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LAST UPDATE | 12 May 2022
FINLAND TOOK A step towards fast-track membership of NATO, triggering a blunt warning from the Kremlin, as Russian forces pounded areas in Ukraine’s east today, including the last pocket of resistance in besieged Mariupol.
In Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council decided to probe alleged Russian atrocities in Ukraine, in a vote overwhelmingly approved by its members but snubbed by Russia.
Announcing a seismic change in policy since Russia invaded its neighbour in February, Finland’s leaders declared their nation must apply to join NATO “without delay.”
“NATO membership would strengthen Finland’s security,” President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin said in a joint statement in Helsinki.
“As a member of NATO, Finland would strengthen the entire defence alliance.”
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned Russia would “definitely” see Finnish membership as a threat.
The Russian foreign ministry said Moscow would be “forced to take reciprocal steps, military-technical and other, to address the resulting threats to its national security.”
In launching the invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin cited in part what he called the threat from NATO, which expanded eastwards after the Cold War.
The foreign ministry accused NATO of seeking to create “another flank for the military threat to our country.”
“Helsinki should be aware of its responsibility and the consequences of such a move,” it said.
Finland has been a declared neutral in East-West crises for decades, and as recently as January its leaders ruled out NATO membership of the alliance.
But the 24 February invasion shocked the Nordic nation.
It shares a 1,300-kilometre border with Russia and its past is studded with conflict with its giant neighbour.
NATO has already declared it will warmly embrace the two countries with deep pockets and well-equipped armies.
Finland’s entry will be “smooth and swift,” NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg promised on Thursday.
Germany, France and the powerful US Senate Foreign Relations Committee also strongly voiced their support, and Britain has already pledged its assistance.
A special committee will announce Finland’s formal decision on a membership bid on Sunday. Sweden, another neutral state, is widely expected to follow its neighbour.
Russian gas
Russia’s flow of gas to Europe fell meanwhile, spurring fears for Germany and other heavily-dependent economies.
Russian energy giant Gazprom announced it would stop supplying gas via the Polish part of the Yamal-Europe pipeline following retaliatory sanctions that Russia slapped on Western companies yesterday.
Gazprom also said gas transiting to Europe via Ukraine had dropped by a third – a fall it blamed on Ukraine’s pipeline operator, which the company denies, pointing the finger at Russia.
Ukraine and Poland are major supply routes for Russian gas to Europe and the two sides have kept flows going despite the conflict.
The European Union’s heavy reliance on Russian energy has made it reluctant to add oil and gas imports to sanctions that are inflicting a toll on Russia’s economy.
Germany accused Russia of using “energy as a weapon.”
“The situation is coming to a head,” Economy Minister Robert Habeck said.
The EU is struggling to overcome Hungarian resistance for plans to ban Russian oil.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, drew a parallel with the 1930s as he urged the bloc to impose an immediate embargo.
“If the leaders had acted decisively in 1938, Europe could have avoided WWII,” he wrote on Twitter. “History won’t forgive us if we make the same mistake again.”#
Shelling
Fighting in Ukraine has been concentrated on the south and east since Russia abandoned attempts to seize Kyiv in the opening weeks of the war.
Ukraine’s presidency said shelling continued throughout Lugansk – part of the Donbas region where Ukrainian forces are fiercely opposing Russian armour and Kremlin-backed separatists.
Russian troops are trying to take complete control of Rubizhne, block a key highway between Lysychansk and Bakhmut and seize Severodonetsk, the office said.
In the northeastern region of Chernihiv three people were killed and 12 others wounded early Thursday in a strike on a school in Novgorod-Siversky, the emergency services said.
In the southern port city of Mariupol, besieged troops in the vast Azovstal steelworks have been holding out against weeks-long bombardment, refusing demands to surrender.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said “difficult talks” were underway over the evacuation of 38 seriously wounded troops.
War crimes probe
In Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council voted 33-2, with 12 abstentions, to investigate alleged atrocities BY Russian troops.
The resolution, brought by Ukraine, will focus on alleged crimes in the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy regions in late February and in March, “with a view to holding those responsible to account.”
“These have been 10 weeks of sheer horror to the people of my country,” Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova told the UN meeting from Kyiv.
“Only the world standing strong in solidarity with the Ukrainian people can defeat this pure evil.”
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has already begun its own inquiry, sending investigators to the Kyiv suburb of Bucha.
The invasion has sparked an exodus of nearly six million civilians, many of whom describe torture, sexual violence and indiscriminate destruction.
Ukrainian prosecutors say they have received reports of more than 10,000 alleged crimes, with 622 suspects identified.
Yesterday, the office said it would launch the first trial for war crimes.
Vadim Shishimarin, a 21-year-old Russian soldier, is accused of killing an unarmed 62-year-old civilian as he fled with four other soldiers in a stolen car.
Dilemmas
Across Ukraine, lives have been turned upside down, forcing millions to make anguished choices of how to respond.
Zhanna Protsenko, a social worker in the frontline town of Orikhiv, spoke to AFP as she was about to head off on her bicycle to visit people who refused or were unable to evacuate.
“How can I leave them here?” the 56-year-old asked, standing near a hospital that was hit by a strike in the past week.
“We work. We have no time to hide,” she said as contractors repaired rows of blown-out windows and an oil drum-sized hole blasted in the hospital’s brick facade.
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His self pitying performance, admittedly under severe pressure, has done him no favours.
Agreed, but on the other side, i don’t believe Gerrie Nel’s badgering of the witness done the state any favours
did anybody ever wonder why intruders would break into your house through a bathroom window then lock themselves in !
By no means am I defending him, but Crime in South Africa is so common place that most South Africans live in constant fear. Reeva & Oscar are also famous, so I’m sure they were also always on the look out for people wanting stork them, maybe steal from them. If thief broke in through a bathroom window, who knows what they will do!
Does this give him the excuse to kill somebody……
Not at all, but if you go research the crime statistics in South Africa, you will find that families are being murdered for a couple of possessions.
@stanley. Would the people who have private security in their neighbourhood live in constant fear or just the middle classes
Yes!! Everybody does…… Maybe not Jacob Zuma
Yes m’lady
Class :)
Thits incorrict m’lady
Gizmo you’re getting awful abuse in the Justin bieber story. If u need back up you know where I am buddy. We could take them!!
I’ll have a look Saul!
He’s being shown up for what he truly is a control freak with a temper (roid rage? Found lots of steroids in his place )had access to a gun and a history of incidents with guns and the most ridiculous story which doesn’t add up or make any sense.He murdered his girlfriend and is nothing more than a deranged little coward who is turning this trial into a farce with his theatrics and crocodile tears.
Does anyone actually believe his bullshit story? If so why?
Thank god, listening to him was painful.
Change the channel then, or go do something constructive
It’s on the radio in work you moron.
Try a different station……. One with lovely soft music to calm yourself down…… It sounds like you need it
How come we’re allowed to comment on the trial all of a sudden?
It’s trial by media. We have a role to play. I say murder in the first, my lady
It was the gun’s fault it pulled on his finger……
Im not saying he didn’t do it but innocent/guilty proven etc..
Google PTSD there.. its not exclusive to people who are coming back from warzones..
“The relentless Gerrie Nel – also known as the Pitbull”
Every other reference I’ve heard/read has been he’s known as the “Bulldog”………..
Whatever…
just lock him up already…he’s as guilty as sin…
This is a man who in spite of his disability likes to be in control and cannot allow love to get in the way as it shows up a weakness in his shield. It is a pity that his girlfriend could not recognise this.
In spite of his disability likes to be in control?? What are you trying to say here. This has nothing to do with a disability
Whatsda Pistorious (that’s the new way I answer the phone to my buddies) it could catch on!!
you don’t have many ‘buddies’ i take it.
Cowboy
I’m absolutely stunned when I look at the comment in articles related to this trial. Most of the comments are from people who have already decided he was guilty. The trial is nothing more than paper work to these people.
I don’t know whether he is guilty or not, but this certainly isn’t as clear cut as some people are trying to make out.
totally agree, and if it was her that shot him those same people would be calling for her release immediately.
I think what happened was ~ they were having an enormous row… she tried to get away from him because he is a proven lunatic!! She wouldn’t come out of the bathroom and he blasted shots through the door thinking she was at the toilet and she wasnt she was behind the door and he killed her!!
Erm even is she was sitting on the toilet the shots would have hit her(in the head imo)or at least the ricochet would. The toilet cubicle is tiny btw.
Have you seen the layout of the bathroom??????
Hasnt a leg to stand on in my view
so you haven’t heard that ,,,ahem, joke since last February ?
Why would she lock the bathroom door in the middle of the night when it was just herself and her boyfriend in the house??
A valentines card????
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Please dont shoot
Its me on the loo
I think I must be the only person in the world following this trial that has a certain amount of empathy for Oscar Pistorius.
In saying that, I don’t believe his version of events as I fully believe he knew it was Reeva Steenkamp that was in the bathroom, but at the same time I don’t think it was a pre-meditated, ruthless, cold-blooded murder as the prosecution are attempting to make it out to be.
This is my humble opinion of how I think events unfolded …
I believe they were a couple very much in love and had a very passionate relationship. And with a passionate relationship comes very intense and explosive rows. I think it started off as a verbal arguement that quickly gathered momentum. It was getting very heated and both were relentless and everyone knows that there’s no-one better at pressing your buttons than your very own partner. I think he snapped and grabbed his gun – not ever intending to use it – but just wanted to scare her. She then ran into the bathroom away from him – but at the same time not believing he’d ever fire at her either. But as the row raged on through the door, in a split-second of pure madness and frustration with her he found himself pulling on the trigger. I believe he was instantly horrified and distraught at what he had just done.
He then panicked and lied about what happened and has been continuing that lie ever since. He has now found himself in a situation he can’t get out of.
I think all the grief and emotion he showed on the stand is genuine because he did truely love her and is still in disbelief at what he did.
While I do feel sorry for him because I feel he accidently lost the woman he loves by his own hand, he does absolutely deserve to be punished for his crime, because no matter how it happened, the girl is dead because of him.
He should have told the truth from the start and pleaded manslaughter.
In any case, the whole chain of events is such a sad tragedy for all involved.
Would anyone else agree with that possible scenario … or not?
Totally agree!
Agree 100% but I don’t have any empathy for him, I understand your other half can push your buttons like no one else and in a fit of rage you can loose the head i understand that. But it takes a fair bit of presence of mind to go pick up a gun & open fire it don’t care how passionate your relationship is
Yes I agree with that. I accept that being totally wound up in the midst of a blazing row is no excuse for pulling a gun on some-one – let alone use it which is why he deserves to be tried and punished for it. But I imagine that it is a very fine line that you step over to reach that presence of mind and I believe in his case it was only for a very brief split second.
I also think when you are around firearms as much as he is and you become very comfortable holding them and using them at firing ranges etc – you lose perspective of how lethal they are and lose the sense of danger surrounding them. And I feel his attitude to holding such a powerful weapon was just way too laid-back with devastating results.
Could they not use a lie detector test and the trial would be over in one day.How can you convict him without reasonable doubt when only 2 people are direct witness and only one survives.
Pristorious has NOT a leg to stand on!
and again,,,,,so you haven’t heard that ,,,ahem, joke since last February ?
This particular judge will charge him with murder, I’ve no doubt about that.
have your say