At least 10 civilians were killed by Russian shelling of the city of Sievierodonetsk in eastern Ukraine on Monday, regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said.
Gaidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, had said earlier on Monday that heavy shelling had caused fires in residential areas.
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Ukraine war: Russia agrees to evacuate wounded soldiers from Azovstal plant
Russia on Monday said there was an agreement to evacuate wounded Ukrainian soldiers holed up in the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol. “An agreement has been reached on the removal of the wounded,” news agency Reuters quoted the Russian defence ministry as saying in a statement. Russia attacked the port city of Mariupol – which it now claims to controls – for nearly two months.
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Sweden to apply for NATO membership
Sweden’s Social Democrat minority government on Monday took the formal decision to apply for NATO membership, following in the footsteps of its neighbour Finland in a move that will redraw the geopolitical map of northern Europe. “There is a broad majority in Sweden’s parliament for joining NATO,” Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said following a debate on security policy in parliament. “The best thing for Sweden and the Swedish population is to join NATO.”
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Sri Lanka out of petrol, economy in a precarious condition: PM Wickremesinghe
Sri Lanka Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Monday said the island nation’s economy was in a precarious condition and that the cash-strapped nation was currently out of petrol. He also proposed privatising the Sri Lanka airlines. “At present, the Sri Lankan economy is extremely precarious. Although the former government’s budget projected revenue of SLR 2.3 trillion, SLR 1.6 trillion is the realistic projection of this year’s revenue,” the PM said in Colombo.
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‘Won’t simply put up with…’: Russia’s warning amid NATO’s Nordic expansion
According to an AFP report, Swedish public support for NATO membership has risen to nearly 50 per cent in the aftermath of the Ukraine war. The situation is the same in Finland, with the AFP report revealing that the number of Finns who want to join NATO has climbed to more than three-quarters – almost triple the level before the Ukraine war.