday with Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov about Ukraine’s “evolving battlefield needs.”

“Secretary Austin highlighted the President’s May 6 announcement of $150 million in Presidential Drawdown Authority to provide Ukraine’s Armed Forces with artillery, counter-artillery radars, and electronic jamming equipment,” Kirby said in a statement. “Minister Reznikov shared his assessment of the situation on the ground in eastern Ukraine.”

On Thursday, U.S. Senator Rand Paul blocked a vote on a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine, slowing U.S. efforts to quickly deliver more help to Ukraine as it battles a Russian invasion.

“We cannot save Ukraine by dooming the U.S. economy,” Paul said.

A unanimous Senate vote would have expedited the delivery of aid to Ukraine. Paul’s move, however, has delayed the vote for another week, when the Senate is expected to pass the bill.

War crimes trial

In Ukraine, a 21-year-old Russian soldier was brought before a Kyiv court Friday, in the first war crimes proceeding since the war began.

Ukrainian prosecutors say Vadim Shishimarin fired several shots from a car in the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine on February 28, just days after the conflict began, killing an unarmed 62-year-old man who was pushing a bike on the side of the road.

Ukraine’s government says it is investigating more than 10,000 war crimes involving Russian forces, with cases of torture and mutilation having often been revealed after Russian forces left a Ukrainian city, as in the case of Bucha.

Russia has denied committing war crimes in Ukraine, and the Kremlin on Friday said it had no knowledge of the trial.

Putin-Scholz call

In Moscow, Russian President Vladmir Putin on Friday spoke by phone with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about the stalled Ukrainian-Russian peace talks.

In a tweet, the German leader said he had called during the 75-minute conversation for an immediate cease-fire, countered the Russian claim “that Nazis are in power” as false and also reminded Putin “about Russia’s responsibility for the global food situation.”

G-7 meeting

The call came as G-7 ministers meeting in Germany pledged unity and more weapons and aid to Ukraine.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced an additional $520 million worth of military support to Ukraine for heavy weaponry, while expressing hope that member states would agree to a Russian oil embargo.

British Foreign Minister Liz Truss also announced new sanctions against members of Putin’s inner circle, including his former wife and cousins.

VOA Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine contributed to this report.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
…

Veto-wielding NATO member Turkey is voicing opposition to Sweden and Finland joining the alliance, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan telling reporters Friday he does not positively view the countries’ membership bid. Analysts warn the Turkish leader’s stance will likely rekindle questions over Ankara’s allegiances given its close ties with Moscow.

“At the moment, we are following the developments regarding Sweden and Finland, but we don’t hold positive views,” Erdogan said. “Because in the past, previous Turkish governments made a mistake about Greece’s membership, and you know Greece’s current attitude against Turkey.”

Turkey and neighboring Greece are bitter rivals with numerous disputes, including ongoing tensions over disputed territorial waters in the Aegean Sea. But Erdogan’s stance has more to do with his close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Huseyin Bagci, head of the Ankara-based Foreign Policy Institute.

“Turkey has very good relations with Russia, and Russia supplies defense systems,” he said. “Russia is, for now and for the future, one of the biggest energy suppliers to Turkey. The good relations between Erdogan and Putin are also the reason why Tayyip Erdogan plays this card. The second, Tayyip Erdogan tries to increase the leverage of Turkish bargaining process through this.”

Turkey remains at loggerheads with NATO over its purchase of the Russian S-400 missile system which saw the United States hit Ankara with military sanctions claiming the purchase compromised NATO defense systems.

International relations expert Soli Ozel of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University warned Ankara risks a backlash from its NATO partners over its opposition to Sweden’s and Finland’s membership.

“I am sure this is how it will be interpreted, and there will be those who say let’s expel Turkey from NATO, although to the best of my knowledge there is no expulsion mechanism in NATO,” Ozel said.

But relations between Turkey and its allied partners, in particular Washington, had improved with Ankara’s condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Turkey has recently used goodwill over its stance on Ukraine to improve ties with its Western allies.

Some analysts suggest Erdogan could be looking for concessions from Sweden and Finland. Erdogan criticized the two countries Friday for being sympathetic to Kurdish groups accused by Ankara of carrying out terrorist attacks in Turkey. Helsinki and Stockholm are strongly critical of Turkey’s human rights record and both countries have given political asylum to many opponents of the Turkish government.

Analyst Ozel said Erdogan could be looking for a deal but questions his approach.

“Turkey would like to use its power to veto as leverage in order to get those two countries to do as it would please it,” Ozel said. “How wise it is, is pretty debatable in my judgment; I don’t particular[ly] find it very advisable. Because if Turkey is on a charm offensive and it’s trying to rebuild bridges that it burnt with almost everyone, you can actually make your case, but you don’t have to do it so publicly.”

Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said patience was needed to overcome Erdogan’s opposition. NATO foreign ministers, including from Turkey, are to meet in Berlin this weekend.
…

…

The EU’s foreign policy chief said on Friday that he believed there had been enough progress during consultations between his envoy and Iranian officials in Tehran this week to relaunch nuclear negotiations after two months of deadlock. 

Talks to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers have been on hold since March, chiefly over Tehran’s insistence that Washington remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the U.S. list of designated terrorist organizations. 

Speaking as talks coordinator Enrique Mora arrived back in Europe, Josep Borrell said Iran’s response had been “positive enough” after Mora had delivered a message that things could not continue as they were. 

“These things cannot be resolved overnight,” Borrell told reporters at a G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in northern Germany. “Let’s say the negotiations were blocked and they have been de-blocked,” with the prospect of “reaching a final agreement.” 

The broad outline of the deal that aims to revive the accord which restrains Iran’s nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions was essentially agreed in March. 

However, it has since been thrown into disarray after last-minute Russian demands and the dispute over the U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organization list. 

Western officials are largely losing hope that it can be resurrected, sources familiar with the matter have said, forcing them to weigh how to limit Iran’s atomic program even as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has divided the big powers. 

“It has gone better than expected — the negotiations were stalled, and now they have been reopened,” Borrell said. 

A senior EU official sounded a more cautious tone. 

“We still have difficult obstacles on the way for an agreement,” he told reporters, adding that at least Iran and the U.S. remained engaged. 

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said Mora’s trip had been “an opportunity to focus on initiatives to resolve the remaining issues.” 

“A good and reliable agreement is within reach if the United States makes a political decision and adheres to its commitments,” he said. 

A French diplomatic source said on Thursday he saw little chance of the United States agreeing to remove Iran’s elite security force from its list of foreign terrorist organizations any time soon. 

Mora has been in Tehran this week in what has been described as the last chance to salvage the 2015 accord, which then U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018. Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia are also parties to the accord. 

Detained at airport

In a bizarre incident, Mora and his team were held at Frankfurt airport for several hours on return from the Iranian capital on Friday. 

“We were kept separated. Refusal to give any explanation for what seems a violation of the Vienna Convention,” he said on Twitter. 

A German Interior Ministry spokesperson said German police would make a statement on the incident, telling reporters: “There can be many reasons that have to do with the flight, the travel route, and not necessarily with the person.” 

Iran’s official IRNA news agency alleged, without evidence, that Israel was behind the incident. 

“What has happened in Frankfurt has to do with opposition to the progress in the nuclear talks. … The Zionist lobby has influence in the German security apparatus,” it said. 
…

The lawyer for WNBA star Brittney Griner said Friday her pre-trial detention in Russia has been extended by one month.

Griner’s lawyer Alexander Boikov told The Associated Press he believed the relatively short extension of the detention indicated the case would come to trial soon.

Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was detained at the Moscow airport after vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis were allegedly found in her luggage, which could carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

The Biden administration says Griner, 31, is being wrongfully detained. The WNBA and U.S. officials have worked toward her release, without visible progress.
…

A worker hurt in an explosion at a chemical factory in Slovenia has died from his injuries, bringing the total number of people killed in the accident to six, local media reported on Friday.

The blast occurred Thursday when a cistern exploded at a resin factory belonging to chemicals company Melamin in the municipality of Kocevje, some 60 kilometers south of Ljubljana.

“Unfortunately our fears have been confirmed,” Melamin general manager Srecko Stefanic told reporters.

The strength of the explosion “did not leave them any chance of survival,” he said.

Initially, five people were reported to have been killed and six others injured, including two who were hospitalized with serious burns.

One of the two has since died in hospital and the other is still in critical condition, public radio reported. AFP was not able to confirm the information.

The tragedy was “caused by a human error,” Stefanic said, declining to give more information until the investigation has been completed.

Local authorities initially asked residents staying within a radius of 500 meters around the plant not to leave their homes and to close their windows as a precaution in case of toxic fumes.

The precautionary measure was lifted later Thursday after officials confirmed there had been no negative impact on the environment.

Photos showed columns of black smoke billowing from the factory, which supplies resins for paper, construction, wood, rubber and the lacquer industry.

Nearly 200 people work at the factory of the company, founded in 1954, according to its website.
…

A Frenchman murdered in the desert, a Dutch priest killed in a Nazi concentration camp and an Indian lay convert are among 10 new saints being created by Pope Francis on Sunday.

Tens of thousands of people from around the world are expected in St Peter’s Square in the Vatican for the canonization mass, presided over by the 85-year-old pontiff.

Under the rules of the Catholic Church, all 10 have already been beatified, or named “blessed,” but had to then be attributed a miracle to take the final step to sainthood.

Most founded religious orders, but the new saints include Charles de Foucauld, a French soldier and explorer.

He became a Catholic priest and lived among Trappist monks in Syria, in Palestine, and finally among the Tuaregs in the Algerian desert.

He was murdered by bandits on Dec. 1, 1916, but his works outlasted him and he became one of France’s most celebrated men of faith.

Vatican theologians attributed to de Foucauld the cure of a cancer sufferer in 1984, and he was beatified by pope Benedict XVI in 2005.

His second miracle was declared after a young French carpenter survived a 15-meter fall in 2016.

Among the crowd Sunday will be members of the Algerian Catholic church, for whom de Foucauld “is extremely important,” noted the archbishop of Algiers, Jean-Paul Vesco.

“It was here that his life became incandescent,” Vesco told AFP before heading to Rome.

Lethal injection

Another taking the step to sainthood is Dutch Carmelite priest, theologian and journalist Titus Brandsma, who took a stand against the Nazis during World War II.

He spoke out against them before Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940 and afterward, encouraging Catholic Dutch newspapers to resist the occupiers’ propaganda.

Brandsma was arrested in January 1942 and ended up in the Dachau concentration camp, where he died on July 26 f that year, after being injected with carbolic acid.

He was beatified in 1985 after being declared a martyr and was subsequently found to have enacted a miracle in healing a Carmelite priest.

Ahead of the mass Sunday, a group of journalists signed an open letter to Pope Francis urging him to make Brandsma an official patron saint for journalists.

He “shared the deeper mission that should drive journalism in modern times: a search for truth and veracity, the promotion of peace and dialogue between people,” they said.

Indian convert

Devasahayam Pillai, known as Lazarus, will be the first Indian layman to become a saint, according to the Vatican.

A Hindu from what is now the southern state of Tamil Nadu, he converted to Catholicism in 1745 while working at the royal palace, where he met a captured Dutch commander who taught him about Christianity.

But his faith, and his preaching of equality of all peoples — a revolutionary view at the time — caused a stir and when he refused to renounce his new religion, he was arrested, according to the Vatican.

After almost three years of imprisonment and torture, during which he began to be visited by pilgrims, he was shot dead in a forest on the orders of the king on Jan. 14, 1752.

He was declared a martyr and beatified in 2012, before being later attributed the miracle of resuscitating a fetus in the 20th week of pregnancy. 
…

For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.

The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT:

1 a.m.: The World Bank says that money transfers to Ukraine, the largest recipient in Europe and Central Asia, are expected to rise by more than 20% this year. That’s because refugees and others are sending money to people still in the country.

12:02 a.m.: Al Jazeera, citing the U.S. think tank the Institute for the Study of War, reports that Russia likely controls the Ukrainian city of Rubizhne and probably the town of Voevodivka as well.

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

An obscure mountain in the remote far west of Spain could prove to be a game changer in the race to end the West’s dependence on China for a mineral that is key to the world’s future mobility.

Valdeflores, just outside Caceres, a city of about 100,000 inhabitants in Extremadura, a region well off the tourist track, has been designated as the possible site for a lithium mine.

If the plan is approved, it is estimated the site will provide enough of the mineral used in rechargeable batteries to power 400,000 Tesla Model 3 cars every year.

Most important, there will be a processing plant next to the mine to turn the raw mineral into battery-grade lithium – the first in Europe.

Battery-grade lithium is one the minerals that will drive the next generation of electric cars as global economies seek to move away from conventional fuel-powered engines.

Growing demand for electric vehicles has spurred small-scale mining companies seeking lithium, cobalt and rare earths to develop mines and build refining capacity in Europe to reduce their reliance on China.

Picking up the pace

Efforts by the United States and Europe to build a secure and independent supply for the key minerals in electric vehicles, wind turbines and aircraft engines have sped up since the pandemic led to an economic slowdown and shortages.

As companies seek to reduce their carbon footprint, processing metals into goods that do not have to travel far is an environmental goal.

Currently, the majority of lithium mined in Argentina, Australia or Chile is sent to China to be processed into battery-grade lithium so it can be used in cars or for other products. Then it is sent back to the West to be used in car batteries, running up a sizable carbon footprint.

“There is a global race in Europe and the U.S. to change dependence on China for the processing of lithium, one of the key elements to make car batteries,” Caspar Rawles, of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a price reporting agency in mineral supplies, told VOA in an interview.

China currently controls 59% of processing plants and the United States 4%. According to Benchmark data, Europe has no major plants.

Extremadura New Energies, the company that hopes to start the Caceres mine and processing plant in a $633 million project, wants to change the reliance on China.

Opponents

The company, however, faces determined opposition from conservationists and city authorities in Caceres. A judge is expected to make a decision on the project later this year.

“More than having lithium, [the important thing] is to have the capacity to treat it so it can be used in a battery. We don’t have that at the moment in Europe,” Ramon Jimenez, the CEO of Extremadura New Energies, told VOA in a Zoom interview.

“We don’t want the lithium to travel to China to be processed and then coming back because we are creating a lot of CO2 that we are releasing to the atmosphere. This creates a big carbon footprint and is not good for the environment.”

China currently has 60%-70% of the lithium market. By 2030, Europe will reach 15% and the U.S. will have a 12% share, Jimenez estimated.

Jimenez said that after listening to conservationists’ fears about the impact of the project, the company had changed its plans.

He said the mine would be underground and be powered using green hydrogen so it would be more sustainable.

Alejandro Palomo, of Salvemos La Montana (meaning Save the Mountain), the conservation group opposed to the mine, said that despite the change of plans, the mine would harm the underground water supply from the mountain on which the city of Caceres depends.

“It will also affect the air quality because of the chemicals which the processing plant uses. The mining may affect the historical center of the city, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986,” he told VOA in a telephone interview.

He said “all the city” was against the plan for the mine, which would only bring 100 jobs, most of them in specialized fields.

Some information for this report came from Reuters.
…

Colored marker stones placed on either side of a small river – blue and white for Finland, red and green for Russia – are all that separate the two countries in the windswept fields of the South Karelia region. The border stretches 1,340 kilometers from the Baltic Sea to the Arctic, much of it sparsely populated, frozen wilderness.

For decades, the two countries have enjoyed peaceful relations, founded on Finland’s post-World War II policy of neutrality and nonalignment. But this simple border could soon become be a frontier between East and West: a geopolitical fault line.

Finland’s government said Thursday that the country should immediately apply to join NATO in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, upending a cornerstone of Finnish foreign policy in the space of a few weeks. Finnish lawmakers are set to vote on the issue in the coming days before an expected official application for NATO membership next week, in what is likely to be a joint bid with Sweden.

Finland’s admission into the alliance is likely to be a formality. It would create by far the longest land border between NATO and Russia.

Moscow has threatened what it calls a “military technical response” if Finland joins the alliance. There are fears the border could become a flashpoint.

“Could Russia then try to take a playbook of, say, Georgia, and try to create some kind of frozen conflict, invade a small part of Finland with the very few forces it has left? Certainly, it could try, but Finland has prepared for this militarily,” Charly Salonius-Pasternak of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs told VOA.

For now, there is no visible military presence on the Finnish side, and little to indicate the emergence of any new Cold War Iron Curtain.

Impact unknown

Finnish border guard Captain Jussi Pekkala oversees operations at the Vaalimaa crossing point. “We don’t know what will happen and how the situation will change between our countries. But at this time the situation is calm, and border traffic is flowing smoothly,” he told VOA on a recent visit to the frontier.

When Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, Pekkala said, there was a brief increase in crossings. “We had a lot of persons fleeing from Russia. Of course, Europeans, Americans. Actually, we had like 52 nationalities coming.”

Now cross-border traffic is running at just 10% of normal levels. Russia’s Sputnik coronavirus vaccine is not approved in the European Union, so most Russians have not been able to enter the bloc for the past two years.

Europe has not introduced travel restrictions on Russian visitors since the Ukraine invasion — but Finland’s bid to join NATO could choke off the remaining trickle of visitors as tensions increase.

The decline has hurt the regional economy. Frontier shopping malls selling luxury European brands to Russian consumers lie eerily empty.

Kimmo Jarva, the mayor of Lappeenranta, the biggest town in the region and a popular destination for visiting Russians, said the impact has been significant.

“We are used to cooperation with Russians. Here, for example, more than 3,000 Russian-speaking inhabitants are living here. Almost 2 million Russians were coming every year to this area. But now very few tourists are coming here. And we have estimated that we are losing 1 million euros ($1.04 million) every day because of this situation,” Jarva said.

Much of what happens at the border will depend on Russia and its reaction to Finland’s NATO membership bid. The chill of rapidly worsening relations between East and West is keenly felt on this frontier.

Mari-Leena Kuosa contributed to this report.
…

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is disrupting crop exports and driving up global food prices. Both countries are major exporters of key staples like wheat and sunflower oil. In France, some farmers sense opportunity – particularly with sunflowers. Lisa Bryant reports from the French village of Labosse.
…

Since the invasion of Ukraine began, the letter Z was used by Russia as a way to identify its military vehicles inside Ukraine. But the letter has now become a propaganda symbol inside Russia and Ukraine. VOA’s Russian service produced this report.
…

Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin Thursday expressed their approval for joining NATO, a move that would complete a major policy shift for the country in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“NATO membership would strengthen Finland’s security. As a member of NATO, Finland would strengthen the entire defense alliance,” they said in a joint statement.  “Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay. We hope that the national steps still needed to make this decision will be taken rapidly within the next few days.”

The leaders said they came to their decision after allowing time for Finland’s Parliament and the public to consider the matter, and to consult with NATO and neighboring Sweden.  Officials in Sweden are expected to consider their own possible NATO application in the coming days.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in late April that if Finland and Sweden were to apply, “they will be welcomed and I also expect the process to be quick.”

Russia has warned against NATO expansion, and said in March that if Finland and Sweden join the alliance, “there will be serious military and political consequences.”

The fight for Ukraine played out beyond the battlefields on Wednesday, with Kyiv cutting off one Russian natural gas pipeline that supplies European homes and industry, while a Moscow-installed official in southern Ukraine said the Kremlin should annex Kherson after Russian troops took control.

Ukraine’s natural gas pipeline operator said it was stopping Russian shipments through a hub in eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed separatists because of interference from enemy forces, including the apparent siphoning of gas.

About one-third of Russian gas headed to Western Europe passes through Ukraine, although one analyst said the immediate effect might be limited since much of it can be redirected through another pipeline. Russia’s giant state-owned Gazprom said gas flowing to Europe through Ukraine was down 25% from the day before.

The European Union, as part of its announced effort to punish Russia for its 11-week invasion of Ukraine, is looking to end its considerable reliance on Russian energy to heat homes and fuel industries.

It has, however, encountered some opposition from within its 27-member bloc of nations, especially from Hungary, which says its economy would sustain a major hit if its supply of Russian energy were cut off.

In Brussels, negotiations with Hungary over a ban on Russian energy purchases ended Wednesday for the moment. If not resolved, it would constitute a major split among NATO allies in unified Western sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin to sanction him for his invasion of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Kherson regional administration installed by Moscow, told Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency, “The city of Kherson is Russia.”

He asked that Putin declare Kherson a “proper region” of Russia, much as Moscow did in 2014 in seizing Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula and declaring Luhansk and Donetsk as independent entities shortly before invading Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that it would be “up to the residents of the Kherson region” to make such a request, and to make sure there is an “absolutely clear” legal basis for the action.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak derided the notion of its annexation, tweeting: “The invaders may ask to join even Mars or Jupiter. The Ukrainian army will liberate Kherson, no matter what games with words they play.”

Kherson is a Black Sea port with a population of about 300,000 and provides access to fresh water for neighboring Crimea. Russian forces captured it early in the war. 

On the war front, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his Tuesday night address that Ukraine’s military is gradually pushing Russian troops away from Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city and a key battleground in the Donbas, the eastern industrial region that the Kremlin is trying to capture against stiff opposition from Kyiv’s forces.

Ukraine is also targeting Russian air defenses and resupply vessels on Snake Island in the Black Sea, according to the British Defense Ministry.

The ministry said Russian resupply vessels have minimum protection since the Russian Navy retreated to Crimea following the sinking of the flagship of its Black Sea Fleet. Separately, Ukraine said it shot down a cruise missile targeting the Black Sea port city of Odesa on Wednesday.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Press and Reuters. 
…

Calling US farms the ‘breadbasket of democracy,’ president vows to do more to offset food supply issues amid Russian invasion
…

For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.

The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT:

1:56 a.m.: The governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk region says Russia shelled the region 26 times Wednesday, including nine times in the city of Severdonetsk, Al Jazeera reports.

1:23 a.m.: Reuters reports that Siemens will leave Russia because of the conflict in Ukraine. 

“We join the international community in condemning the war in Ukraine and are focused on supporting our people and providing humanitarian aid,” the company wrote on its website. “Siemens will exit the Russian market as a result of the Ukraine war. The company has started proceedings to wind down its industrial operations and all industrial business activities.”

On its website, Siemens AG describes itself as a technology company focused on “industry, infrastructure, transport, and health care.” In September 2021 it had some 303,000 employees worldwide. It has about 3,000 people in Russia, Reuters says.

1:03 a.m.: A Ukrainian serviceman at the besieged steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, turned to Twitter to ask Elon Musk for help, the BBC reports.

“People say you come from another planet to teach people to believe in the impossible,” Serhiy Volyna tweeted. “Our planets are next to each other, as I live where it is nearly impossible to survive. Help us get out of Azovstal to a mediating country. If not you, then who?”

12:30 a.m.: Japan and the European Union demanded Russia immediately end its invasion of Ukraine and said they support “further expanding sanctions against Putin’s Russia.”

In a joint statement following talks among Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, EU Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the EU and Japan said they would coordinate on political, financial and humanitarian support for Ukraine. They also pledged to mitigate other effects of the conflict, including working to stabilize world energy markets.

12:02 a.m.: Canada plans to charter three flights to bring Ukrainian refugees from Poland to Canada, The Washington Post reports.

The flights will be May 23, to Winnipeg, Manitoba; May 29 to Montreal and June 2 to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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

Finland and Sweden are expected to apply for NATO membership in the coming days, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As Henry Ridgwell reports from Taipalsaari, close to the border, Russia’s actions have particular historical resonance in Finland.
…

Russian forces have been launching continuous artillery attacks on targets in southeastern Ukraine, continuing their push toward Odesa and other parts of the region. For VOA, Yan Boechat reports from the Zaporizhzhia oblast in southern Ukraine.
Camera: Yan Boechat
…

Over 560 soldiers from Ukraine’s National Guard, a force that includes the Azov regiment currently holed up in Mariupol’s steelworks, have been killed since the war with Russia began, its leader said Wednesday.

Besides the 561 dead, an additional 1,697 troops had been wounded since the invasion began on February 24, National Guard chief Oleksiy Nadtochy said in an online briefing.

Wednesday’s statement marked a rare move as both Ukrainian and Russian officials have been tight-lipped about their losses in the war.

Figures about troops killed in battle have very rarely been released by Ukrainian officials, with neither the defense ministry in Kyiv nor its counterpart in Moscow offering any information on their own military losses.

In mid-April, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said between 2,500 and 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed while around 10,000 others had been wounded, admitting it was “difficult to say how many of them would survive.”

Ukraine’s National Guard, which falls under the interior ministry, was created in March 2014 as Russia seized control of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and massed troops on Ukraine’s eastern border.

By law, it can have up to 60,000 soldiers in its ranks and has notably absorbed several self-defense groups that were on the front line of the 2014 Maidan revolution, as well as various nationalist outfits like Azov.

Previously known as the “Azov Battalion,” the unit was created in 2014 by far-right activists and first deployed against pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

It has since shaken off the far-right ideology and been integrated into the National Guard, experts say. It is now known as the “Azov Regiment” and has a reputation for being a tough fighting unit.

Kyiv on Tuesday said more than 1,000 fighters remained trapped inside the besieged Azovstal steel plant in the southern port city of Mariupol, hundreds of whom are injured.

Some Azov soldiers have also died at the plant, but it remained unclear how many.
…

The fight for Ukraine played out beyond the battlefields on Wednesday, with Kyiv cutting off one Russian natural gas pipeline that supplies European homes and industry, while a Moscow-installed official in southern Ukraine said the Kremlin should annex Kherson after Russian troops took control.  

Ukraine’s natural gas pipeline operator said it was stopping Russian shipments through a hub in eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed separatists because of interference from enemy forces, including the apparent siphoning of gas.  

About one-third of Russian gas headed to western Europe passes through Ukraine, although one analyst said the immediate effect might be limited since much of it can be redirected through another pipeline. Russia’s giant state-owned Gazprom said gas flowing to Europe through Ukraine was down 25% from the day before.  

The European Union, as part of its announced effort to punish Russia for its 11-week invasion of Ukraine, is looking to end its considerable reliance on Russian energy to heat homes and fuel industries. 

It has, however, encountered some opposition from within its 27-member bloc of nations, especially from Hungary, which says its economy would sustain a major hit if its supply of Russian energy were cut off.  

In Brussels, negotiations with Hungary over a ban on Russian energy purchases ended Wednesday for the moment. If not resolved, it would constitute a major split among NATO allies in unified Western sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin to sanction him for his invasion of Ukraine.  

Meanwhile, Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Kherson regional administration installed by Moscow, told Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency, “The city of Kherson is Russia.” 

He asked that Putin declare Kherson a “proper region” of Russia, much as Moscow did in 2014 in seizing Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula and declaring Luhansk and Donetsk as independent entities shortly before invading Ukraine on February 24. 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that it would be “up to the residents of the Kherson region” to make such a request, and to make sure there is an “absolutely clear” legal basis for the action.  

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak derided the notion of its annexation, tweeting: “The invaders may ask to join even Mars or Jupiter. The Ukrainian army will liberate Kherson, no matter what games with words they play.” 

Kherson is a Black Sea port with a population of about 300,000 and provides access to fresh water for neighboring Crimea. Russian forces captured it early in the war. 

On the war front, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his Tuesday night address that Ukraine’s military is gradually pushing Russian troops away from Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city and a key battleground in the Donbas, the eastern industrial region that the Kremlin is trying to capture against stiff opposition from Kyiv’s forces. 

Ukraine is also targeting Russian air defenses and resupply vessels on Snake Island in the Black Sea, according to the British Ministry of Defense.  

The ministry said Russian resupply vessels have minimum protection since the Russian Navy retreated to Crimea following the sinking of the flagship of its Black Sea fleet. Separately, Ukraine said it shot down a cruise missile targeting the Black Sea port city of Odesa on Wednesday. 

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Press and Reuters. 

 
…

Five years ago, France’s Emmanuel Macron saw big when it came to Africa. Days after his presidential inauguration, he flew to northeastern Mali, meeting with French troops and vowing, alongside his Malian counterpart, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, to wage an “uncompromising fight” against Islamist terrorism.

A few months later in another Sahel country, nearby Burkina Faso, he laid another pillar of his Africa strategy based on a “rupture” of traditional French-Africa relations. France’s 39-year-old leader told students from the University of Ouagadougou he was “from a generation that doesn’t come to tell Africans what to do.”

Today, the Sahel insurgency is expanding southward, and both Mali and Burkina Faso are under military rule. France’s counter-insurgency military operation in the Sahel is downsizing, regrouping and recasting itself under a European umbrella.

Meanwhile, Macron’s ambitious promise of transforming France’s relationship with Africa is still in the works.

“The goal should be to accompany local efforts rather than expanding French interests in Africa,” Cameroonian intellectual Achille Mbembe told French broadcaster RFI. If that happens, he added, “It would be possible to finally get out of France-Afrique,” describing Paris’ old and tangled ties with its former colonies.

Yet, as Macron officially begins his second term this Saturday, Africa appears to be taking a back seat to other, more immediate priorities, both domestic and European, as the war in Ukraine takes center stage.

French-African relations barely figured into an election campaign that saw him facing off anti-immigration, far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the runoff.

“It would be hard to see Macron completely changing his African strategy” in his second term, Africa analyst Antoine Glaser told France 24 TV in a recent interview. “I think what will change will be the method … he will be a lot less on the front lines,” giving African and European partners a bigger spotlight.

Other analysts agree France should be more attentive to African concerns, mindful it now competes against many other foreign players on the continent, including in former French colonies.

“France and Europe fail to properly listen to the priorities of different African states,” said Africa-Europe researcher Cecilia Vidotto Labastie, from the Paris-based Montaigne Institute research institution. “This creates space for other partners — or competitors or enemies — to act.”

Breaking with the past

Still in his first term Macron did listen and respond to several key African priorities, recognizing more painful aspects of France’s legacy on the continent — and in doing so, going further than his predecessors.

He acknowledged his country’s role in Rwanda’s genocide and crimes committed by French soldiers and police during Algeria’s war of independence — although he ruled out an official apology to France’s former colony. In both cases, Paris set up expert commissions to dig into historical archives.

Those steps, among others, helped cement ties between Macron and Rwandan President Paul Kagame, following years of rocky French-Rwandan relations.

Ties with Algeria remain strained, however, including over other, more recent issues, like French visas and Macron’s remarks about Algeria’s post-colonial rule. Nonetheless, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune congratulated his French counterpart on his reelection last month and invited him to visit.

Macron also became France’s first leader to restore looted colonial-era treasures — returning a dozen artifacts to Benin and a sword to Senegal. Those gestures helped to unleash a broader restitution debate and similar moves elsewhere in Europe.

“The fact he has so much energy and interest in this, in a way it obliged other countries to do the same,” said analyst Vidotto Labastie. “This is something that is new. In a way, it’s now part of Europe-Africa relations.”

Less successful has been Macron’s support for efforts to reform the West and Central African CFA currency, and for a France-Africa summit that featured civil society rather than the continent’s leaders last October.

Aimed to “reinvent” France’s relationship with the continent, the summit in Montpellier, France, also offered a forum for young Africans to air grievances against Paris’ alleged tolerance of corruption and dictators in Africa.

“Emmanuel Macron wanted to shake up French-Africa relations,” one participant, Ivorian historian Arthur Banga told Jeune Afrique news magazine, but still described changes the president has realized to date as largely in form, rather than substance. Over Macron’s next term, Banga said, “The first steps he initiated over five years must now deliver results.”

Sahel setbacks and moving forward

Macron’s biggest challenge and setback, analysts say, has been in the Sahel.

The civilian presidents he met with five years ago in Mali and Burkina Faso have been ousted and replaced by military juntas. The Islamist insurgency that French and African troops hoped to conquer has spread. Russia-based Wagner mercenaries are implanted in Mali, and anti-French sentiment is mounting in some countries.

Last month, Mali’s military rulers suspended French broadcasters France 24 and RFI, over their reports of alleged rights abuses by Malian forces. Last week, as the two countries traded accusations over hundreds of bodies found buried in the Malian desert, Mali announced it had terminated a nearly decade-old military cooperation agreement with France — even as French troops were already leaving the country, as part of a full withdrawal planned over several months.

Macron’s strategy in the Sahel was a failure, France’s Le Monde newspaper wrote, its fallout “casting a sandy veil over his record.”

Not everyone agrees.

Montaigne Institute’s Vidotto Labastie believes Macron’s Sahel setbacks were partly due to a mix of factors beyond his control — including the death of Chadian leader Idriss Deby, whose country was a linchpin of the regional counterinsurgency fight. They should also be seen within a wider European Union context, she adds.

“It depends on how you define failure; France was never alone,” she said, noting Denmark’s announcement in January it would withdraw its forces from Mali and West Africa. “Was it a failure for Denmark? For the EU?”

Moving forward, Vidotto Labastie said, France and Europe need to be more attentive to Africa’s demands in sectors like energy and migration.

“The more France and the EU lack clarity in the region, the more space there is for Russia and also Turkey” along with other foreign powers, she said. “They will be ready to exploit any difficulty of the Sahel strategy and French action.”

Analyst Glaser agrees France’s Africa strategy needs to be attuned to a more competitive and opportunistic reality.

“France was in a dominant position for 30 years, until the fall of the Berlin wall,” he said. “Now it’s a globalized Africa … the world is changing, and Africa is changing even faster.”
…

In any country, the currency exchange rate is an indicator of stability and the economy’s strength. With unprecedented sanctions being imposed on Russia, many economists are closely watching the ruble. Anna Rice narrates the story of the Russian ruble, and the effect economic sanctions are having.
…