War in Ukraine: Recent Developments

Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:

Turkey has agreed to support Finland and Sweden’s bid for NATO membership, Finland and Turkey say.

A trilateral agreement signed in Madrid “confirms that at this week’s Madrid (NATO) Summit, Turkey will support the invitation of Finland and Sweden to become members of NATO,” Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said in a statement after he and the leader of Sweden met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan’s office confirms Ankara will support membership campaign, saying Ankara “got what it wanted” from Sweden and Finland.

Turkey has resisted attempts by the two longtime non-aligned Nordic countries to join NATO in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying Finland and Sweden gave a hand to Kurdish fighters involved in a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state safe harbor required.

NATO leaders will officially invite Finland and Sweden to join the alliance on Wednesday, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said.

The G7 of leading industrial powers vowed to make Russia pay for the invasion of Ukraine, says German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, stressing that “[President Vladimir]Putin must not be allowed to win”.

“The G7 stand united in their support for Ukraine,” Scholz said at a news conference at the end of a three-day summit in the German Alps.

“We will continue to compete and inflate the economic and political costs of this war for President Putin and his regime.”

Leaders agree to work on a price cap for Russian oil as part of an effort to cut Kremlin revenues, a US official said.

The Kremlin says Russia will halt its offensive once Ukraine surrenders and has urged Kyiv to order its troops to lay down their arms.

“The Ukrainian side can stop everything to this day,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “An order for the nationalist units to lay down their arms is necessary.”

Ukrainian officials say at least 18 people were killed and 59 injured in a Russian missile attack on a shopping center in central Ukraine on Monday, in what G7 leaders are calling a “war crime”.

The Russian military says the strike’s target was a weapons depot and the resulting explosions started the fire at the mall, which was closed at the time of the attack.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia must be labeled a “state sponsor of terrorism” after the attack.

NATO chief Stoltenberg urges alliance leaders at their Madrid summit to maintain their support for Ukraine amid Russian onslaught.

“It is extremely important that we stand ready to continue to provide support because Ukraine is now facing a level of brutality that we have not seen in Europe since World War II,” he said.

NATO is expected to increase its high-readiness force to more than 300,000 troops at the meeting.

The United States will also announce new long-term military operations across Europe in response to the Russian threat, says National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.