AFP
Russia retaliates in Ukraine after NATO summit, Biden in Finland
Russia responded to NATO’s declared support for Ukraine on Thursday with airstrikes and a “nuclear” threat, as Joe Biden celebrated Finland’s recent admission to the Atlantic alliance in Helsinki. The attack came as Moscow carried out a series of airstrikes on Ukraine, with Kiev claiming the destruction of 20 explosive drones and two Russian cruise missiles. At least four people were injured in Kiev in overnight drone attacks, according to Ukrainian officials. The Iranian-made Shaheed explosive drones “entered the capital from different directions”, the military administration said. A dozen of them were shot down at the city’s airfield. At the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, the G7 powers pledged to provide long-term military assistance to Ukraine. The announcement angered Moscow, which, through its leader of diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, signaled that the delivery of Western F-16 fighter jets, which Kiev says is needed to fight a Russian invasion, would be considered a “nuclear” threat. “We will consider only the fact that the Armed Forces of Ukraine have systems that threaten the West in the nuclear field,” he said in an interview with the online newspaper Lenta.ru. “Russia cannot ignore the potential of these devices to transport a nuclear charge”, the head of Russian diplomacy underlined, assuring that Moscow had warned the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Following a go-ahead from Washington, the Netherlands and Denmark are leading an 11-nation alliance to train pilots on the US-made fighter jet. Joe Biden has been in Finland since Wednesday evening, which joined the Atlantic Alliance in April, to end his European tour that he began in London on Sunday evening. In a blow to Moscow, Finland became the 31st member of the Atlantic alliance on April 4, turning the page on Russia’s decades of neutrality after World War II and then military non-alignment since the end of the Cold War . – Insufficient arms in Ukraine – Joe Biden began a meeting on Thursday afternoon with his counterpart Sauli Niinisto, as well as the leaders of the other Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland). “We stand with the courageous people of Ukraine as they defend themselves against Russia’s brutal assault,” the US president told reporters at the start of the meeting. The climate issue, “is the single most existential threat to humanity.” That’s also on the agenda, according to Mr. Biden. Finland, which shares a border with Russian territory over 1,300 km in length, was a supporter of dialogue between Western countries and Russia until the invasion of Ukraine, with Vladimir Putin’s “message” bearer”. is one of the clearest supporters. After strongly rebuking Nato leaders for not having a fixed calendar for Ukraine’s integration into the organization, President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday looked to resolve the issue at the Atlantic Alliance’s summit. On the second and last day, the number of messages of thanks for the “enormous help” received by Ukraine increased. But on the ground, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force confirmed that Western weapons systems were still insufficient. ‘We do not have the means to destroy ballistic missiles.’ – he lamented on national television.bur-nzg-map/pa