War until the afternoon of May 18: The commander of the Ukrainian army in Azovstal has not yet ‘committed’

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, 694 Ukrainian soldiers at the steel plant in the city of Mariupol have surrendered in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 959 since May 16. The Russian side also said that 80 soldiers were injured and 51 of them were taken to hospital.

Ukrainian soldiers were searched after surrendering in Azovstal on May 18 Reuters

The fate of these soldiers is still unclear. Denis Pushilin, leader of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DPR) in eastern Ukraine, said a court would decide their fate, according to The Guardian. Meanwhile, the State Duma, the lower house of Russia, is making moves to label the Azov Regiment forces as a terrorist organization. This raises the question of whether Russia feels the need to treat surrendered soldiers as it does prisoners of war.

According to Pushilin, the most senior commanders of the Ukrainian forces in Azovstal are still inside the factory and have not surrendered, Reuters quoted local media as saying.

The Ukrainian side has not yet released an announcement updates on the number of people who have left Azovstal as well as on the situation of negotiations on the exchange of Russian prisoners of war.

Most of Azovstal’s troops appear to have been taken to Olenivka, a town near the front lines but in territory controlled by the DPR, according to CNN.

See more: Russia claims nearly 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers in Azovstal have ‘surrendered’

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on May 18 that peace talks with Ukraine were still at a standstill, and said Kyiv absolutely did not want to continue those negotiations.

“Negotiations are not progressing and we see that Ukrainian negotiators do not want to continue to pursue this,” Peskov said.

Yesterday, Interfax news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko as saying that Russia and Ukraine were not holding talks “of any kind” and Kyiv “actually withdrew from the negotiation process.” “.

Ukraine has not yet responded to the above information.

The two Nordic countries have Officially submit application to join NATO May 18, after weeks of making strong statements about the security risk they could face, stemming from Russia’s military deployment to Ukraine.

(From left) Finnish Ambassador to NATO Klaus Korhonen, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Swedish Ambassador to NATO Axel Wernhoff during a ceremony in Brussels on May 18. reuters

This development put an end to the neutral stance of the two countries, which advocated non-alignment military throughout many decades. The decision by the two countries could also lead to the biggest expansion of NATO in 20 years.

One of the immediate consequences was the debate over whether other neutral European countries would change their positions. Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said this morning that the country would maintain its neutral position.

“The situation for us looks a bit different,” Mr Schallenberg told German radio station Deutschlandfunk, according to Reuters, pointing out that the Austrian public overwhelmingly supported a neutral stance.

However, the path to becoming a NATO member of the two Scandinavian countries is being blocked Turkey obstructs. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on May 18 that he expected NATO allies to understand their security sensitivities. He reiterated that the Swedish and Finnish delegations did not need to visit Turkey, and said Sweden should not expect Turkey to agree without extraditing “terrorists”.

See more: What does Turkey want when it opposes Sweden and Finland joining NATO?