World News | Russia Soldier Pleads Guilty over War Crimes

Kyiv, May 18 (AP) A Russian soldier facing the first war crimes trial since the start of the war has pleaded guilty to charges of killing a Ukrainian civilian.

Sgt Vadim Shyshimarin pleaded guilty to the charges during his trial in Kyiv on Wednesday. The 21-year-old soldier could get life in prison if convicted of shooting a Ukrainian man in the head through an open car window in a village in the northeastern Sumy region on Feb 28, four days into the invasion.

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Ukraine's Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova has previously said her office was readying war crimes cases against 41 Russian soldiers for offenses including bombing civilian infrastructure, killing civilians, rape and looting.

It was not immediately clear how many of the suspects are in Ukrainian hands and how many could be tried in absentia.

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Moscow: Russia says it is expelling 27 Spanish diplomats after announcing the expulsion of dozens of diplomats from France and Italy.

Moscow said on Wednesday the move is in response to the expulsion of Russian diplomats last month from Spain.

Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the country was expelling 34 French and 24 Italian diplomats.

Multiple European countries expelled Russian diplomats last month after accusing Russian forces of killing civilians in Bucha and other towns outside Kyiv, accusations the Kremlin has fiercely denied.

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Brussels: The European Commission is proposing a nine-billion euro ($9.5 billion) loan to Ukraine to help the war-torn country.

The EU's executive arm said Wednesday that the macro-financial assistance in the form of loans will be complemented by support from other partners including countries from the Group of Seven major economies.

“We are proposing to top up the significant short-term relief provided until now, with a new exceptional macro-financial assistance for Ukraine of up to 9 billion (euros) in 2022,” European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said.

“But we also need to think about the day after for the wider reconstruction effort. The EU has a responsibility and a strategic interest in leading this reconstruction effort.” The EU said it already has mobilized around 4.1 billion euros ($4.3 billion) to support Ukraine.

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Moscow: Russia is expelling 34 French and 24 Italian diplomats following similar expulsions of Russian diplomats throughout Europe last month.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that the French diplomatic staff would be given two weeks to leave the country.

Russia said it was responding to “the provocative and utterly baseless decision of French authorities” in April to expel 41 Russian diplomats, which it said had damaged the relationship between the two countries.

Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told state news agency RIA Novosti that 24 Italian diplomats also will be expelled. She gave no other details.

Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi said after a meeting with his Finnish counterpart that “this should not interrupt diplomatic channels, because it is through the channels that, if successful, peace will arrive".

Mutliple European countries expelled Russian diplomats last month after accusing Russian forces of killing civilians in Bucha and other towns outside Kyiv, accusations the Kremlin has fiercely denied.

Russian state news agencies reported Wednesday that the ambassadors of Spain and Sweden had also been summoned to the Foreign Ministry. Russia expelled two Finnish diplomats on Tuesday.

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Moscow: The Russian military says it has destroyed several artillery pieces that the US delivered to Ukraine.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj Gen Igor Konashenkov, said Wednesday that the Russian military has hit a battery of US-supplied M777 howitzers near the village of Pidhirne of the eastern Donetsk region. The ministry later released a video showing a drone strike on Ukrainian artillery positions.

Konashenkov's claims couldn't be independently verified.

The Russian Defense Ministry has repeatedly reported strikes targeting Western-supplied weapons.

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Ankara: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says NATO's enlargement would depend on Finland and Sweden showing respect to Turkish “sensitivities” concerning “terrorism.”

Erdogan on Wednesday told his ruling party legislators that “NATO's enlargement would be meaningful for us to the extent that our sensitivities are respected.”

Erdogan spoke hours after Finland and Sweden officially applied to join the military alliance, a move that was driven by security concerns over Russia's war in Ukraine. His comments suggested Erdogan is refusing to back down on his opposition to the two Nordic countries' membership in the alliance because of their alleged support for Kurdish militants.

He said Sweden and Finland “will not hand over terrorists to us, but you will ask us to allow you to join NATO.”

“NATO is a security entity. It is a security agency,” Erdogan said. "Therefore, we cannot say yes' to depriving this security organization of security.”

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Moscow: The Kremlin says the Ukrainian soldiers at a giant steel mill in the port of Mariupol are surrendering.

The Russian Defence Ministry said Wednesday that 959 Ukrainian soldiers had surrendered since Monday.

Ukrainian authorities say they ordered the fighters to save their lives and said the mission to tie up Russian forces by defending the Azovstal plant is complete.

But they have have avoided describing the action of the ones who left the plant as a surrender.

Asked about the conflicting Russian and Ukrainian narratives, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, “There can be just one interpretation: the troops holed up at Azovstal are laying down their weapons and surrendering.”

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Berlin: The United States has mobilised about three times as much support for Ukraine as the European Union, according to figures compiled by a German think tank.

The Kiel Institute for the World Economy said Wednesday that a new aid package passed by the US House of Representatives takes American military, financial and humanitarian support for Ukraine to almost 43 billion euros (over $45 billion) between Jan. 24 and May 10.

The institute found that aid from the EU amounted to just under 16 billion euros ($16.8 billion) during the same period. However, some countries in the 27-nation bloc have shied away from giving the value of their Ukraine aid, particularly for arms supplies.

Compared to their gross domestic products, Estonia, Latvia and Poland provided the most support, ahead of the United States, according to the think tank's calculations.

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Berlin: Austria's government says it has no intention of following Sweden and Finland into NATO.

Austria joined the European Union at the same time as the two Nordic nations in 1995. The Swedish and Finnish applications to join NATO will likely leave Austria as one of very few EU countries that aren't also a member of the trans-Atlantic military alliance.

Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg told Germany's Deutschlandfunk radio on Wednesday that “we decided on neutrality in 1955 and is still the case that a very, very large majority of the population views this positively”.

He said that hasn't prevented Austria from backing EU sanctions against Russia and giving Ukraine non-lethal support.

Schallenberg said he “takes note” of the Swedish and Finnish decision to make a “massive change” to their security policy -- “but the situation looks a bit different here: we will, like Ireland and Malta -- there are three states in all in the (European) Union -- continue to remain neutral.”

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Copenhagen: The Danish Defence Intelligence Service on Wednesday heightened the threat level for cyber activism against Denmark because of the recent pro-Russian cyber activist attacks on Western European NATO countries.

Denmark's Centre for Cyber Security which is under the Scandinavian country's foreign intelligence service, raised the threat level from low to medium - the third level on a five-step scale.

The national IT security authority said that in the initial phase after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, cyber-activist attacks mainly targeted Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

However, “in recent weeks, cyber activists have also hit targets in Western European NATO countries”. It added that cyber-activist attacks have affected in recent weeks targeted “countries in the immediate vicinity of Ukraine. Pro-Russian activist groups have attacked companies and authorities in, for example, the Czech Republic, Poland and Estonia.”

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Kyiv: The Russian military says that almost 1,000 Ukrainian troops left Mariupol's last stronghold this week. Ukraine has not confirmed.

Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Maj Gen Igor Konashenkov said Wednesday that 694 Ukrainian soldiers at the Azovstal steel plant handed themselves over to Russian troops the past 24 hours, bringing the total of Ukrainian troops who have conceded since Monday to 959.

Konashenkov's claim couldn't be independently verified.

Ukrainian authorities have avoided mentioning any numbers for the troops who left the plant. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)