Russia-Ukraine war live updates: Missiles strike Odesa

Pro-Russian forces broke off the border section from Moldova in 1992, and Russian troops have been stationed there since, ostensibly as peacekeepers.Rachel Elbaum and Mariia UlianovskaRussian forces bombarded the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol on Tuesday, according to the Azov Battalion, whose fighters have formed the last pocket of resistance in the city and held out for weeks under intense attacks.In the last day, the plant has come under fire from bombers, naval artillery and tanks, the group said in a post on Telegram.“The enemy does not stop trying to capture the Ukrainian fortress and continues to carry out daily assaults with the support of infantry,” said the battalion, an experienced volunteer force with neo-Nazi roots that has been defending the steel plant.The plant has come under heavy attacks from Russian forces as they try to capture the last corner of the crucial southern port city still under Ukrainian control. This is something that can happen if we choose to join NATO,” he told the public broadcaster.The Social Democrats will decide on May 15 whether to drop decades of opposition by the party to NATO membership, a move that would almost certainly lead to Sweden asking to join the 30-nation alliance.Alyssa ChenRussian President Vladimir Putin was unable to announce any significant military success at yesterday’s Victory Day parade because the Kremlin miscalculated Ukrainian resistance and was guilty of ‘best case scenario’ planning, the United Kingdom’s defense ministry said Tuesday.In its intelligence update, the ministry said that it is highly likely that Russia’s invasion plan was based on an underestimation of Ukrainian resistance so that it could encircle and bypass population centres rapidly, achieving rapid success without deadly cost.“This assumption led Russian forces to attempt to carry out the opening phase of the operation with a light, precise approach intended to achieve a rapid victory with minimal cost.”Due to this miscalculation, Russia suffers from unsustainable losses that forced it to scale back and refocus its operational activities, according to the defense ministry.Max ButterworthMo Abbas, Matt Bradley and Yelyzaveta KovtunZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — The price of sunflower oil is soaring round the world, but Roman Tarasevich is stuck with a mountain of sunflower seeds he just can’t move.Ukraine is the world’s biggest exporter of sunflower oil, but the Russian invasion has made farming, producing and shipping all but impossible, sending global prices higher and shoppers from London to New Delhi scrambling for limited bottles of the gold-colored liquid commonly used for cooking.“We’re definitely going to take a financial hit, but right now I just don’t want to think about it and we’re carrying on working,” Tarasevich, 46, said, standing by the heap of unsold sunflower seeds at a farm warehouse in Zaporizhzhia in eastern Ukraine.He appeared pained as he described how he had held onto last year’s harvest to negotiate a higher price, but like many Ukrainians was taken by surprise by Russia’s invasion.