Minsk (Belarus), May 26 (AP): Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Thursday he was forming a southern military command and sending battalion tactical groups to the area that borders Ukraine.
Lukashenko did not give details, but battalion tactical groups typically consist of mechanized infantry including tanks. The territory of Belarus was used for rocket attacks on Ukraine, but the military of Belarus did not take part in the Russian ground operation.
Ukrainian authorities have expressed concern that Belarus may agree to a wider participation in the war.
___ Berlin: Western allies are considering whether to allow Russian oligarchs to buy their way out of sanctions and using the money to rebuild Ukraine, according to government officials familiar with the matter.
Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland proposed the idea at a G-7 finance ministers' meeting in Germany last week.
Freeland raised the issue after oligarchs spoke to her about it, one official said. The Canadian minister knows some Russian oligarchs from her time as a journalist in Moscow.
The official said the Ukrainians were aware of the discussions. The official said it's also in the West's interests to have prominent oligarchs dissociate themselves with Russian President Vladimir Putin while at the same time providing funding for Ukraine.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly about internal G-7 discussions.
___ Kyiv: Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin has become the latest European leader to visit Ukraine.
Marin met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday in Kyiv.
Finnish public broadcaster YLE says she also visited the towns of Bucha and Irpin where Russian soldiers are alleged to have killed civilians.
Zelenskyy thanked Marin for Finland's weapons deliveries and its support for sanctions against Russia.
Jolted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Finland recently broke with its policy of non-alignment and applied for membership in NATO, together with neighboring Sweden.
___ Moscow: The head of the Russia-backed separatist region in eastern Ukraine says that there may be more Ukrainian fighters hiding at the sprawling Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol, even after Moscow officially declared the operation of taking control over it successful and completed.
Denis Pushilin of the Donetsk People's Republic said of the Ukrainian fighters on Thursday: “They could be hiding....They could be lost somewhere, lagged behind” the ones who surrendered and were captured.
The Russian military declared Azovstal and all of Mariupol “completely liberated” on May 20 and reported that a total of 2,439 fighters had come out of the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the besieged city.
Pushilin says any Ukrainians left behind at the plant don't pose a threat to the Russian forces.
Russian officials have said the vast territory of the steel mill is being demined. Pushilin said it will be possible to say there is no one left there only after that process is completed, the rubble is cleared and the plant is thoroughly inspected, “Unfortunately, we already have wounded sapper,” he said. “There are a lot of traps, booby traps. Technically, they had everything for this. Therefore, mine clearance is very thorough.” ___ Prague: The Czech Republic's ambassador to Ukraine has returned to Kyiv as his country seeks to reinforce its embassy before it takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union in July.
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said Thursday that the work should help fulfill the priorities of the Czech presidency, which include supporting Ukraine with financial, humanitarian and political aid.
The Czech Republic is among the European nations that support a plan for Ukraine to quickly receive the status of a candidate for EU membership.
The government in Prague closed its embassy in Kyiv on Feb 24 after Russia invaded Ukraine. The embassy, which reopened in the middle of April, currently has five diplomats.
___ Moscow: Russia has started broadcasting its state television news in the ravaged port city of Mariupol and other locations it controls in eastern Ukraine, Russian and Ukrainian officials said Thursday.
Russia's Ministry for Emergency Situations, or MChS, said it has launched “three mobile complexes for informing and alerting the population” that will be “broadcasting news for two hours in different parts of Mariupol.” Such mobile units also operate in the city of Volnovakha and the Lyman district of Ukraine's Donetsk province, broadcasting state news shows, “practical information” and cartoons for children, Russian state news agency Tass reported Thursday.
Petro Adnryushchenko, an advisor to Mariupol's Ukrainian mayor, posted on his Telegram channel footage of MChS trucks with TV screens broadcasting Russian news shows to crowds of people in the Russian-occupied city.
“Yesterday, the occupiers launched three mobile propaganda cars and additionally installed 12 75-inch TVs in places of mass gathering — humanitarian aid distribution points, paperwork points and water access points,” he wrote. “The practice of nothing to feed, feed lies' is gaining momentum.” ___ Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin says the West will fail in its attempts to isolate Russia and face growing economic problems.
Speaking Thursday via video link to members of the Eurasian Economic Forum, Putin said Russia wasn't going to shut itself off from international cooperation. The forum includes several ex-Soviet nations.
Putin said that trying to isolate Russia is “impossible, utterly unrealistic in the modern world” and “those who try to do it primarily hurt themselves.” The Russian leader cited growing economic challenges in the West, including “inflation unseen in 40 years, growing unemployment, rupture of supply chains and the worsening of global crises in such sensitive spheres as food.” “This is not a joke,” he said. “This is a serious thing that will have an impact on the entire system of economic and political relations.” He lambasted the West for seizing Russian reserves, saying that “the theft of others' assets never brought any good.” ___ Kyiv: A regional governor in eastern Ukraine says shelling of the city of Kharkiv killed at least four civilians.
Kharkiv Governor Oleg Synyehubov said that another seven residents of Ukraine's second-largest city were wounded in Thursday's shelling.
He urged people to stay in shelters, warning that the barrage might continue.
___ Kyiv: The Ukrainian governor of the eastern Luhansk region says Russian bombardments killed three people in and around the city of Lysychansk, which is a key focus of fighting.
Serhiy Haidai said Thursday that one person was killed in Lysychansk and two in the nearby village of Ustynivka amid a Russian artillery bombardment on Wednesday. He said strikes in the region had hit various targets including private houses and a humanitarian aid center, without specifying how the people died.
Haidai is the Kyiv-backed governor of the Luhansk region, where the Ukrainian government is holding onto a small area around Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk in the face of a focused push by Russian forces.
In the northern Kharkiv region, governor Oleh Synehubov said two men ages 64 and 82 had been killed in shelling of the town of Balakliya and 10 other people were injured, including a 9-year-old girl.
___ Davos: Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov says that not enough strategic steps have been taken in recent years to prevent Europe's growing dependence on Russian gas and to counter hybrid attacks.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, Petkov said that the war in Ukraine “caused many crises to us because we had allowed ourselves to be dependent on Russia”.
Petkov said that after Russia's annexation of Crimea, Europe criticized Moscow but did nothing to reduce its dependence on it.
“While we linked the price of electricity to that of gas, Russia now can not only reduce gas supplies, but also regulate electricity prices in Europe,” he said. (AP) SCY SCY
(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)