Category: Ukraine War

The New Voice of Ukraine

Russia cannibalizes naval crews to replenish marine brigade, Ukrainian General Staff says

May 15, 2022

Read also: Russia hits Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in Ukraine with rockets

Meanwhile, in the north, the Russian military is reinforcing the border with Ukraine in Bryansk and Kursk regions, are is carrying out air and artillery strikes on Ukraine’s Chernihiv and Sumy oblasts.

Near Kharkiv, the invaders are not engaged in hostilities, and remain focused on regrouping and replenishing their ammunition and fuel reserves.

Read also: Nine Russian attempts to cross river in Donbas thwarted by Ukrainian paratroopers

Near Slovyansk, Russian attacks against the defending Ukrainian troops were unsuccessful. The Kremlin continues to regroup there, preparing for a renewed push towards Barvinkove and Slovyansk.

Read also: Ukraine’s General Staff says Russia preparing layered defense in Zaporizhzhya direction

Near Bakhmut, the enemy continues to advance towards Lyman, Severodonetsk, Avdiivka, and Kurakhiv, despite sustaining heavy losses.

The Ukrainian redoubt in Mariupol, the Azovstal steel mill, remains under siege, and is under heavy bombardment.

Overall, Ukrainian forces repelled 12 attempted Russian attacks in the Donbas in the last 24 hours, the General Staff said.

The Herald – Mail

American technology has penetrated every level of Russia in efforts to stop Putin

Tim Rowland – May 15, 2022

For us laypeople, the most useful rule in matters of foreign policy is the old saw, “Those who talk don’t know, and those who know don’t talk.”

That is as true for the retired generals on cable news as it is for the 20-somethings Ivy League grads who are experts because they once visited Poland. And, obviously, it is triply true of newspaper columnists.

But it is a matter of human nature, not foreign affairs, to guess with a relative degree of certainty that when Vladimir Putin isn’t thinking about the battle in Ukraine in 2022, he is thinking about the battle for the American presidency in 2024.

This is where he will extract his revenge for President Biden’s meddling, channeling money to the Republican Party and ginning up the old social media machine to pepper Americans’ feeds with lies and culture-war napalm.

That he blames America for his own failures is hardly surprising. What does surprise, is that so many Americans stand ready to blame America for Russian failure.

Or maybe it shouldn’t surprise, considering this new national psyche of ours that seems intent on experiencing the hangover without attending the party.

You expect the right to go after the Biden administration’s victorious trash talk, but the hand-wringing has extended to the American left as well, for reasons only the American left could dream up. The main line of thought is that a weakened Putin is a more dangerous Putin. There’s also a fear that we are becoming too deeply intertwined in the fight.

OK fine, valid concerns. So let’s ask this: When has appeasement of a bloodthirsty autocrat worked? Ever? Those who fret that Putin might get mad at us ought to consider that he certainly respects us more now than he would have if we had remained on the sidelines. He may hate us, but he hated us before — his backing of Donald Trump isn’t for a love of Trump, but for a logical conclusion that Trump is capable of doing America the most damage.

Putin is a better fighter in the shadowy world of propaganda and deceit than he is on an actual battlefield, so quite honestly, he has a better shot at the 2024 presidential election than he does in his own backyard.

So we shouldn’t “fear” a weakened Russia, as the liberals say, we should welcome it. If Trump or a Trump clone wins the White House, we want Russia to be too compromised to take advantage.

Today, for every bomb Russia drops on Ukraine, it is dropping two on itself. The economic sanctions that Putin has brought on himself have not even begun to have their full effect, and contrary to the respect Putin craves, he has turned the Motherland into a leper colony. All the smartest people are leaving. Technological advancement has been crippled, perhaps for decades.

That’s good. Our best interest lies in Russia being a Humpty Dumpty that not even a Trumpist can put back together again.

But beyond all this, what on God’s green earth is wrong with winning? We’re not just winning, we are crushing — and all anyone wants to do is apologize for it. Biden was reportedly “furious” at leaks of gloating coming from his administration.

No, boss, I guarantee that was nothing of the sort. That was just a statement pumped to the press to take the edge off the critics. In reality, Biden loves rubbing dirt in Putin’s face, and he loves anyone who points out that’s exactly what we’re doing.

Our weapons are flying circles around his. Putin is forced to make do with technology that America left in the dust 40 years ago. The references to “Soviet era” weaponry is code for points and distributor caps, hand-held compasses and bombs that became obsolete in the years following World War II. Putin’s vaunted military machine is all smoke and mirrors, all Putin specialties: propaganda, bluster and lies. He’s been exposed, and we are the ones who have pulled down his pants.

What really must spook the P-dog is that our technology has quite clearly penetrated every inch of Russia, from the top level of the Kremlin down to the lowliest tank crew. We know what they’re going to do before they do.

Our capabilities have stunned not just Russia, but China as well, which has been conspicuously quiet. Tell me that President Xi isn’t worried sick about what we know.

America has regained the international luster lost during the Trump years. We have led the world, orchestrating a united response and teamed with Ukraine and the world to beat down a brute.

We seem worried about this. Like it’s too good to be true, and certainly another shoe will drop. Maybe it will. But that is for tomorrow. Today it should just feel good to be winning so convincingly.

Tim Rowland is a Herald-Mail columnist.

Reuters

Burning munitions cascade down on Ukrainian steel plant – video

May 15, 2022

LONDON (Reuters) – White brightly burning munitions were shown cascading down on the Azovstal steel works in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol in what a British military expert said looked like either an attack with phosphorus or incendiary weapons.

Reuters was not able to immediately identify the type of munitions being used or when the video was taken. It was posted on Sunday on the Telegram messaging application by Alexander Khodakovsky, a commander of the pro-Russian self-proclaimed republic of Donetsk.

“If you didn’t know what it is and for what purpose – you could say that it’s even beautiful,” Khodakovsky said in a message beside the video. Khodakovsky could not be immediately reached for comment.

It was not immediately clear which forces had fired the munitions, or from where.

Russian forces have pummeled Mariupol for nearly two months, but some Ukrainian fighters remain holed up in the vast Soviet-era plant founded under Josef Stalin and designed with a labyrinth of bunkers and tunnels to withstand attack.

Russia has not commented on what specific weapons it has used to attack the plant. The Russian defence ministry did not reply to a written request for comment about the video.

Ukraine’s armed forces declined immediate comment.

White phosphorus munitions can be used on battlefields to make smoke screens, generate illumination, mark targets or burn bunkers and buildings. White phosphorus is not banned as a chemical weapon under international conventions.

Human rights groups have urged a ban on the use of phosphorus munitions because of the severe burns they cause. The United States used phosphorus munitions in the Vietnam war and the 2003-2011 Iraq war. Russia used them in the Chechen wars.

Petro Andryushchenko, an aide to Mariupol’s mayor, said that Russia had used incendiary or phosphorous bombs on Azovstal. Andryushchenko was speaking from Ukrainian-controlled territory. Reuters was unable to immediately verify his comments.

Hamish Stephen de Bretton-Gordon, a former commanding officer of Britain’s Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment, said it looked very like phosphorus in the video, but only a sample could give absolute confirmation.

“It does look very much like white phosphorus rockets or artillery shells which are exploding just above the ground or upon the ground,” he told Reuters.

“It could possibly be Russian incendiary rockets as well but I have certainly seen a lot of white phosphorus in particularly Syria and it looks very much like that to me,” he said.

While some Ukrainian fighters are still in bunkers at the steel plant, civilians have been evacuated.

(Additional reporting by Tom Balmforth in Kyiv; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by David Clarke)

Reuters

Britain says Russia has lost a third of its forces in Ukraine

May 15, 2022

LONDON (Reuters) -Russia has probably lost around a third of the ground forces it deployed to Ukraine and its offensive in the Donbas region “has lost momentum and fallen significantly behind schedule”, British military intelligence said on Sunday.

“Despite small-scale initial advances, Russia has failed to achieve substantial territorial gains over the past month whilst sustaining consistently high levels of attrition,” the British defence ministry said on Twitter.

“Russia has now likely suffered losses of one third of the ground combat force it committed in February.”

It said Russia was unlikely to dramatically accelerate its rate of advance over the next 30 days.

Since Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, Ukraine’s military has forced Russia’s commanders to abandon an advance on the capital Kyiv, before making rapid gains in the northeast and driving them away from the second biggest city of Kharkiv.

A Ukrainian counteroffensive has been under way near the Russian-held town of Izium, though Ukraine’s military reported on Sunday that Russian forces were advancing elsewhere in the Donbas region, the main theatre of war over the past month.

(Reporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru and William Schomberg in London; Editing by William Mallard and Aidan Lewis)

Daily Beast

Convoy of Up to 1,000 Cars Leaves Ukrainian City of Mariupol

Barbie Latza Nadeau – May 15, 2022

Survivors who finally escaped the bombed out port city of Mariupol in a massive caravan of up to 1,000 cars and vans Sunday morning have told stories of utter horror.

Many who arrived in the Ukraine-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia on Sunday say they left at night, taking “secret detours” to avoid Russian checkpoints and fearing every moment of the journey. They told of blinding fear living under constant bombardment and of hastily buried family members they left behind, and what was for many a tough decision to finally flee. “We barely made it, there were lots of elderly people among us,” 74-year-old Nikolai Pavlo, who had been hiding in his basement with scant supplies for weeks, told Reuters. “the trip was devastating. But it was worth it.”

Another resident, 63-year-old Iryna Petrenko waited in the city until her 92-year-old mother who she was caring for died. “We buried her next to her house, because there was nowhere to bury anyone,” she told Reuters.

Russia now controls much of the strategic port city while fierce fighting continues for control of the Azovstal steel works factory, where an untold number of soldiers, civilians and dead have been trapped for weeks.

The evacuation of Mariupol 80 days into the brutal war comes as the battleground shifts with Ukrainian troops making major advances in the north, especially in and around Kharkiv, which had taken the brunt of Russia’s attack in the early days of the invasion. Supply lines have been cut to Russian troops trying to make gains in the eastern Donetsk region, according to CNN.

But as Russian troops retreat from areas they held, they leave a wake of abhorrent atrocities that will surely constitute war crimes. Near Kharkiv, civilian corpses show signs of unthinkable torture as Russian losses pile up. The British Defence Ministry estimates that Russia has lost a third of its ground forces since the invasion began February 24, but that “under the current conditions, Russia is unlikely to dramatically accelerate its rate of advance over the next 30 days.”

While the battle rages on the ground, diplomatic flashpoints continue. Finland—which declared independence from Russia in 1917—said Sunday it would apply to join NATO despite Russian President Vladimir Putin he “will be forced to take retaliatory steps” to “stop the threats to its national security.”

Ukrayinska Pravda

Russians set up prison in Zaporizhzhia for their soldiers who refuse to fight

Olha Hlushchenko – May 15, 2022

The Russians in Zaporizhzhia Oblast are burning the bodies of their dead soldiers in a poultry shed, and they have set up a prison in the school for those who refuse to fight.

Source: Zaporizhzhia Oblast Military Administration on Telegram

Quote: “There are many Russians in the urban-type settlement of Kamianka, Polohivsky district, and their equipment regularly moves through the settlement.

At checkpoints they check documents, do a full inspection of the vehicle, phone and personal belongings, and recently the invaders have also demanded that a special pass, which is issued by the occupation commandant’s office, be presented.

The school building has been turned into a prison by the Russians where they keep their soldiers who refuse to fight.

The Russians are burning their own dead from the fighting in a former poultry shed near the village. Locals also report that the invaders are planning a census of the population.”

Details: On the Zaporizhzhia front, the Russian forces are concentrating their main efforts on artillery shelling of our positions. In addition, the threat of missile and bomb attacks by the Russian army on civilian facilities in the region remains.

The Russians are digging trenches along the Molochnaya River in the village of Kostiantynivka, in the Melitopol district. Similar trenches are being dug in the villages of Voznesenka, Mordvynivka, Dunaivka, Hirsivka, etc.

The invaders continue to shell Huliaipole. On 13 May, guards recorded damage from Russian attacks to several houses belonging to the town’s inhabitants. Fortunately, there were no casualties as a result of the hostilities. A pre-trial investigation has been initiated.

Russians are actively looking for vacant properties in the central part of Berdiansk and on the Berdiansk Spit. The doors of some premises are simply being broken down.

In Melitopol, the invaders are trying to resume military production at the local car-and-tractor parts plant. The Russian military has given orders to round up all the workers and start the production process.

In the Terpinnia Amalgamated Territorial Community (hromada) of the Melitopol district, the newly appointed leadership of collaborators are extorting money from people supposedly for a broken water pump, so encouraging the population to make utility payments to a cashier instead of into official accounts.

Russian forces now in Kamianka-Dniprovska have banned fishing at the reservoir, and permitting fishing on the rest of the community’s water courses only by agreement with the Russian authorities.

“The invaders have published a video message allegedly from a resident of Energodar, in which the man urges Energodar residents to return to the town and claims that the community is calm and that peaceful life is being established. Please note that this is not true at all, so do not believe the provocations from the Russians and their agents,” the Oblast Military Administration said in a statement.

In Zaporizhzhia, police have exposed a scam by a woman who was allegedly helping citizens in the temporarily occupied territories.

The female resident of the region was offering services on social networks to transfer aid to people in occupied Melitopol. However, the real purpose of this “scheme” was only to obtain other people’s funds. A pre-trial investigation is ongoing.

In the district hospital in Melitopol there are now wounded Russian soldiers with a diagnosis of “spinal compression”. The Russians explain that they suffered this problem as a result of wearing body armor and ask to be discharged after receiving treatment.

Reuters

Burning munitions cascade down on Ukrainian steel plant – video

May 15, 2022

LONDON, May 15 (Reuters) – White brightly-burning munitions were shown cascading down on the Azovstal steel works in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol in a video posted by a pro-Russian separatist commander on Sunday.

The Ukrainian military said there was no let-up on Sunday in Russia’s bombardment of the steel works in the southern port, where a few hundred Ukrainian fighters are holding out weeks after the city fell into Russian hands.

Reuters was not able to immediately identify the type of munitions used or the time of the video which was posted on the Telegram messaging application by Alexander Khodakovsky, a commander of the pro-Russian self-proclaimed republic of Donetsk.

“If you didn’t know what it is and for what purpose – you could say that it’s even beautiful,” Khodakovsky said in a message beside the video. Khodakovsky could not be immediately reached for comment.

Russian forces pummeled the port city for nearly two months, turning Mariupol into a wasteland as the war in Ukraine escalated.

Groups of Ukrainian fighters and civilians took to the Azovstal works – a vast Soviet-era plant founded under Josef Stalin and designed with a labyrinth of bunkers and tunnels to withstand attack.

Civilians have been evacuated from the bunkers but Ukrainian fighters remain holed up there. (Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

Reuters

Ukrainian troops holding destroyed village believe Russians withdrawing across border

Jonathan Landay – May 15, 2022

RUSKA LOZOVA, Ukraine (Reuters) – While three of his men heaped dark soil into a chin-high berm to shield their trench, Ohor Obolenskiy gestured on Sunday across sun-dappled fields to a tree-clad ridge line sweeping the nearby horizon.

“We can see the Russian positions from here and say, ‘Fuck you, Russians,’” the 35-year-old Ukrainian commander joshed in rough English, his grim face creasing into a wide grin.

The amalgam of National Guard and volunteers he leads seized Ruska Lozova in fierce fighting on May 8, four days into a counteroffensive that has thwarted Russia’s bid to seize nearby Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city.

The counter-offensive has been Ukraine’s most successful since it expelled Russian troops from the north of the country and the area around the capital Kyiv at the end of March, and signals a new turning point in the battle for the east.

For the first week, the troops in Ruska Lozova said, Russian shelling was so intense they only could move about the now-devastated village at night.

While they remain ever-alert to the high explosives regularly hurled by Russian artillery and tanks, Obolenskiy and his men made little effort to conceal themselves from the foe hunkered along the ridge line three kilometers away.

One reason, they said as Reuters toured their positions, was because the patchy cloud made it difficult for Russian drones to target their positions.

Another was because they believed the Russians, while trying to keep them pinned down, have been pulling their forces out in a withdrawal to their border. From there, they think, those troops are redeploying south to bolster a Russian drive to seize the entire Donbas region, which largely has stalled.

“There is less shelling from the Russians,” said Mikhayl, one of Obolenskiy’s lieutenants, giving only his nom de guerre as he sat in a basement ripe with the odor of the unbathed troops encamped in its gloom. “We think they are retreating.”

Yet, the troops holding the village, deserted by all but a few of its 5,000 residents and a horde of abandoned cats and dogs, are not ready to celebrate what some media outlets have begun hailing as their victory in the Battle of Kharkiv.

They still are fighting the Russians – they lost two soldiers on Saturday – whose helicopter gunships search for their positions in low-level runs to avoid the U.S.-made Stinger missiles with which Obolenskiy’s troops are armed.

Moreover, Obolenskiy and his aides said they remained concerned that despite high loses in men and equipment, Russian President Vladimir Putin could launch a new offensive against Kharkiv, 20 km south.

“We think it’s possible that the Russians will come back,” said Mikhayl, a large man who declined to reveal the contingent’s total casualties. “Putin will never forgive us. It will be difficult for him to explain to the Russian people why his special operation is over.”

Putin said that he launched what he called a special military operation on Feb. 24 to protect his nuclear-armed country from a threat posed by what he calls a fascist government in Kyiv. Kyiv and its foreign supporters call it an unprovoked war of aggression to subjugate Ukraine.

‘ALL THE WAY TO SIBERIA’

The Ukrainians bunkered in deserted homes, cellars and garages around Ruska Lozova have no doubt that the Russian forces arrayed around the Kharkiv region will retreat across the border. But they disagreed about comes next, with several saying they want to take the fight into Russia.

“I want to go all the way to Novosibirsk. The videos that I have seen of what they have done leave me no choice,” growled Mihkayl, referring to a city in Siberia, and to alleged war crimes committed by Russian forces against Ukrainians. Moscow denies targeting civilians.

Obolenskiy, however, said he is concerned that Russian forces will shell Ukrainian troops from inside their border in a deliberate ploy to trigger return barrages that would allow Putin to justify an escalation of the conflict to suck in NATO.

“Putin wants to start a war with NATO,” said Obolenskiy, who believes an escalation should be avoided by creating 10 km-wide buffer zones on either side of the border.

The fighting for Ruska Lozova devastated the village that sits in a fold cut by the Lozovenka River through rolling hills north of Kharkiv. A bridge across the river has been smashed into two fire-blackened halves.

The detritus of war litters fields and rutted lanes pitted by shell craters and lined by destroyed and damaged homes.

A Russian T-72 tank captured by the Ukrainians in working condition sat in the shadows of a carport, ready for use against its original owners.

A young officer, who gave only the first name of Klem, walked briskly through untended orchards, taking a visitor into abandoned Russian bunkers littered with molding rations and military gear.

When the Russians advanced to the outskirts of Kharkiv in February, he said, the village was a rear base.

“Now,” he said, “their frontline is in those trees, three kilometers away.”

(Reporting by Jonathan Landay; Editing by Peter Graff)

Ukrayinska Pravda

Russians confirm they are hitting Ukrainian targets with banned cluster and phosphorus weapons, Security Service of Ukraine

Valentyna Romanenko – May 15, 2022

Ukrayinska PravdaSun, May 15, 2022, 6:22 AM

The Russian invaders confirm that they are using phosphorus and cluster weapons in Ukraine, which are prohibited by international conventions.

Source: another intercept of the invaders’ conversation by the Security Service of Ukraine

Details: These are particularly dangerous and inhumane types of weapons.

Thus, the Russian Federation continues to grossly violate the laws and customs of war, in order to destroy as many peaceful Ukrainians as possible.

Since 2014, the Security Service of Ukraine has repeatedly recorded the use of prohibited weapons by Russian occupiers in the area of the Anti-Terrorist Operation Zone/Joint Forces Operation. Since the beginning of the large-scale invasion, these war crimes have been committed by the occupiers along the entire front line. The Security Service of Ukraine documents each of them.

The intercepts and the collected data will be included in the materials for the international courts, so that no Russian war criminal escapes punishment, the intelligence service notes.

Quote from the occupier: “Yes, they are still waiting for Volodka (Putin -ed.). To get all this f*cked up, he will withdraw the troops and f*cking fire “Topols” here. And so, you see, everything that was forbidden by international conventions: cluster bombs, phosphorus – we were allowed everything, we let everything go there.”

Associated Press

Ukraine says mission at Mariupol steel mill is complete

Oleksandr Stashevskyi and Ciaran McQuillan – May 15, 2022

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The regiment that doggedly defended a steel mill as Ukraine’s last stronghold in the port city of Mariupol completed its mission Monday after more than 260 fighters, including some badly wounded, were evacuated and taken to areas under Russia’s control, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the evacuation to separatist-controlled territory was done to save the lives of the fighters who endured weeks of Russian assaults in the maze of underground passages below the hulking Azovstal steelworks. He said the “heavily wounded” were getting medical help.

“Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes to be alive. It’s our principle,” he said. An unknown number of fighters stayed behind to await other rescue efforts.

The steel mill’s defenders got out as Moscow suffered another diplomatic setback in the war, with Sweden joining Finland in deciding to seek NATO membership. And Ukraine made a symbolic gain when its forces reportedly pushed Russian troops back to the Russian border in the Kharkiv region.

Still, Russian forces pounded targets in the industrial heartland of eastern Ukraine known as the Donbas, and the death toll, already many thousands, kept climbing with the war set to enter its 12th week on Wednesday.

Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said 53 seriously wounded fighters were taken from the Azovstal plant to a hospital in Novoazovsk, east of Mariupol. An additional 211 fighters were evacuated to Olenivka through a humanitarian corridor. She said an exchange would be worked out for their return home.

“Mariupol’s defenders have fully accomplished all missions assigned by the command,” she said.

Officials also planned to keep trying to save the fighters who remained inside. Military experts generally put the number of fighters at the plant at anywhere from a few hundred to 1,000.

“The work to bring the guys home continues, and it requires delicacy and time,” Zelenskyy said.

Before Monday’s evacuations from the steelworks began, the Russian Defense Ministry announced an agreement for the wounded to leave the mill for treatment in a town held by pro-Moscow separatists. There was no immediate word on whether the wounded would be considered prisoners of war.

After nightfall Monday, several buses pulled away from the steel mill accompanied by Russian military vehicles. Maliar later confirmed that the evacuation had taken place.

“Thanks to the defenders of Mariupol, Ukraine gained critically important time to form reserves and regroup forces and receive help from partners,” she said. “And they fulfilled all their tasks. But it is impossible to unblock Azovstal by military means.”

The Ukrainian General Staff also said on Facebook that the Mariupol garrison has completed its mission. The commander of the Azov Regiment, which led the defense of the plant, said in a prerecorded video message released Monday that the regiment’s mission had concluded, with as many lives saved as possible.

“Absolutely safe plans and operations don’t exist during war,” Lt. Col. Denis Prokopenko said, adding that all risks were considered.

Elsewhere in the Donbas, the eastern city of Sievierdonetsk came under heavy shelling that killed at least 10 people, said Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region. In the Donetsk region, Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Facebook that nine civilians were killed in shelling.

The western Ukrainian city of Lviv was rocked by loud explosions early Tuesday. Witnesses counted at least eight blasts accompanied by distant booms, and the smell of burning was apparent some time later. An Associated Press team in Lviv, which was under an overnight curfew, said the sky west of the city was lit up by an orange glow.

The chairman of the Lviv Regional Military Administration said the Russians fired on military infrastructure in the Yavoriv district. The city of Yavoriv is less than 10 miles (15 kilometers) from the Polish border.

Ukrainian troops also advanced as Russian forces pulled back from around the northeastern city of Kharkiv in recent days. Zelenskyy thanked the soldiers who reportedly pushed them all the way to the Russian border in the Kharkiv region.

Video showed Ukrainian soldiers carrying a post that resembled a Ukrainian blue-and-yellow-striped border marker. Then they placed it on the ground while a dozen of the soldiers posed next to it, including one with belts of bullets draped over a shoulder.

“I’m very grateful to you, on behalf of all Ukrainians, on my behalf and on behalf of my family,” Zelenskyy said in a video message. “I’m very grateful to all the fighters like you.”

The Ukrainian border service said the video showing the soldiers was from the border “in the Kharkiv region,” but would not elaborate, citing security reasons. It was not immediately possible to verify the exact location.

Ukrainian border guards said they also stopped a Russian attempt to send sabotage and reconnaissance troops into the Sumy region, some 90 miles (146 kilometers) northwest of Kharkiv.

Russia has been plagued by setbacks in the war, most glaringly in its failure early on to take the capital of Kyiv. Much of the fighting has shifted to the Donbas but also has turned into a slog, with both sides fighting village-by-village.

Howitzers from the U.S. and other countries have helped Kyiv hold off or gain ground against Russia, a senior U.S. defense official said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the U.S. military assessment, said Ukraine has pushed Russian forces to within a half-mile to 2.5 miles (1 to 4 kilometers) of Russia’s border but could not confirm if it was all the way to the frontier.

Away from the battlefield, Sweden’s decision to seek NATO membership followed a similar decision by neighboring Finland in a historic shift for the counties, which were nonaligned for generations.

Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said her country would be in a “vulnerable position” during the application period and urged her fellow citizens to brace themselves.

“Russia has said that that it will take countermeasures if we join NATO,” she said. “We cannot rule out that Sweden will be exposed to, for instance, disinformation and attempts to intimidate and divide us.”

But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, a NATO member, ratcheted up his objection to their joining. He accused the countries of failing to take a “clear” stance against Kurdish militants and other groups that Ankara considers terrorists, and of imposing military sanctions on Turkey.

He said Swedish and Finnish officials who are expected in Turkey next week should not bother to come if they intend to try to convince Turkey of dropping its objection.

“How can we trust them?” Erdogan asked at a joint news conference with the visiting Algerian president.

All 30 current NATO members must agree to let the Nordic neighbors join.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow “does not have a problem” with Sweden or Finland as they apply for NATO membership, but that “the expansion of military infrastructure onto this territory will of course give rise to our reaction in response.”

Putin launched the invasion on Feb. 24 in what he said was an effort to check NATO’s expansion but has seen that strategy backfire. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said the membership process for both could be quick.

McQuillan reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Mstyslav Chernov and Andrea Rosa in Kharkiv, Elena Becatoros in Odesa and other AP staffers around the world contributed.