NATO, the western military alliance led by the US, took another step towards the accession of Sweden and Finland to the club this Tuesday (5), when it signed the protocol for the Nordic nations to join as soon as the parliaments of the member countries. ratify the decision.
In practice, this means that Helsinki and Stockholm will be able to participate in NATO meetings and have greater access to intelligence information, but they will not yet be protected by the collective defense clause, which guarantees joint military protection – the main advantage of being in the bloc and, in practice, which rules out the possibility of attacks from enemies outside the alliance, especially Russia.
Finland and Sweden applied to join the military club, breaking long periods of historical neutrality. The trigger, of course, was Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine nearly five months ago.
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO secretary general, described the signing as a historic moment — it is the most significant expansion of the Western military alliance since the 1990s. “With 32 nations around the table, we will be stronger.”
“NATO remains open to European democracies that are prepared and willing to contribute to our collective security,” he continued.
The final ratification process can take up to a year, and Turkey, although it has agreed to support the entry of the Nordics after taking its toll, remains a point of tension.
With the war in its fifth month, Russia said on Tuesday it plans to launch a rail link between the Rostov region in the south of the country and the provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine.
The Russians established full control of the Lugansk region on Sunday and are now fighting to drive Ukrainian government forces out of Donetsk – both regions are part of the Donbass, where pro-Russian separatists have been fighting since 2014, when the Kremlin annexed the Crimean peninsula.
Another area occupied by Russia, the Kherson region came under the rule of Sergei Eliseev, a former employee of Russia’s powerful Federal Security Service (FSB), the intelligence unit that succeeded the KGB.
Eliseev, 51, was until now the first deputy governor of Russia’s Kaliningrad region. Former Ukrainian MP Alexei Kovalev, who has switched to the Russian side, has been appointed his deputy, responsible for agricultural issues. “Russia is here forever,” he said.
Since the Kherson conquest, Moscow has embarked on a policy of “Russification”. The country introduced the use of the ruble in the region, issued Russian passports and opened a bank. Furthermore, the economy is largely under the control of the occupation administration, and critics suffer from repression.
While gaining territories in parts of the country, Russia withdraws from others. On Monday, Ukrainian forces hoisted the country’s flag on Cobra Island, a strategic and symbolic outpost in the Black Sea from which Moscow troops left last week after months of heavy bombardment.
“The military operation has been completed and the territory, the island of Cobra, has been returned to the jurisdiction of Ukraine,” Natalia Humeniuk, spokeswoman for the southern Ukrainian military command, said in a Twitter post in which she posted an image of the flag hoisted. .
The tiny island is strategic because it is an important maritime traffic control point. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the withdrawal was “a gesture of goodwill”. “In order to organize a humanitarian grain corridor as part of the implementation of joint agreements with the participation of the UN, Russia has decided to leave its positions,” the ministry said.
