KVIV, Ukraine – President Volodymyr Zelensky formally presented Ukraine’s responses to a questionnaire from the European Union, the first step in his campaign for accelerated EU membership.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said when she presented Zelensky’s questions in early April that a preliminary decision on Ukraine’s candidacy could come in weeks.
Ukraine’s aspiration to join the bloc has been a provocative issue for Russia for years. Zelensky told the EU envoy on Monday that the people of Ukraine are united in their goal of becoming an equal part of Europe.
“The people of Ukraine are united by this goal – to feel like an equal part of Europe,” Zelensky said as he handed two thick Ukrainian-bound bindings to Matti Maasikas, the EU’s envoy to Ukraine.
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KEY DEVELOPMENT OF THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
– “No capitulation”: Ukrainians continue to fight at the steel plant in Mariupol
– Russia resumes strikes on the capital of Ukraine, strikes other cities
– Syrian fighters are ready to join the next phase of the war in Ukraine
– Bosnians warn Ukrainians: The road to justice is long
– Mother, grandmother cry over 15-year-old killed in the shelling of Kharkov
Follow all AP stories about Russia’s war against Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
SARAJEVO, Bosnia – Survivors of war crimes committed during the Bosnian war 30 years ago say victims of human rights abuses in Ukraine can learn from their long and painful experience.
It took decades to arrest and prosecute wartime Bosnian Serb leaders, and more than 7,000 people remain unaccounted for. But the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia eventually convicted 83 high-ranking political and military officials and shifted a mountain of evidence against lower-ranking suspects in their home countries for prosecution.
The perpetrators were collectively sentenced to more than 700 years in prison.
Munira Subasic helped create the Mothers of Srebrenica to demand that the bodies be identified and those responsible brought to justice. To date, almost 90 per cent of those missing since the fall of Srebrenica have been reported.
“Russia’s denials of the massacres that its troops are now apparently carrying out in Ukraine sound to me like denial of the Srebrenica genocide,” Subasic said. “But if the survivors are persistent, the truth will prevail.”
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BEIRUT – At the beginning of the war against Ukraine, Kremlin officials boasted that thousands of experienced fighters from the Middle East would join Russian forces. Military analysts say only a small number appear to have arrived in Russia for training before being on the front lines, but say that could change as Russia prepares for a full-scale offensive.
U.S. officials and activists monitoring Syria say the Russians are actively recruiting. Rami Abdurahman runs the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. He said about 40,000 people have registered with the Russian military and the Wagner Group, a Russian private contractor.
Ryan Maaruf of Suwayda24, an activist group that covers ISIS activities in the Syrian desert, said the fighters had been promised at least $ 600 a month. This is a huge amount against the background of widespread unemployment in Syria.
Analysts say Syrian fighters are more likely to be deployed in the coming weeks, especially after General Alexander Dvornikov was appointed military commander. Dvornikov is well acquainted with the paramilitary forces that Russia is training in Syria. Although some doubt how effective Syrian fighters would be in Ukraine, they could be recruited if more forces are needed to besiege cities or compensate for growing casualties.
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MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the barrage of Western sanctions against Russia has failed.
Putin said Monday that the West “expects to quickly upset the financial and economic situation, cause panic in the markets, collapse of the banking system and shortage of shops.” He added that “the economic blitz strategy has failed”.
The Russian leader spoke in a televised speech during a video interview with senior economic officials.
Putin noted that “Russia has withstood unprecedented pressure,” claiming that the ruble has strengthened and the country has registered a historically high trade surplus of $ 58 billion in the first quarter of the year.
Instead, he argues that sanctions have the opposite effect on the United States and its European allies, accelerating inflation and lowering living standards.
Putin acknowledged the sharp rise in consumer prices in Russia, saying they had risen 17.5 percent year-on-year in April, and urged the government to index wages and other payments to ease the impact of inflation on people’s incomes.
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Kyiv, Ukraine – Ukraine’s deputy prime minister says Russia could be tried for war crimes for refusing to allow humanitarian corridors for civilians trapped in Mariupol.
Earlier on Monday, Irina Vereshchuk said an evacuation was not possible for the second day in a row due to Russian attacks on civilian convoys.
“Your refusal to open these humanitarian corridors in the future will lead to the prosecution of all those involved in war crimes,” she wrote on her Telegram and Facebook channels.
Vereshchuk again called on Russia to allow the safe evacuation of civilians from Mariupol, especially the Azovstal steel plant, which covers more than 11 square kilometers (4 square miles) and is covered with tunnels.
According to Vereshchuk, the government has negotiated crossings from Mariupol and Berdyansk, among other cities, as well as from the Luhansk region. The Luhansk government said four civilians trying to flee the region had been shot dead by Russian forces.
The Russians, for their part, accused “neo-Nazi nationalists” in Mariupol of obstructing the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol.
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Kyiv, Ukraine – The State Security Service of Ukraine has released a video of a Ukrainian politician arrested on charges of treason offering himself in exchange for the evacuation of civilians trapped in Mariupol, while two Britons who surrendered to Russian forces in Mariupol appeared in the Russian media with a request to be part of the exchange.
The video of Viktor Medvedchuk, a former leader of a pro-Russian opposition opposition party with personal ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, was released on Monday. In it, he called on Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to consider the exchange.
Medvedchuk was detained last Tuesday in a special operation conducted by Ukraine’s State Security Service or SBU. The 67-year-old oligarch escaped from house arrest a few days before the fighting broke out on February 24 in Ukraine. He faces up to 15 years in prison on charges of treason and aiding a terrorist organization to mediate coal purchases for the Russian-backed separatist republic of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
The British introduced themselves as Sean Piner and Aidan Aslin. In a video, Piner asked British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to be exchanged. Piner had deep circles under his eyes and looked exhausted, but said he and Aslin had been treated appropriately.
Ukrainian authorities say Kyiv wants to prosecute Medvedchuk and eventually trade him for Ukrainian prisoners.
The circumstances surrounding the videos were unclear. The two videos were released within an hour of each other.
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ROME – Italian officials will continue an energy trip to Africa this week as part of Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s efforts to quickly reduce the country’s heavy dependence on Russian gas, but he will not go because he tested positive for COVID-19.
The prime minister’s office, announcing the infection, said on Monday that Draghi had no symptoms. The mission in Angola and Congo, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, will instead see the government, represented by its foreign and environmental transition ministers.
Italy buys almost 40% of its gas from Russia. Draghi is determined to drastically reduce this dependence over the next two or three years, largely by concluding deals with other energy-producing countries. Draghi recently traveled to Algeria to conclude such an agreement as part of the strategy.
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BELGRADE, Serbia – Serbian President Alexander Vucic has accused the secret services of Ukraine and an unidentified European Union country of being behind a series of fake bomb threats against Air Serbia flights to Russia.
The Serbian national carrier is the only European airline that has not joined the sanctions for international flights against Russia over its war in Ukraine. Several of his flights to Moscow and St. Petersburg were delayed or he had to return to Belgrade after anonymous bomb threats.
In an interview with pro-government Pink TV late Sunday, Vucic said that “the foreign (intelligence) services of two countries are doing this. One is an EU country and Ukraine is another.
The Serbian pro-Russian leader did not provide evidence for his claim. Other Serbian officials say threatening emails were sent from either Ukraine or Poland.
Vucic said that although Air Serbia’s flights to Russia did not win due to frequent returns to their base in the Serbian capital, the flights would continue “on our principle”.
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MADRID – Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Spain would reopen its embassy in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in a few days.
Following similar decisions by several European neighbors, Sanchez said the reopening “will show again the commitment of the Spanish government and the Spanish people to the Ukrainian people.”
“Spain is with Ukraine and we are against (Russian President Vladimir) Putin,” Sanchez said in an interview with Spanish television station Antena 3. “This is Putin’s war against what the European Union is upholding.
Spain closed its embassy within hours of the Russian invasion on February 24th.
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Kyiv, …
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