Ukraine said it was holding off Russian offensives Sunday in the country's east. Western military officials said the campaign Moscow launched there after its forces failed to seize Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, had slowed to a snail's pace.
Several hours later, Sweden's governing party endorsed the country's own bid for membership, which could lead to an application in days.If the two nonaligned Nordic nations become part of the alliance, it would represent an affront to, who has cited NATO’s post-Cold War expansion in Eastern Europe as a threat to Russia. NATO says it is a purely defensive alliance.
They will return to a country still fighting for survival. Russian and Ukrainian fighters are engaged in a grinding battle for the country’s eastern industrial heartland, the Donbas. Ukraine’s most experienced and best-equipped soldiers are based in eastern Ukraine, where they have fought Moscow-backed separatists for eight years.
The Ukrainian claims could not be independently verified, but Western officials also painted a somber picture for Russia.Britain’s Defense Ministry said in its daily intelligence update Sunday that the Russian army had lost up to one-third of the combat strength it committed to Ukraine in late February and was failing to gain any substantial territory.
After failing to capture Kyiv, Putin shifted the invasion's focus to the Donbas, aiming to seize territory not already occupied by the Moscow-backed separatists.Airstrikes and artillery barrages make it extremely dangerous for journalists to move around in the east, hindering efforts to get a full picture of the fighting. But it appeared to be a back-and-forth slog without major breakthroughs on either side.
One of the wives, Natalia Zarytska, said her husband told her the ring around the steelworks was getting smaller and “the end will be soon.”“In my mind, I think there is no chance, but in my heart I feel that we can save them,” she said.
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