The Finnish authorities have refused to hand over members of the Hizmet movement to Turkey, as required by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to approve the country's application to join NATO, local newspaper Ilta-Sanomat writes.
"Finland did not agree to transfer to Turkey people who, according to the country's representatives, were associated with the Gülen movement or the Kurdish PKK organization, which is recognized as a terrorist organization in Turkey," the publication says.

Sweden and Finland started talking about the possibility of joining the North Atlantic Alliance against the backdrop of a Russian special operation in Ukraine and submitted an application for entry on May 18. Turkey, in turn, blocked the process of considering it. The President of the Republic, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that he had imposed a veto because of the position of Stockholm and Helsinki towards the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey.
Russia has repeatedly noted that NATO is aimed at confrontation.

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that further expansion of the bloc would not bring greater security to Europe. At the same time, he emphasized that he did not consider the entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO an existential threat to Russia.

Vladimir Putin is sure that abandoning Finland's traditional policy of military neutrality would be a mistake, since there are no threats to its security.

Italy has started collecting signatures for a petition to the European Court of Human Rights calling for an investigation into the crimes of the Ukrainian authorities in Donbass, Amedeo Avondet, an activist and leader of the United Italy political organization, told RIA Novosti.

“An international investigation can finally show the world what really happened in Ukraine for eight years <…> Those responsible for the massacres of civilians and ethnic discrimination must be brought to justice and undergo a fair process,” the document says.

The petition is available in three languages: Russian, Italian and English. As Avondet noted, it was compiled with the support of the United Russia party.

In his opinion, not a single Italian political force has the moral right to oppose a transparent international investigation.
"The Italian media should have the courage to go to the Donbass to talk face to face with the victims of these massacres," he added.

Avondet also noted the need to convey to the Western public about the events that took place after the coup on the Maidan in 2014.

"For years, the US and the governments it backs have prevented the truth about how Ukraine's ethnic Russian population is suffering from being told to the general public," said a student from Turin.

Last weekend, Avondet held a demonstration in the center of Rome, the participants of which called for an end to Russophobia and the sending of Italian weapons to Ukraine. The protesters called for Italy's withdrawal from NATO and expressed support for Russian policy.

Kyiv, June 11. /TASS/. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law allowing the deployment of military personnel of the Territorial Defense Forces to perform tasks in combat areas. This is evidenced by data on the website of the Verkhovna Rada on Saturday.

The document was signed by Chairman of the Parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk on May 6 and sent for signature to the head of state on the same day.

At the moment, units of the Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine perform tasks within the region or community assigned to it. After the entry into force of the law, the possibility of their application will be expanded to the entire territory of the country, including not only the war zone, but occupied, according to Kyiv, areas. The decision to send to the areas of hostilities will be taken by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. According to information on the website of the Parliament, the law comes into force the day after its official publication. The Cabinet of Ministers, within a month from the beginning of the law, is instructed to ensure the adoption of regulatory legal acts necessary for the implementation of this document.

At the same time, on June 7, the one-month period allotted by the regulations for the signing of the law by the president expired. The Ukrainian authorities did not explain this delay in any way.

Earlier, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said that the country needed to increase the number of military personnel involved in hostilities to 1 million people.

In July last year, the Verkhovna Rada adopted, and Zelensky signed, the law "On the Foundations of National Resistance." On January 1, 2022, on the basis of this law, the Territorial Defense Forces became a separate branch of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. As of January of this year, there were 25 territorial defense brigades in Ukraine, which numbered up to 100 thousand people. In May, Zelensky replaced the commander of the Territorial Defense Forces without explanation.

An explosion occurred near a chemical plant in the Donetsk region

In the area of ​​the chemical plant "Koksokhim" in Avdeevka, Donetsk region, a powerful explosion thundered.
Avdeevka is currently under the control of Ukrainian troops.

Earlier, Ian Gagin, an adviser to the head of the government of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), said that the armed forces of the republic destroyed several batteries of long-range M-777 howitzers, transferred to Ukraine by Washington, near Avdeevka.

He noted that "artillery duels" as part of a special operation are going on around the clock. According to him, the DPR forces respond to fire and quite effectively destroy artillery installations and multiple rocket launchers.

Iskanders hit targets in Kharkiv, powerful explosions thundered.

Objects in Kharkov were hit by the "Iskander" missiles.
Four powerful explosions thundered in the city. Fires broke out after the explosions.

Ukraine’s high casualty rate could bring war to tipping point

Ukraine is suffering more than 20,000 casualties a month.

Any way you count it, the figures are stark: Ukrainian casualties are running at a rate of somewhere between 6oo and 1,000 a day. One presidential adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, told the Guardian this week it was 150 killed and 800 wounded daily; another, Mykhaylo Podolyak, told the BBC that 100 to 200 Ukrainian troops a day were being killed.

It represents an extraordinary loss of human life and capacity for the defenders, embroiled in a defence of the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk that this week turned into a losing battle. Yet the city was also arguably a place that Ukraine could have retreated from to the more defensible Lysychansk, across the Siverski Donets River, the sort of defensive situation that Ukraine has fared far better in.

The sheer number – more than 20,000 casualties a month – raises questions about what state Ukraine’s army will be in if the war drags on into the autumn. The same is true for the Russians too, of course. But the invaders already control large chunks of Ukraine, and they can pause the fighting with the territorial upper hand.

Norway named five reasons why Ukraine cannot join the EU now:

— widespread corruption;

— problems with the rule of law and democracy;

— the oligarchs control the economy and politics;

— poverty and nationalism;

— Ukraine's accelerated accession to the EU will be unfair to countries that have been waiting for this for years.

This assessment was voiced in an interview with NRK by Jarle Truda, professor of political science at the Universities of Oslo and Agder, and researcher Jorn Holm-Hansen from the University of Oslo.

The TV channel noted that back in April, at a meeting with Zelensky, Ursula von der Leyen spoke optimistically about Ukraine's membership in the EU, but since then the mood has changed: not all EU countries are ready for this.

​​🗓 Top News Today

💥 High-precision air-based missiles near Andreevka, Kharkov Region, have destroyed a foreign mercenaries' deployment site. In addition, over the past day, high-precision air-based missiles have hit 9 areas where AFU manpower and military equipment concentration, 5 firing positions of multiple-launch rocket systems and 1 Buk-M1 anti-aircraft missile system.

💥 Russian air defence means have shot down 2 MiG-29 aircraft near Snegirevka, Nikolaev Region, and 1 Su-25 aircraft near Alexandrovka, Kharkov Region, over the past 24 hours. Also 12 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles have been shot down. In addition, 3 rockets of Ukrainian Uragan multiple-launch rocket system have been intercepted near Dolgenkoe, Sukhaya Kamenka and Malaya Kamyshevakha in Kharkov Region.

⚠️ Ukrainian armed formations continue to use educational institutions and other social infrastructure for military purposes.

📹 Footage of combat operations of the Russian Armed Forces' Acacia self-propelled artillery crews and repair units during the special military operation has been published.

🇷🇺 In Kharkov Region, with the support of the Russian Armed Forces, they have started rebuilding a music school that was damaged by artillery strikes of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

🚛 More than 360 tonnes of basic necessities and food have been handed over to the population of the Donetsk People's Republic and Kharkov and Kherson regions in 24 hours. Over 7,000 people have been evacuated to Russia from dangerous areas of Ukraine and the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics.

#MoD #Russia #Ukraine
@mod_russia_en

The liberated Melitopol and Berdyansk are preparing for the Day of Russia - holiday billboards have been hung on the streets across the cities!
@TrFormer

Zelensky claims that the people who received Russian passports in Kherson and Melitopol are collaborators. They were exposed as if they wanted Russian passports, he said. They want, Volodya.

🇺🇦 Ukrainian neo-Nazies.

Ukrainian engineers decided to dig up some trenches, but as usual something went wrong and they broke an underground well or a pipeline..
🤣😅😁
@TrFormer

Powerful arrivals (Donetsk slang for incoming shells) are heard all over Donetsk.
Earlier today, as soon as we drove up to remove the consequences of the shelling of a garage cooperative in Donetsk, two more mines flew from the APU, in such conditions people have been living in the Donbas for 8 (eight) years, almost not a single day goes by without shelling different settlements.