For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine.
The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT:
5:10 a.m.: Sweden signed a formal request to join the NATO military alliance. Its application must be approved by all 30 of the existing members.
5:00 a.m.: Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, said Ukraine is working on the next stages of evacuation of Azovstal defenders, Reuters reported.
4:50 a.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about the situation in Ukraine, added pressure on Russia and boosting sanctions, that he is counting on Germany’s support as Ukraine seeks full European Union membership.
4:20 a.m.: Reuters reported that Russia-backed separatists said on Tuesday that 256 Ukrainian servicemen who had been holed up in Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant “have surrendered” and that 51 were wounded.
Ukraine’s military said on Tuesday it was working to evacuate all remaining troops from their last stronghold in the besieged port of Mariupol, ceding control of the city to Russia after months of bombardment.
3:00 a.m.: Jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny is set to appeal against a nine-year prison sentence he was handed in March, Agence France-Presse reported. Supporters say the charges were politically motivated. Navalny has been vocal against the invasion of Ukraine.
2:00 a.m.: Ukraine’s military worked Tuesday to evacuate its remaining fighters from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol where three months of Russian bombing has left the besieged port city in ruins.
Ukrainian officials said more than 260 fighters were evacuated Monday.
Fifty-three seriously injured fighters were taken to a hospital in Novoazovsk, east of Mariupol, Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar said. Novoazovsk is under the control of Russian troops and Russian-backed separatists. Another 211 fighters were taken to the town of Olenivka, an area also controlled by Russian-backed separatists, Malyar said, adding that the evacuees would be subject to a potential prisoner exchange with Russia.
1:50 a.m.: Retired Russian Col. Mikhail Khodaryonok said on state television Monday that the Ukrainian armed forces “is able to arm a million people,” and that Ukrainians “intend to fight until the last man,” according to a translation provided by the BBC’s Francis Scarr.
“Let’s look at the situation as a whole from the overall strategic position,” Khodaryonok says. “Don’t engage in sabre-rattling with missiles in Finland’s direction. It actually looks quite amusing. After all, the main deficiency of our military-political position is that, in a way, we are in full geopolitical isolation, and that, however much we would hate to admit this, virtually the entire world is against us. And it’s that situation that we need to get out of.”
1:30 a.m.: In its Intelligence Update, the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense predicts Russia is “likely to continue to rely heavily on massed artillery strikes as it attempts to regain momentum in its advance in the Donbas.”
12:30 a.m.: After weeks of fighting, Ukraine appears to have surrendered the Mariupol steel complex, according to The New York Times.
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
…