– US ratifies Finland, Sweden NATO membership –
The US Senate ratifies the entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO, strongly backing the expansion of the transatlantic military alliance in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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With the agreement of all 30 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization needed before hitherto non-aligned Finland and Sweden can join, the United States becomes the 23rd to give the nod.
Of the seven member countries which have yet to formally agree, only Turkey has raised a challenge, demanding certain concessions from both countries to back their memberships.
These include the extradition of dozens of government opponents it labels “terrorists” from both countries in exchange for its support.
Ankara has said a special committee will meet Finnish and Swedish officials in August to assess if the two nations are complying with its conditions.
– Deadly bus stop shelling –
Russian shelling of a bus stop in the frontline east Ukraine town of Toretsk kills eight people and injures four, the regional governor says.
“According to preliminary information, there was artillery fire. They hit a public transport stop, where there was a crowd of people at that time,” Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Ukraine-run Donetsk region administration, writes on Telegram.
The attack comes as Kyiv orders civilians to leave the war-torn Donetsk region which is bearing the brunt of Moscow’s gruelling eastern offensive.
ISW Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, December 24, 2024
Ukrainian officials say Russia also continues to pound towns and cities across the sprawling front line, notably in Mykolaiv in the south and Kharkiv in the northeast.
– Ukrainian forces endangering civilians: Amnesty –
Rights group Amnesty International accuses Ukrainian forces of violating international law and endangering civilians by establishing bases in residential areas, including in schools and hospitals.
Their tactics “in no way justify Russia’s indiscriminate attacks”, it says in a new report, and some Russian “war crimes” including in the city of Kharkiv are not linked to the tactics.
But it lists incidents when Ukrainian forces appeared to have exposed civilians to danger in 19 towns and villages in the Kharkiv, Donbas and Mykolaiv regions.
Ukraine slams the report as “unfair”.
“This behaviour of Amnesty International is not about finding and reporting the truth to the world, it is about creating a false equivalence — between the offender and the victim, between the country that destroys hundreds and thousands of civilians, cities, territories, and a country that is desperately defending itself,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says in a video posted on Facebook.
– UN to seek ‘truths’ on prison bombing –
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres announces he will launch a fact-finding mission to uncover the “truths” about a jail where dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war died in a bombing strike last week.
Kyiv and Moscow have blamed each other over the strikes on the prison in Kremlin-controlled Olenivka in eastern Ukraine, which killed over 50.
Moscow said that among the dead were Ukrainian forces that had laid down their arms after weeks of fighting off Russia’s brutal bombardment of the sprawling Azovstal steel works in Mariupol.
– Accused grain ship leaves Lebanese port –
A Syrian ship leaves the Lebanese port of Tripoli after being cleared for release after it was seized over allegations it was carrying flour and barley stolen from Ukraine.
Investigations have failed to prove The Laodicea carried stolen goods, officials say.
Ukraine has repeatedly accused Moscow’s forces of ransacking its grain warehouses since Russia invaded on February 24.
Ukraine says it is “disappointed” by the decision, which it argues will encourage Russia to “continue thefts in the temporarily occupied southern Ukraine with a sense of impunity.”
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