After 3 months of war in Ukraine, what’s next?

On Tuesday, May 24 at 19:30 GMT:
It has been three months since Russia invaded Ukraine, and things that looked certain back then, don’t now.

Ukraine war – the latest news
Fighting has intensified in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. Russiantroops pressed their advance on Severodonetsk, where local officials accused them using “scorched-earth” tactics.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy says up to 100 Ukrainian troops could be dying daily. And last week Russia officially captured the port city of Mariupol after more than 1,500 Ukrainian troops from the Azovstal steel plant surrendered. By controlling Mariupol, Russia has a land bridge to Crimea, territory it annexed from Ukraine in 2014. It now controls the entire north shore of the Sea of Azov. Mariupol was a major site for exporting Ukrainian steel and grain.

In this segment we take a look at the latest news from Ukraine and discuss possible outcomes of the war.

Ukraine war – European security
Last week Finland and Sweden formally applied for NATO membership, giving up decades of neutrality. If accepted, Russia will face a lengthened NATO border.

In a meeting with Finnish and Swedish leaders at the White House on Thursday, President Biden announced his support for their membership and said it would be “the strongest and most powerful defence alliance in the history of the world.”

We’ll look at Finland and Sweden’s bids for NATO membership and what this new shift in European allyship means for the war.

Ukraine war – humanitarian crisis
Finally, as the war grinds on, the humanitarian conditions across Ukraine are continuing to deteriorate – especially in the south and east, where there are wide-scale disruptions to electricity, gas and water supplies.

The World Health Organization has warned of the potential outbreak of diseases, including cholera. Over 6 million refugees are estimated to have fled to neighbouring countries and more than 7 million are estimated to be internally displaced.

We’ll discuss the humanitarian situation and how children, especially, are being affected.

In this episode of The Stream, we are joined by:
Assed Baig, @AssedBaig
Al Jazeera Correspondent

Susi Dennison, @sd270
Director, European Power Programme European Council on Foreign Relations

Joe English, @UNICEF
Emergency Communication Specialist, UNICEF