Russia halts gas exports to Finland, says Mariupol steelworks siege has
ended
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[May 21, 2022] By
Pavel Polityuk and Terje Solsvik
KYIV/OSLO (Reuters) - Russia claimed
victory in a months-long battle for Mariupol's Azovstal steel plant,
taking it a step nearer to its goal of controlling Ukraine's Donbas
region, and halted gas exports to Finland in an escalation of an energy
payment dispute with Western nations.
Russia also launched what appeared to be a major assault to seize the
last remaining Ukrainian-held territory in Luhansk, one of two provinces
that make up the southeastern Donbas region and where Russian-backed
separatists already controlled swathes of territory before the Feb. 24
invasion.
The last Ukrainian forces holed up in Mariupol's smashed Azovstal
steelworks surrendered on Friday, Russia's defense ministry said, ending
the bloodiest siege of the war.
"The territory of the Azovstal metallurgical plant ... has been
completely liberated," the ministry said in a statement, adding that
2,439 defenders had surrendered in the past few days, including 531 in
the final group.
Hours earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine's
military had told the last defenders at the steelworks they could get
out and save their lives. The Ukrainians did not immediately confirm the
figures on Azovstal.
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Ukraine's General Staff of Armed Forces did not comment on Russia's
claim in its morning update on Saturday.
The end of fighting in Mariupol, the biggest city Russia has captured so
far and the main port for the Donbas, gives Russian President Vladimir
Putin a rare victory in the invasion after a series of setbacks in
nearly three months of fighting.
Putin says Russian troops are engaged in a "special military operation"
to demilitarise Ukraine and rid it of radical anti-Russian nationalists.
Western countries call it an unprovoked war of aggression.
Victory in Mariupol gives Russia complete control of the Sea of Azov and
an unbroken stretch of territory in eastern and southern Ukraine.
The Red Cross said it had registered hundreds of Ukrainians who
surrendered at the Mariupol steel plant as prisoners of war and Kyiv
says it wants a prisoner swap. Moscow says the prisoners will be treated
humanely, but Russian politicians have been quoted as saying some must
be tried or even executed.
Thousands of people in Ukraine have been killed and urban areas have
been shattered in the war. Almost a third of Ukraine's people have fled
their homes, including more than 6 million who have left the country.
GAS DISPUTE
Meanwhile, Russia raised the stakes in an energy dispute with Western
countries.
Russia's Gazprom halted gas exports to neighbouring Finland on Saturday
after it refused to agree to Russian demands to pay for Russian gas
supplies in roubles because of Western sanctions imposed over the
invasion of Ukraine.
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![](../images/052122pics/news_v45.jpg)
A bus carrying service members of the Ukrainian armed forces, who
surrendered at the besieged Azovstal steel mill, drives away under
escort of the pro-Russian military in the course of the
Ukraine-Russia conflict, in Mariupol, Ukraine May 20, 2022.
REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/May/02/images/ads/current/guzzardo_lda022609.png)
The move comes days after Finland and Sweden decided to apply to
join the NATO military alliance, a decision spurred by the Ukraine
war.
"Gas imports through Imatra entry point have been stopped," Finnish
gas system operator Gasgrid Finland said in a statement on Saturday.
Finnish state-owned gas wholesaler Gasum and Gazprom also confirmed
the flows had stopped.
Gasum, the Finnish government and individual gas consuming companies
in Finland have said they were prepared for a shutdown of Russian
flows and that the country will manage without.
Most European supply contracts are denominated in euros or dollars
and Moscow cut off gas to Bulgaria and Poland last month after they
refused to comply with the new payment terms.
OFFENSIVE IN LUHANSK
Russia launched what appeared to be a major assault to seize
remaining Ukrainian-held territory in Luhansk.
Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said in a social media post
early on Saturday that Russia was trying to destroy the city of
Sievierodonetsk, with fighting taking place on the outskirts of the
city.
"Shelling continues from morning to the evening and also throughout
the night," Gaidai said in a video post on the Telegram messaging
app.
Despite losing ground elsewhere in recent weeks, Russian forces have
advanced on the Luhansk front. Capturing Luhansk and Donetsk
provinces would allow Moscow to claim a victory after announcing on
March 25 that the Donbas region was now its focus.
The city of Sievierodonetsk and its twin Lysychansk across the
Siverskiy Donets River form the eastern part of a Ukrainian-held
pocket that Russia has been trying to overrun since mid-April after
failing to capture Kyiv.
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The Russian military also said on Saturday it had destroyed a major
consignment of Western arms in Ukraine's Zhytomyr region, west of
Kyiv, using sea-launched Kalibr cruise missiles.
Reuters could not independently verify the report, which also said
Russian missiles had struck fuel storage facilities near Odesa on
the Black Sea coast and shot down two Ukrainian Su-25 aircraft and
14 drones.
(Reporting by Natalia Zinets, Max Hunder, Tom Balmforth in Kyiv and
Reuters bureaux; Writing by Madeline Chambers, Patricia Zengerle and
Richard Pullin; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien, Bradley Perrett and
Frances Kerry)
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