Russia-Ukraine war: Moscow warns of ‘retaliatory steps’ over Finnish Nato bid; scale of unlawful killings ‘shocking’, says UN – live

Russia will be forced to respond to Finland’s decision to join the Nato alliance, its foreign ministry said in a statement.

The statement said:

Finland joining Nato is a radical change in the country’s foreign policy.

Russia will be forced to take retaliatory steps, both of a military-technical and other nature, in order to stop threats to its national security arising.

Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said Finland would be “warmly welcomed” into the alliance and promised the accession process would be “smooth and swift”.

Nato membership of Finland would strengthen both the alliance and Finland, Stoltenberg said after Finland announced it would apply to join Nato “without delay”.

Stoltenberg said:

Should Finland decide to apply, they would be warmly welcomed into Nato, and the accession process would be smooth and swift.

Finland is one of Nato’s “closest partners, a mature democracy, a member of the European Union, and an important contributor to Euro-Atlantic security”, he added.

Finnish membership to Nato would prove that the alliance’s “door is open”, Stoltenberg said, and that Finland “decides its own future”.

• Finland must apply to join Nato without delay in the wake of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, its president and prime minister have said, confirming a historic change in the Nordic country’s security policy after decades of military non-alignment.
• Sauli Niinistö and Sanna Marin made the call in a joint statement on Thursday, adding: “We hope that the national steps still needed to make this decision will be taken rapidly within the next few days.”
• Finland shares an 810-mile (1,300km) border with Russia. Public support for Nato membership has trebled in Finland. The president, prime minister and senior cabinet ministers will meet on Sunday to make the formal decision on submitting the country’s membership application. A positive decision would then be presented to parliament for approval early next week.
• Dmitry Peskov said that Finnish entry to Nato is “definitely” a threat to Russia. The Kremlin spokesperson said everybody wants to avoid a direct clash between Russia and Nato, and that Nato expansion will not make the world or Europe more stable.
• Finland’s president, Sauli Niinistö, has said he has spoken today to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and that Zelenskiy supported Finland’s steps towards Nato membership. Other European Nato leaders from Estonia, Denmark ands Romania have also voiced support.
• The UN human rights chief has said a thousand bodies had been recovered in the area of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in recent weeks, adding that many of the violations it is verifying since the Russian invasion may amount to war crimes.
• “The scale of unlawful killings, including indicia of summary executions in areas to the north of Kyiv, is shocking,” Michelle Bachelet told the Geneva-based Human Rights Council via a video address.
• Russian news agencies have reported that Russian forces hit two ammunition depots in the Chernihiv region of Ukraine overnight. The defence ministry also said Russia had destroyed a Ukrainian S-300 air defence missile system in the Kharkiv region and a radar station near the city of Odesa.
• Firing from Ukraine has killed one person and wounded seven in the Russian border village of Solokhi in the province of Belgorod, the regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, has said.
• Overnight the Ukrainian defence ministry published photos of what it said were destroyed Russian tanks and other equipment in the village of Bilohorivka, that had been struck when the Russians were attempting to construct a pontoon-bridge over the Siverskyi Donets river.
• The Russian-controlled administration in the Ukrainian city of Kherson has said it plans to request annexation by Moscow, a move that would confirm the Kremlin’s permanent occupation of Ukrainian territory captured since February.
• The withdrawal of Russian forces from Kharkiv is a tacit recognition of Russia’s inability to capture key Ukrainian cities where they expected limited resistance from the population, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said in its latest intelligence update.
• Vitali Klitschko, mayor of Kyiv, has warned residents who fled the city that it is still not safe to return to Ukraine. He said “Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee the safety of every resident today. Every corner of Ukraine, every city and town, is under threat as Russia continues its barbaric war against our country.”
• Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba praised Germany’s response to the war with Russia during a visit to Berlin, saying that the country had now taken a leading role. There had been some tensions in Berlin-Kyiv relations earlier in the war.
• Russia “is today the most direct threat to the world order with the barbaric war against Ukraine, and its worrying pact with China,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said after talks with Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida.
• UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson reiterated that a normalisation of relations with Vladimir Putin seemed impossible, accusing the Russian President of having “grossly violated human rights” and international law, saying “He’s guilty of absolutely barbaric onslaught on a totally innocent country.”
• Freelance journalist from Spain Pablo González is spending his 10th week in Polish custody while prosecutors there investigate what they claim is a case of espionage linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, in London for now. I will be back later. In the meantime, Léonie Chao-Fong will continue to bring you the latest news.

The Kremlin’s Dmitry Peskov has been giving one of his regular morning briefings by phone to journalists. The key lines being reported by Reuters include:

• Peskov said Finnish entry to Nato is “definitely” a threat to Russia. He said Finland had joined the unfriendly steps towards Russia taken by the EU, which was a matter of regret and a reason for a symmetrical response.
• The Kremlin spokesperson said everybody wants to avoid a direct clash between Russia and Nato, and that Nato expansion will not make the world or Europe more stable.
• Peskov said attacks on Russian regions bordering Ukraine means additional measures are needed to ensure the security of those regions.

Giles Tremlett

A freelance journalist from Spain is spending his 10th week in Polish custody while prosecutors there investigate what they claim is a case of espionage linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In a case that raises red flags about press freedom in Europe at a time of war, prosecutors are expected next week to ask a judge for a further three-month extension to the detention of Pablo González, who has freelanced for media including Spain’s La Sexta TV channel, Spanish state news agency EFE and the US-government funded Voice of America.

The prosecutors’ request must be filed before 15 May, two weeks before his current three-month detention order expires. Under Polish law, González can be held in custody until he is put on trial, a process lawyers say could easily take more than a year.

Polish officials claim he is an agent of Russia’s GRU military intelligence.

“He carried out operations for the benefit of Russia, profiting from his status of journalist, which enabled him to freely travel around the world and Europe, including military conflict zones,” according to a spokesperson for Poland’s minister coordinator of special services.

Read more of Giles Tremlett’s report here: Spanish journalist held in Poland on suspicion of pro-Russian espionage

The UN human rights chief has said a thousand bodies had been recovered in the area of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in recent weeks, adding that many of the violations it is verifying since the Russian invasion may amount to war crimes.

“The scale of unlawful killings, including indicia of summary executions in areas to the north of Kyiv, is shocking,” Michelle Bachelet told the Geneva-based Human Rights Council via a video address.

Reuters reports the Human Rights Council will decide today whether to task investigators with an official probe into the events that occurred in Kyiv and other regions in February and March.