Russia-Ukraine war news live: Russian navy ship ‘on fire’ in Black Sea

The UN will investigate alleged rights violations by Russian troops in Ukraine, after the body’s Human Rights Council voted in favour of an inquiry.

A total of 33 countries supported the resolution, while 12 others abstained and two (China and Eritrea) voted against it.

Russia was recently suspended from the council. Although it could have watched today’s session, it chose not to.

Ukraine is negotiating with Russia to secure the release of 38 severely wounded soldiers holed up in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.

The last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the city is under Russian bombardment.

Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, said on Thursday: “To be clear: we are currently negotiating only about 38 severely wounded (bedridden) fighters. We work step by step. We will exchange 38, then we will move on.

“There are currently no talks on the exchange of 500 or 600 people, which is being reported by some media outlets.”

The number of people who have fled Ukraine to escape Russia’s invasion has passed 6 million in Europe’s worst refugee crisis since the end of World War Two, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

Russia’s invasion, which started on Feb. 24, has triggered a massive displacement of people, including more than 8 million Ukrainians within the country.

UN data showed that 6.03 million had fled Ukraine as of Wednesday.

Most have crossed to the European Union through border points in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.

Finnish politicians have been warned they could be cut off from Russian gas as early as Friday just hours after the country said it wanted to join Nato, reports have claimed.

The warning came just hours after Russia said it would be forced to take “retaliatory measures” after Helsinki signalled it would seek to become a Nato member.

Russia’s foreign ministry said Finland’s application, announced on Thursday, is a “radical change” in the country’s foreign policy.

My colleague Thomas Kingsley reports:

Russian president Vladimir Putin has begun moving troops from Syria to Ukraine to help in the Battle for Donbas, reports have claimed.

Military forces are being moved from Syria where the Kremlin had thousands of troops based since 2015 when Vladimir Putin ordered his fighters to support president Bashar al-Assad.

The Moscow Times reported that these troops are being stationed at three airports in Ukraine before being transferred to the frontline to increase Russia’s presence as fighting in the southeast increases, writes Thomas Kingsley.

Despite US sanctions. transportation industry insiders see the Islamic Republic as key land route for moving goods across Eurasia.

With eastern Europe and the Black Sea region in turmoil because of Russia’s invasion and ongoing attack on Ukraine, Iran is also emerging as a tempting bridge between landlocked countries of Central Asia and the rest of the world.

Our international corre
spondent, Borzou Daragahi, reports:

Germany’s energy regulator on Thursday said a stop of Russian gas flows through the Yamal pipeline to Europe via Poland was not expected to endanger German supply security.

“Hardly any gas to Germany has been going through this pipeline for weeks,” a spokesman for the regulatory authority said in a written statement.

“Most volumes went to Poland,” he added.

Russia has warned that it will have to take unspecified “military-technical” steps in response to Finland’s decision to join Nato. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Finland’s accession to Nato will “inflict serious damage on Russian-Finnish relations, as well as stability and security in Northern Europe.”

It said in a statement that “Russia will be forced to take retaliatory steps of military-technical and other characteristics in order to counter the emerging threats to its national security.”

The statement noted that while it’s up to Finland to decide on ways to ensure its security, “Helsinki must be aware of its responsibility and the consequences of such a move.” The ministry charged that Finland’s move also violated past agreements with Russia. “History will determine why Finland needed to turn its territory into a bulwark of military face-off with Russia while losing independence in making its own decisions,” it added.

U.S. troops joined forces from Britain, France, Italy and allied countries in the region Thursday in a military exercise held in Nato’s newest member, North Macedonia, aimed at displaying deployment readiness along the alliance’s eastern borders.

Nearly 10,000 soldiers from 19 nations are taking part in Nato’s planned “Swift Response” exercises as Russia‘s war in Ukraine continues for a 12th week.

The exercises are being held in five separate locations, spanning from Norway to North Macedonia, military officials said.

“I think it’s a fantastic demonstration of what we can do as an alliance and our ability to project combat power if asked to do so and how quickly we can do it,” Maj. Gen. Peter B. Andrysiak, U.S. army deputy commanding general for Europe and Africa, told reporters after an hourlong display in North Macedonia.

Over the past 10 days, about 4,600 soldiers from Albania, France, Greece, Italy, North Macedonia, Montenegro, the U.K., and the U.S. have taken part in the exercises, which have included parachute jumps at several locations around the country.

North Macedonia formally joined Nato in March 2020. The small Balkan country of 1.8 million people has an active military of about 8,000 personnel.

Key Finnish politicians have been warned that Russia could halt its gas supplies to neighbouring Finland on Friday, local newspaper Iltalehti reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources.

The paper did not specify where the warning would have come from and Reuters was not able to verify the information.

Finland’s president Sauli Niinisto and prime minister Sanna Marin said Finland would apply to join the Western defence alliance Nato “without delay”, prompting Russia to vow a response.

On May 5, the Finnish government said it was prepared for the possibility of its eastern neighbour cutting off gas delivery in response to Finland’s refusal to abide by Russian demands for gas payments to be made in roubles.