Victory Chronicles
-DAY 118

MARIUPOL DEFENDERS

Above: The last Defenders of Mariupol surrendered on May 17 and were taken into enemy captivity.  Photo via 7 News

• The security of the Defenders of Azov is being monitored by the Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate. Head of the Presidential Administration Andriy Yermak stated that work on the safe return of the defenders doesn’t stop for an hour of the day.  Mr Yermak refused to give details of confidential negotiation but confirmed that the Azov Defenders are still alive but in unknown conditions.

ALLIES

Above: Three Crosses monument in Vilnius, Lithuania, illuminated in the colors of the Ukrainian flag. Photo via Euronews

• Nato General-Secretary Jens Stoltenberg hosted a meeting in Brussels between Turkey, Finland and Sweden to negotiate on Turkey’s opposition to NATO membership for the two northern European countries.  Turkey accuses them of harboring “Kurdish terrorists”. Turkey has fought Kurdish rebels in its eastern provinces for several decades, resulting in hundreds of thousands of Kurdish refugees.

• In response to Lithuania’s rail  transit ban on EU-sanctioned goods to the Russian enclave Kaliningrad, the Kremlin rattled its saber and threatened punitive action against the NATO member country, calling the ban a violation of Russian sovereignty.

RUSSIAN ALLIES

Above: The Belarussian dictator is walking a thin line between appeasing Moscow and controlling a European-oriented populace.  Photo via NPR

• Kazakhstan stood up to the Kremlin when its president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev spoke at a forum in St Petersburg, announcing that Kazakhstan does not recognize the break-away Donetsk and Luhansk regions. In response, Russia blocked the export of Kazakh oil through its pipelines, citing the need to demine pipeline terminals.  In response to that, Kazazh blocked 1,700 wagons of Russian coal transiting its territory.

• Amid reports of Belarusian forces amassing on Ukraine’s northwestern border, Head of Presidential Administration Andriy Yermak expressed his opinion that the threat of invasion from Belarus is low due to the Belarusian people’s opposition.  Belarus has been conducting military drills this month as Russia deploys nuclear capable and other heavy weaponry near the Ukrainian border. Lukashenko is trying to increase military troop numbers through patronage agreements and mercenary recruitments.

• Ukraine became a participating member of the Baltic, Adriatic, Black Sea Initiative (aka Three Seas Initiative) that is a cooperative of twelve EU states between the Baltic Sea in the north and the Adriatic and Black Seas to the south.  The group focuses on energy and transportation development of its region.

RUSSIAN WAR CRIMES: BLACK SEA BLOCKADE

Above:  Russian ships pass through the Bosphorus Straits to enter the Black Sea. Russia began building the Black Sea blockade in early February under the pretense of training exercises. Photo via BBC

• Speaking to journalists before the meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council on Monday,  the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell stated that the Russian blockade of the Black Sea was clearly a war crime. He added that it was possible that the blockade could be ended soon though current UN negotiations with the Kremlin.

BOYCOTT RUSSIA: 7th SANCTION PACKAGE

Above: Workers at the Russian Gorkovsky auto factory in Nizhny Novgorod. The Kremlin says that manufacturing slow-downs due to sanctions is part of a Western plot to eliminate competition with Russian products. Photo via Financial Times

• The EU Foreign Affairs Council met yesterday with an agenda including candidate status for Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, a seventh sanctions package against Russia and ending the aggressor blockade of the Black Sea. Poland introduced the package which, in its current form, includes an embargo on technology, more bans on the banking sector and a campaign to fight Moscow disinformation.