The Washington Post

2022-05-17 21:21:01 Calls grow for Russia to free up Ukrainian ports for grain exports

Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven nations appealed to Russia to free up sea export routes for Ukrainian grain and agricultural products critical to feeding the world, as food prices rise and the World Food Program warns of “catastrophic” consequences if Ukrainian ports remain blocked.

“We must not be naive. Russia has now expanded the war against Ukraine to many states as a war of grain,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said at a news conference Saturday after the G-7 meetings. “It is not collateral damage, it is an instrument in a hybrid war that is intended to weaken cohesion against Russia’s war.”

Baerbock, who hosted the three-day gathering of top diplomats in Weissenhaus, Germany, said the group was searching for alternative routes to transport grain out of Ukraine.

Up to 50 million people will face hunger in the coming months unless Ukrainian grain is released, Baerbock said.

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2022-05-17 19:52:23 Why Russia is struggling in eastern Ukraine, in maps

More than a month after Russia shifted its focus from an assault on Ukraine’s capital to a push to carve off pieces of the country’s east, the invading forces have made little progress — and Ukraine is launching counterattacks. The war is at “a bit of a stalemate,” according to Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, a top U.S. defense official.

While Russia cemented its control this week over the southern port city of Mariupol after a brutal 12-week assault, the invasion across much of the east has proceeded at a crawl.

With no end in sight, these maps explain how terrain, geography and logistics are shaping the battle for key cities, where the war’s outcome could be decided.

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2022-05-17 13:33:23 Here is the latest from Ukraine:

- Ukraine’s military said it was ending its combat mission in the southern port city as evacuations of the last fighters at the embattled Azovstal steel plant began Monday evening. Ukrainian officials said some 260 Ukrainian fighters, including 53 who were gravely wounded, were taken to Russian-held territory. It is not clear how many remain.

- Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde on Tuesday signed the country’s application to join NATO, bringing the country a step closer to membership. Both Sweden and Finland are expected to submit their applications to join the military organization NATO this week.

- Attacks continued in other parts of Ukraine, with the regional governor of Lviv saying early Tuesday that Russian forces shelled a military facility near the border with Poland. Lviv’s mayor, Andriy Sadovyi, said the assault was “one of the largest” on the Lviv region “in terms of the number of missiles.”

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2022-05-17 12:05:56 Here’s the latest on key battlegrounds in Ukraine.

Kharkiv: Russian troops are trying to hold the border after withdrawing from areas around Ukraine’s second-largest city. The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank, said this activity is different from previous Russian withdrawals from around Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy, when they pulled all the way back into Russian territory. In this case, they “may seek to retain positions in Ukraine” — and keep up artillery strikes — to prevent Ukrainian forces from getting within striking range of the Russian city of Belgorod.

Donbas: Despite a mostly stalled offensive in the eastern Donbas region, Russian forces have made modest gains amid heavy fighting in the Donetsk oblast.

Mariupol: An evacuation of at least some Ukrainian soldiers from an encircled steel plant in this Russian-controlled city appeared to be underway Monday. The number of Ukrainian troops to be evacuated was not immediately clear — nor was their fate.

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2022-05-17 09:27:37 Ukraine ends bloody battle for Mariupol, evacuates Azovstal fighters

Ukrainian fighters have ended their weeks-long defense of a besieged steel plant in the strategic port city of Mariupol, as hundreds of combatants — dozens of them seriously wounded — were evacuated from the complex Monday.

“Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes alive,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address. “We hope that we will be able to save the lives of our guys. Among them are the seriously wounded, they are being provided with medical aid.”

Mariupol’s Azovstal Iron and Steel Works and its network of underground tunnels have for weeks served as a shelter and holdout for some 1,000 Ukrainian fighters, including many from the Azov Regiment.

Ukrainian officials reached a cease-fire agreement with the Russian military on Monday, with dozens of buses seen leaving the plant. The evacuation is being coordinated with the help of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

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2022-05-16 22:29:42 Here is the latest from Ukraine.

- As the Western business exodus from Russia continues, McDonald’s said Monday that it “has initiated a process to sell its Russian business” and is seeking a “local buyer” for its portfolio there, which includes 850 restaurants. French automaker Renault Group also said it would pull out of Russia, and sell its shares there to Russian government entities.

- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described broad support for Swedish and Finnish membership in NATO among foreign ministers. But all NATO countries must agree on new members, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticized the Nordic nations.

- Republican U.S. senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), visited Helsinki after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over the weekend. The U.S. Senate is expected to advance the approval of a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine on Monday, with a final vote as soon as Wednesday.

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2022-05-16 21:03:01 Ukrainian refugees in Russia report interrogations, detention and other abuses

Russian authorities are forcing Ukrainians who seek safety to submit to strip searches and interrogations, placing some refugees in guarded camps, stripping them of their vital documents and in some cases forcing them to stay in Russia, according to displaced Ukrainians, volunteers helping refugees, and Ukrainian and Western officials.

At least 1 million Ukrainian civilians have fled the fighting into Russia, according to Russian Defense Ministry numbers that the Ukrainian government also accepts as valid.

In many cases, namely in the city of Mariupol, residents were effectively forced into Russia with no option to seek refuge elsewhere. In other cases, especially in the breakaway territories of eastern Ukraine, the travel to Russia was voluntary.

Almost everyone has had to pass through “filtration camps". People suspected of having sympathies to the Ukrainian military are being detained and tortured.

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2022-05-16 19:55:12 Russian oligarchs loved Sardinia. Now they’re frozen out of paradise.

Even among the billionaires who flock to this Italian vacation enclave, the Russian oligarchs stood out.

They bought up the choicest villas along the coast, building de facto empires shielded behind clipped hedges and surveillance cameras. They were known among real estate agents for always wanting armed guards. One mining and metals tycoon, Alisher Usmanov, would announce his presence every summer with the arrival of one of the world’s largest yachts, which he’d park in the turquoise bay, shuttling between the vessel and his villas, flying in guests on helicopters.

“It was like having an oligarch state right here in Sardinia,” said Mauro Pili, a journalist who was once this island’s governor.

That state has now been dismantled.

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2022-05-16 18:36:01 Why Turkey dissents on Finland and Sweden joining NATO and why it matters

Finnish and Swedish officials have declared in recent days their intention to join NATO, citing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But their acceptance to the alliance requires unanimous consent among members, and the leader of one such state — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey — has voiced hesitation about the two nations.

Erdogan said on Friday that Turkey was not “favorable” toward the possibility of Finland and Sweden joining NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

“We are following the developments with Sweden and Finland, but we don’t have favorable thoughts,” he told reporters.

But Turkey hasn’t said it would veto the countries’ membership, and on Sunday, its foreign minister laid out several conditions for its support, including that the Nordic nations end what he called support for “terrorist organizations” in their countries, as well as export bans on Turkey.

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2022-05-16 17:07:41 McDonald’s seeks to sell Russian business that is ‘no longer tenable’

After more than three decades, McDonald’s is pulling out of Russia and seeking to find a “local buyer” for its business there, which includes 850 restaurants in the country.

In early March, McDonald’s temporarily closed its restaurants in Russia in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, and the precipitating unpredictable operating environment, have led McDonald’s to conclude that continued ownership of the business in Russia is no longer tenable, nor is it consistent with McDonald’s values,” the company said Monday in a statement.

Whoever buys its Russian restaurants will no longer be allowed to use the McDonald’s “golden arches” logo or brand, the company said, adding that it wants to protect its 62,000 employees in Russia.

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