Kiev (Ukraine) - (AFP) - The conflict in Ukraine, where mystery still surrounds the fate of the last soldiers holed up in the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, will be strongly present during Thursday's meeting between the US President and the leaders of Sweden and Finland, which seek to join NATO to meet from Moscow.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is also holding talks with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, whose country joined the alliance in 1949.

On the other hand, Sweden and Finland have just started the procedures for joining NATO with their formal candidacy on Wednesday.
US President Joe Biden "strongly welcomed the historic nominations of Finland and Sweden to join NATO."

White House spokeswoman Karen Jean-Pierre said that Biden will receive Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Finnish President Sauli Niinisto on Thursday in Washington.

The two countries are historically non-aligned, but they have radically changed their position since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, which led to a radical change in public opinion, which was reluctant to join NATO.

Finland shares a border of more than 1,300 km with Russia.
Pending the completion of the accession process, which may take months and requires unanimous alliance members, the White House said in a statement, "While their application to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is being considered, the United States will work with Finland and Sweden to prepare for any threat to our common security and confront any aggression or aggression." threat of aggression."
While Western countries close ranks in an attempt to contain the ambitions of Russian President Vladimir Putin in other countries, battles continue in Ukraine, especially at the Azovstal Steel Plant in the strategic coastal city of Mariupol in the southeast of the country.
And the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed on Wednesday that "959 (Ukrainian) fighters, including 80 wounded, surrendered and were captured" since Monday. Ukraine declined to comment on this information.
Denis Pushilin, a pro-Russian separatist leader, said that "the leaders and fighters of the Azov (battalion) have not yet left" from this complex, stressing that about a thousand members of this paramilitary unit involved in the Ukrainian army are still in the factory.
And Ukraine confirmed last week that more than a thousand Ukrainian soldiers, including 600 wounded, are in this huge complex, which is considered the last bastion of resistance to the Russian forces in the city, which was destroyed by the battles.
The Ukrainian General Staff said on Wednesday morning that the Russian army was focusing its efforts "on surrounding our units near Azovstal" with artillery and air strikes.
And on the streets of Kiev, residents saluted the "supermen" who are fighting at this factory. Andrei, 37, said they had "achieved the impossible".
Full control of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, would be a major advance for Russia. It allows it to link by land between the Crimea peninsula in the south, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014, and parts of the Donbass region in the east controlled by loyalists to Russia.
However, the head of the town of Mariupol, Vadim Boychenko, confirmed in early April that the city was destroyed by "90 percent," while 40 percent of its facilities could not be repaired.
"The Russians are stealing in Mariupol. The occupiers are now trying to put the port into service again to export millions of dollars worth of grain and steel products," the city's municipality said on Wednesday evening via Telegram.
A US official, who asked not to be named, said on Wednesday that "Russian officials admit that Russian forces are committing dangerous practices in the city, including beating and electrocuting officials in the city while looting homes," while confirming that they "liberated Russian-speaking Mariupol."
He added, "Russian officials are concerned that these practices may encourage the people of Mariupol to resist the Russian occupation even more."
The Ukrainian authorities and foreign bodies are conducting investigations regarding several accusations of war crimes and practices by Russian forces. The International Criminal Court has sent 42 investigators and experts to Ukraine on its largest field mission.
Ukraine's Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova said at the end of April that "more than 800" alleged war crimes had been identified in Ukraine.
Almost three months after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the trial of a 21-year-old Russian soldier, accused of killing an unarmed 62-year-old civilian at the end of February, began in Kiev.
This is the first trial of a Russian soldier on charges of committing a war crime since Moscow's forces entered Ukrainian territory on Wednesday in Kiev. The soldier accused of killing a civilian pleaded guilty, admitting all the facts attributed to him.
The soldier faces up to life in prison.
For its part, the Kremlin said that it had no "information" about this trial, nor about the accused, stressing that the numerous accusations of war crimes against the Russian army were "false or fabricated."
Venediktova said that the appearance of the soldier is "a clear indication (...) that no executioner will escape justice," stressing that more than 11,000 investigations into war crimes have been opened.
The war continues on Earth. In eastern Ukraine, "the occupiers bombed 43 towns in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions," killing "at least 15 civilians," according to what the Ukrainian army announced on Wednesday evening.
The Russians are trying to record a breakthrough near Popasna towards Severodonetsk, one of the large cities that the Ukrainians still control in this region, according to a local official.
The Ukrainian General Staff said Thursday morning that the "occupiers" launched an offensive near Severodonetsk "without success" in their endeavor.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, Alexander Mutuzyanak, said on Wednesday that the Russian army is trying to "encircle and defeat the Ukrainian armed forces in order to fully control Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson."
Eastern Ukraine has been the main target of the Russian forces since their withdrawal from the vicinity of the Ukrainian capital at the end of March.
In Russia, one person was killed and others injured in the southwest of the country after an attack on a village on the border with Ukraine, the governor of the Kursk region said Thursday.
"Another enemy attack on Teutkino took place at dawn, which unfortunately ended in tragedy. So far, there is at least one civilian dead," Governor Roman Starovoit said on Telegram, adding that others were injured and receiving medical care.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sought reassurance in his daily video message on Tuesday evening, "The Armed Forces of Ukraine (...) will liberate our land step by step. How long will it take? Only the actual situation on the battlefield will answer this question. We are trying to achieve this as quickly as possible." ".
In this atmosphere, the talks between Moscow and Kiev are not making any "progress", as confirmed by the Kremlin on Wednesday, accusing the Ukrainian negotiators of a "total lack of will" to reach a political settlement.
The day before, the Ukrainian presidency said the talks had been suspended because of Russia.
On the diplomatic front, the United States reopened its embassy in Kiev, which it closed before the start of the Russian attack.
Simultaneously, the Kremlin announced the expulsion of 34 French, 24 Italian and 27 Spanish diplomats in response to the expulsion of Russian diplomats shortly after the start of the Russian invasion.
Paris condemned the Russian decision "strongly", while Rome considered it "hostile", and Madrid rejected it.
However, these response measures do not undermine the determination of Western countries to help Ukraine by providing it with weapons and financial aid.
Zelensky expressed his "gratitude" for the "new exceptional financial assistance" proposed by the European Union, amounting to "nine billion euros in 2022."
Brussels offered a plan worth 210 billion so that the European Union can abandon "as soon as possible" the imports of Russian gas.
The finance ministers of the Group of Seven will hold meetings on Thursday and Friday in Germany, and will study, in particular, ways to support the Ukrainian budget during the current season, as well as combating the rise in food prices.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Moscow not to obstruct Ukrainian grain exports and Western countries to allow Russian fertilizers to reach world markets.