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The foreign ministers of Sweden and Finland reiterated in separate interviews published Saturday that the process for the two Nordic nations to join NATO is continuing despite Turkey's president saying Sweden shouldn't expect his country to approve its membership, according to The Associated Press.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström acknowledged in an interview with Swedish newspaper Expressen Turkish anger over recent demonstrations and the burning of the Quran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm.
Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto echoed his Swedish counterpart and said the two countries planned to continue making a joint journey toward NATO.
To admit new countries, NATO requires unanimous approval from its existing members, of which Turkey is one. Despite this, the Swedish government is hopeful of joining NATO this summer, Billström said.
Hungary and Turkey are the only countries in the 30-member Western military alliance that haven't signed off on Finland's and Sweden's applications.
Lawrence Freedman has spent his career studying war and diplomacy.
The British historian specializes in international relations, foreign policy, and strategy. He has written academic works on the Cold War, nuclear deterrence, and the politics of military operations. In 2019, Oxford University Press published his book, “Ukraine And The Art Of Strategy,” an "account of the origins and course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict through the lens of strategy."
A prolific commentator on contemporary defense and foreign policy issues, he served as a member of the Chilcot Inquiry, a probe into the U.K.'s role in the Iraq War.
Freedman spoke to about the futility of the war in Ukraine, the likelihood of total victory for either side, and why he doesn't think Putin will use a nuclear weapon.
Russian construction workers have started the complete dismantling of a neighborhood in Russian-occupied Mariupol, including unbroken houses, to build “elite” homes, The Kyiv Independent reported, citing comments by Petro Andryshchenko, an adviser to the city's mayor.
“In spring, Moscow developers close to the federal government of Russia will begin construction of ‘elite economy'-class apartments under the Mariupol real estate mortgage program,” Andryshchenko said. He did not specify his exact source.
Russia's brutal two-month siege of Mariupol left the majority of the city of 450,000 in Donetsk Oblast in ruins.
In the past several months, Russia has begun bulldozing Mariupol's ruined apartment buildings, which multiple human rights organizations say is an attempt to cover up war crimes; in some cases, the remains of those killed are understood to still be inside.
The Anti-Corruption Foundation, led by jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, reported in December that Russian deputy defense minister Timur Ivanov could be profiting from construction in Mariupol. The ministry hired the same companies to build houses in destroyed Russian-controlled Mariupol and paid Ivanov’s bills for building materials for his private villa.
German arms maker Rheinmetall had a record year in 2022 and is approaching an order backlog of 30 billion euros, CEO Armin Papperger told Reuters in an interview.
"In 2022, we had a very good year, a record year," he said, saying that the fourth quarter would even beat good third quarter results.
"We are approaching an order backlog of 30 billion euros, and I expect to see an order backlog of 40 billion euros next year," said the CEO of the company, which sells a whole range of defense products but is probably most famous for supplying the 120mm gun of the Leopard 2 tank.
A total of 321 heavy tanks have been promised to Ukraine by several countries, Reuters reported, citing comments by Ukraine's ambassador to France.
"As of today, numerous countries have officially confirmed their agreement to deliver 321 heavy tanks to Ukraine," Vadym Omelchenko, Ukraine's ambassador to France, said in an interview with French TV station BFM.
"Delivery terms vary for each case, and we need this help as soon as possible," he added.
Omelchenko did not provide a breakdown of the number of tanks per country.
On Thursday, several Western nations led by Germany and the United States said they would send tanks to Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed his condolences on Saturday following attacks in Jerusalem in which he said a Ukrainian citizen was among the dead.