Over 400 protesters detained in Armenia, 260 Ukrainian soldiers leave besieged Azovstal

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Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the digest of top news of protests in Yerevan as of 17.05.22:

PROTESTS

Armenian police have detained hundreds of protesters who blocked streets in Yerevan as opposition-led demonstrations continue demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Early this morning Yerevan police apprehended 414 citizens for participation in demonstrations.

Among those apprehended was Armenian ex-president Robert Kocharyan’s son Levon Kocharyan. It was his second apprehension since the start of the protests.

Demonstrations have been organized by the opposition since April 17, accusing Pashinyan over unacceptable concessions made during talks with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.

3+3 FORMAT

The office of Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan said the exact date is still to be agreed.

TURKEY AND PUTIN

​​Turkey's president has stated his disapproval of the intentions of Finland and Sweden to join the NATO. It came just hours after these countries said they would seek membership.

Erdogan said the two nations should not bother sending delegations to convince Turkey, a key NATO member, of their bids. The Turkish president also said he is angered by what he sees as their willingness to host Kurdish militants. Without the support of all the NATO members, Sweden and Finland cannot join the military alliance.

However, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the move by Finland and Sweden to join the 30-member military alliance did not threaten Moscow directly. He stressed that any expansion of military infrastructure would ‘trigger a response from the Kremlin’.

FINLAND AND NATO

The parliament of Finland overwhelmingly approved the proposal to join the NATO. Fewer than 10 deputies opposed the proposal. The vote came after a parliamentary debate in which the foreign affairs committee said that Russia's long-standing ‘aggressive’ policy and its goal of ‘dividing Europe’ into new spheres of influence have taken on a new dimension since the war in Ukraine. On Monday, Sweden, in turn, said Europe was living in a dangerous new reality, referring to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

AZOVSTAL

More than 260 Ukrainian soldiers, many of them wounded, have been evacuated from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in the port city of Mariupol, ceding control of the city to Russia after 27 days of struggle. 53 heavily wounded soldiers were evacuated to a hospital in the Russian-controlled town of Novoazovsk. The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said that the soldiers defending the steel plant had “performed their combat task” and now the main goal was to save the lives of personnel.

It was unclear how many soldiers remained in the steel plant, but Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said: “We hope to save the lives of our boys”.

Ukraine needs its Ukrainian heroes alive. This is our principle,” he said in a video statement.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on May 17 that Ukrainian fighters who "surrendered" would be treated "in accordance with international standards," and that Russian President Vladimir Putin had guaranteed this.

For Ukrainians, the Azovstal plant has become a symbol of resistance, with hundreds of troops continuing to fight there even after the rest of the city had fallen to Russian forces. Some 600 troops were believed to have been inside the steel plant.

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