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Russian missile strikes early Sunday hit military infrastructure in Ukraine’s western Lviv region, according to the local governor. The strike came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed hip-hop group Kalush Orchestra’s win in the Eurovision contest as the Russian onslaught in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region appeared to be losing momentum. Follow FRANCE 24’s live blog for all the latest developments. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
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8:53am: Germany ‘prepared’ for quick ratification of Finnish, Swedish NATO bids
Germany has taken all preparations for a quick ratification process should Finland and Sweden decide to apply for NATO membership, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has told reporters on a second day of talks with her NATO counterparts in Berlin,
“Germany has prepared everything to do a quick ratification process,” she said, adding that ministers had agreed at a dinner on Saturday that there should not be grey zone between the time they apply and the time they join.
“If they decide to join they can join quickly…We must make sure that we will give them security guarantees, there must not be a transition period, a grey zone, where their status is unclear,” she said.
She was referring to the ratification period that can take as long as a year, during which the Nordic countries will not yet be protected by NATO’s Article 5 which guarantees that an attack on one ally is an attack on all.
8:07am: Sweden’s ruling party poised to back NATO bid
Sweden’s ruling Social Democrats are poised on Sunday to come out in favour of the country joining NATO, paving the way for an application soon after abandoning decades of military non-alignment in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson’s Social Democrats, the biggest party in every…
Source : france24
