the turkish parliament has voted to back finland s application to join the north atlantic military alliance. finland ended decades of military non alignment and decided tojoin nato last may following russia s invasion of ukraine. our reporter sofia bettiza has more. finland has been neutral, as you mentioned, for over 70 years, thinking it would be safer to stay neutral rather than join nato and risk upsetting russia. because you know, the two countries share a land border. but all of that changed when russia invaded ukraine last year. finland and sweden put in a joint request tojoin nato as soon as possible, and nato essentially is a collective security system, its members agreed to help one another if one of them comes under attack. you know, nato has an open door policy, meaning that any country can be invited tojoin, but all nato members have to approve
hugo put shaker in ukraine. the turkish parliament has voted to back finland s application to join the north atlantic military alliance. finland ended decades of military non alignment and decided to join nato last may, following russia s invasion of ukraine. hugo bachega in ukraine. nato secretary generaljens stoltenberg says it s a positive step forward. i welcome the vote by the turkish grand national assembly to ratify finland s membership to nato. all 30 nato allies have now ratified the accession protocol. and i havejust spoken with president sauli niinisto to congratulate him on this historic occasion. finland will formallyjoin our alliance in the coming days. all allies agree that the rapid conclusion of the ratification process for sweden will be in everyone s interests. i ll look forward to also welcoming sweden as a full member of the nato
russian president vladimir putin, accusing him of being responsible for war crimes in ukraine. the warrant was issued friday, alleging putin oversaw the forced deportation of children from ukraine to russia, forbidden under international law. adding, there are reasonable groundsputin, quote, bears individual criminal responsibility after months of delays, turkey and hungary say they are committed to approving finland s bid for nato membership. on friday, both countries announced their support, removing the biggest barrier for finland to join the alliance despite policy changes, turkey and hungary say a decision on sweden s bid for membership will have to wait finland and sweden sent applications to join nato nearly a year ago, ending their policies of neutrality and military non-alignment in the wake of russia s invasion of ukraine. joining us now, president and
high impact programmes. welcome to bbc news, i m david eades. our top stories: the bbc sees more evidence of apparent war crimes committed against ukrainian civilians by russian forces. hundreds of bodies are found to have been shot, execution style, in the bucha region. the evidence we found underground here, it is clear they were executed. nato officials say they re confident sweden and finland willjoin the alliance, ending their long standing military non alignment after russia s invasion of ukraine. a gunman opens fire at a church in california. one person is dead and four others critically wounded. he s later overpowered by members of the congregation. and north korea s covid crisis a further 400,000 thousand
this is bbc news, the headlines: a bbc team has uncovered further evidence of potential war crimes committed by russian forces in ukraine. the bodies of around a thousand civilians were discovered in the bucha region, when the russians left in march. the local police chief has said that more than half may have been executed. finland and sweden have formally announced their intention to join nato in response to russia s invasion of ukraine. the alliance s secretary generaljens stoltenberg has described the move, which amounts to abandoning their military non alignment, as historic, while president putin, described the plan as a mistake. one person is dead and four others critically wounded when a gunman opened fire at a church in california. he s later overpowered. it comes just a day