President Biden is in Finland — NATO’s newest member state — for a summit with Nordic leaders. It follows a two-day NATO summit this week, which “put to rest any doubts” about Ukraine’s future membership in NATO, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address, despite the lack of a concrete timeline that Zelensky had earlier described as “absurd.” Kyiv instead received promises of long-term military support aimed at “defending Ukraine now and deterring Russian aggression in the future.”
In Russia, Maj. Gen. Ivan Popov claimed he was forced to retire after highlighting problems with the army fighting in Ukraine, according to a voice message published by a Russian lawmaker. “In the name of you and our fallen combat friends, I had no right to lie, so I outlined all the problems existing in the army,” Popov said. He cited a lack of artillery and “mass deaths and injuries” of soldiers. As such, senior officials “sensed danger in me and promptly, in one day, made up an order and got rid of me,” he said. The Washington Post could not independently verify his claims.
Here’s the latest on the war and its impact across the globe.
Analysis from our correspondents
Zelensky’s ‘guilt-based’ diplomacy leaves its mark on NATO summit: On the first day of this week’s NATO summit, there was dismay and disgruntlement among Ukrainian representatives. On the second day, there was mollification from the West. By the end of the two-day meeting, Zelensky welcomed the West’s promises of more weapons and assurances that Ukraine would probably be admitted to NATO once the war ends.
There is a clear pattern in Zelensky’s behavior, Ishaan Tharoor writes.
Jeremy Shapiro, director of research at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Tharoor that Zelensky “has adopted a guilt-based approach to diplomacy.”
“‘You never write, you never call, you never send F-16s’ has long summarized [Zelensky’s] approach to getting what he wants from the West and the U.S.,” Shapiro said.
Natalia Abbakumova contributed to this report.