White House says if the European countries choose to join the US-led alliance, Washington would back their bids.
Russian forces likely control all of Rubizhne: Think-tank
Russian forces likely control all of Rubizhne as of Thursday and have likely seized the town of Voevodivka, north of Severodonetsk, the Institute for the Study of War has said.
“They will likely launch a ground offensive on or around Severodonetsk in the coming days,” the institute said in its latest campaign assessment.
“The relative success of Russian operations in this area combined with their failure to advance from Izium and the notable decline in the energy of that attempted advance suggest that they may be giving up on the Izium axis,” it added.
Finland and Sweden will be ‘targets’ as NATO members: Russian diplomat
Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership, and the deployment of allied units on their territory, will make them possible targets for Russia, Moscow’s representative to the UN has said.
“They know that the moment they become members of NATO it will imply certain mirror moves on the Russian side,” Dmitry Polyansky said in a video interview with online publication UnHerd.
“If there are NATO detachments in those territories, these territories would become a target – or a possible target – for a strike.”
“They were living normally as good neighbours with us for tens of years; if they suddenly choose to become part of a very unfriendly bloc, it’s up to them,” Polyansky said.
