Russia's war in Ukraine - that happened on Monday night (May 16)

Enlarge image

Alleged firebombing of Azov steelworks in Mariupol

Photo: VIDEO OBTAINED BY REUTERS / via REUTERS

What has happened in the past few hours

slow

down the

in the

of the country

with fierce resistance

, but Moscow's troops are keeping up the pressure.

"We are preparing for major offensives in

and on the Lysychansk-Bakhmut road," said the governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Gaiday, on Saturday.

The Russian army, according to its own account, destroyed several military targets in the

and also attacked the western Ukrainian region of Lviv again.

Previous attempts to

Severodonetsk had been repelled by the Ukrainian soldiers, Gajdaj explained.

At the same time he described the increasingly

in the Luhansk region: "There is absolutely no gas, no water and no electricity." On the border with the Donetsk region, on the side of the city of Popasna, fierce fighting is going on.

For the past three weeks,

near the village of Bilohorivka

.

According to the governor, the Russian troops suffered heavy losses of soldiers and equipment.

The Ukrainian side learned from

"that an entire Russian battalion refused to attack because they saw what was happening".

Aerial photos showed dozens of destroyed armored vehicles on the riverbank, as well as wrecked pontoon bridges.

Firebombs

are falling on the

in the Ukrainian port city of

, according to a video published on Telegram

.

Brightly glowing projectiles can be seen in video posted to Telegram on Sunday by Alexander Khodakovsky, a commander of the pro-Russian self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic.

It was not clear from a distance what type of ammunition was being used and when the video was taken.

A British military expert said it looked like an attack with phosphorous or incendiary weapons.

The city administration of the

has become the target of a cyber attack by suspected

.

As a result of the attack on Friday, some city services were no longer available, Deputy Mayor Andriy Moskalenko wrote on Facebook.

Part of it had been restored by Sunday.

The attackers also stole internal

, which was then published in "hostile" information channels on the Telegram chat service, Moskalenko wrote.

Russia is also conducting attacks on the "IT front" and you have to be careful offline and online.

That says Kyiv

Ukrainian troops report a

in their

in the eastern

region : they have at least at one point advanced to the

Russia.

On Monday night, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense released a video showing a dozen soldiers next to a

.

According to the information, they belong to a volunteer brigade from the city of Kharkiv.

The Ukrainian military had already reported in the past few days that they were gradually

.

Russia had already withdrawn its troops in northern Ukraine after being stopped in front of the capital, Kyiv.

Russia is currently concentrating on the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where pro-Russian separatists have controlled some areas with help from Moscow since 2014.

The Ukrainian

wants to increasingly ask in

and

for help in the Russian war of aggression against his country.

He wants to speak to parliaments in other countries, said Selenskyj in his daily video speech on Monday night.

In the past few months, the Ukrainian President had, among other things, asked parliamentarians in Europe via video link for support.

In a week he also wants to address the World Economic Forum in Davos, where, among other things, post-war reconstruction will be discussed

International reactions

Finland

's President Sauli Niinistö and Prime Minister Sanna Marin jointly announced on Sunday that the government

intends to

to

The approval of the Finnish parliament is still pending, but a majority is considered secure.

There was talk of a "historic day" and a "new age."

The country has been non-aligned for decades and shares a 1,300-kilometer border with Russia.

For a long time, joining the military alliance was considered unthinkable, but the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has led to a rethink.

Later in the day, the governing party also spoke out in favor of

, which was also previously non -aligned

.

According to the state news agency Belta, the

western

against

billions

in

.

"Because of the sanctions, almost all Belarusian exports to the countries of the European Union and North America are blocked," Belta quoted Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko from a transcript of an interview with the Dubai-based television channel Al-Arabiya.

The damage amounts to “about 16 to 18 billion dollars a year”.

What is happening today

• In

  Sweden

  and

  Finland

  , the respective

  parliaments

  come together to

  debate

  whether

  the two Scandinavian countries should

  join

  NATO

  .

  The Social Democratic Party of Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson voted in a historic U-turn on Sunday for the country to join the military alliance.

  A decision on the government's application for membership may have been expected on Monday after the debate in the Reichstag in Stockholm.

  With the approval of the Social Democrats, a broad majority is emerging there

• The

  foreign ministers

  of the

  EU states

  are discussing the latest developments in the Ukraine war

  at a

  meeting in Brussels .

  The Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is expected to attend the talks.

  The EU has also invited Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly.

  The meeting is overshadowed by the ongoing dispute within the EU over an import ban on Russian oil.

  The plans for this are currently on the brink because Hungary is not willing to support the project

jok/Reuters/dpa