Ex-NATO chief Rasmussen calls for “German leadership” Military historian accuses Scholz of showing Putin fear Kremlin reports complete capture of Mariupol Developments in the Ukraine war in the stern ticker.

Day 88 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine: After weeks of fierce fighting, Russia says it has taken complete control of the Azovstal steelworks in the Ukrainian port of Mariupol. All enemy fighters surrendered, the Ministry of Defense announced on the night in Moscow. The sprawling industrial complex on the Azov Sea was the last place in the strategically important port city in south-eastern Ukraine that had not yet been fully under Russian control.

In a television interview recorded before the Russian government announced the capture, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed the West for the development. At the same time, in view of the massive destruction in his country, he called for a compensation fund.

The news about the war in Ukraine from Saturday, May 21:

10:07 a.m .: Kyiv fears a Russian advance after the fall of Mariupol

Ukraine fears a further advance by Russian troops after they have completely taken the port city of Mariupol. The military governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Hajdaj, reports massive fighting in the Donbass. “The Russians are wiping out Sievjerodonetsk like Mariupol. Fighting is going on in the city’s suburbs” and there are aerial bombardments, Hajdaj describes on Telegram the situation in the eastern Ukrainian city, which has been under fire for days. Russia wants to reduce the area to rubble and ashes. At the same time, the governor rejects Moscow’s claim that the Luhansk region is about to be completely taken over as “nonsense”.

According to the General Staff in Kyiv, the Russian armed forces are still trying to gain complete control over the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in order to secure a land corridor to the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. From the Russian point of view, the capture of Mariupol is considered an important partial success.

9.40 a.m .: Barley calls for an EU oil embargo against Russia even without Hungary

The Vice-President of the European Parliament, Katarina Barley, calls for the planned EU oil embargo against Russia to be decided without Hungary. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban wants to “lead the EU through the ring by the ring of the nose,” says the SPD politician on Deutschlandfunk. She does not see that Orban would agree to the new EU sanctions package, which also includes the planned oil embargo, without anything in return. Barley accuses Orban of using the dispute over the oil embargo for his “political games” to channel additional money into his country. The right-wing populist prime minister is primarily concerned with letting money flow into the channels of his “family and clans”. An “openly corrupt system” exists in Hungary.

In return for agreeing to the oil embargo proposed by the EU Commission, Hungary had demanded billions in aid from the EU. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto spoke in a video message published on Facebook this week of investments of 15 to 18 billion euros needed for his country’s move away from Russian oil.

7.15 a.m .: Russia turns off the gas tap in Finland

As announced, Russia has stopped its gas supplies to Finland. “Natural gas deliveries to Finland under the Gasum supply contract have been suspended,” announced the Finnish state-owned energy company Gasum. Gas is now obtained from other sources via the Balticconnector pipeline, which connects Finland and Estonia. The Russian energy giant Gazprom announced the delivery stop yesterday, referring to the dispute over ruble payments. Gasum then emphasized that this would not lead to supply problems in Finland. The Finns had rejected Moscow’s demand to pay bills for gas deliveries in rubles.

The gas supply stop comes a few days after Finland’s official NATO application. The country, which had been neutral for decades, decided to take this step in view of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

5.20 a.m .: Ex-NATO boss Rasmussen calls for “German leadership”

Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen criticizes the German government’s cautious course in the face of the Ukraine war. Germany is “too hesitant to deliver heavy weapons and impose sanctions,” said Rasmussen in the “Handelsblatt”. “Of course, Germany is highly dependent on Russian gas imports, but I think a clear stance from the federal government would change the entire dynamic in Ukraine. We need German leadership.”

The Dane, who was Prime Minister of his country from 2001 to 2009 and Secretary General of the transatlantic military alliance from 2009 to 2014, calls on the Europeans to stop imports of oil and gas from Russia immediately. “Certainly an energy embargo will come at a price. But compared to the cost of a protracted war, that price would be small,” argued Rasmussen.

1.05 a.m .: Military historians accuse Scholz of showing fear to Putin

Military historian Sönke Neitzel criticizes Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s (SPD) warnings about an escalation of the Russian war in Ukraine as “unwise in terms of foreign policy, even risky”. “Scholz is showing Putin his fear,” the Potsdam professor of military history told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. “That promotes the image of a weak West. That’s exactly what made Putin dare to go to war in the first place.”

According to Neitzel, the war will last “many more years”. Scholz’ call for a ceasefire is “understandable, but wishful thinking”. Neither side is so weak militarily that they have to negotiate to avert total defeat. Moscow’s troops are currently digging in in southern Ukraine along the land bridge to Crimea and doing everything in eastern Ukraine to capture and then hold the Donbass regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. In order to shift the frontline, Ukraine must establish a superiority of at least 3:1 and gain air superiority to cut Russian supply lines. “I don’t trust the Ukrainian military to do that,” said Neitzel. “In a few weeks I expect it to slow down, then the front lines will be clear.”

12:22 a.m .: Russia classifies Kasparov and Khodorkovsky as “foreign agents”.

Moscow has put former world chess champion Garry Kasparov and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky on its list of “foreign agents.” The 59-year-old Kasparov and the 58-year-old ex-tycoon Khodorkovsky also had their activities financed by “sources” in Ukraine, the Russian Ministry of Justice justifies the step in an updated version of its list of “foreign agents”. They are subject to numerous restrictions and requirements, including having to state their “foreign agent” status in all their publications.

Kasparov has long been a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has lived in the US for almost a decade. Khodorkovsky was one of the most powerful businessmen in Russia in the 1990s before his run-in with the Kremlin after Putin took office in 2000. He spent the time between 2003 and 2013 in Russian custody, after which he went into exile.

0.10. Watch: Selenskyj calls for funds for compensation

Because of the massive destruction in his country, in his nightly video address, President Zelenskyy mentions a fund for compensation payments to countries that Russia has damaged through attacks. That could be regulated in a “multilateral agreement”. Zelenskyy proposes freezing or confiscating Russian capital and property abroad and transferring it to this new fund. “That would be fair.” According to Ukrainian estimates, war damage in Ukraine already totals hundreds of billions of euros.

0.02 a.m .: Russia reports complete capture of Azov Steelworks and Mariupol

According to Russian information, all fighters in the besieged Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol have now surrendered. According to the Ministry of Defense in Moscow, the industrial zone and the city are now completely under Russian control. A total of 2,439 Ukrainian soldiers have been taken prisoner by the Russians since May 16. The commander of the Azov regiment was taken away in a special armored vehicle.

Earlier on Friday, the last Ukrainian fighters in the industrial complex said they had received an order from Kyiv to stop defending Mariupol. The Ukrainian military leadership gave the order “to save the lives of the soldiers in our garrison,” Azov commander Denys Prokopenko said in a video message. In a TV interview recorded before the Russian announcement of the capture, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made the West partly responsible for the development. He has repeatedly called on Western heads of state and government to supply his country with “appropriate weapons” “so that we can reach Mariupol to liberate these people.” The steel mill was the last piece of the strategically important city in south-eastern Ukraine that had not yet been completely under Russian control.