Russia claims to have taken full control of Mariupol; Ukraine seeks compensation for destruction

1 / 3
Smoke rises from the Metallurgical Combine Azovstal in Mariupol in eastern Ukraine amid shelling on May 7, 2022, by Russian aggressors. (AP file)
Short Url
Updated 21 May 2022
Follow

Russia claims to have taken full control of Mariupol; Ukraine seeks compensation for destruction

  • Zelensky said Russia should be made to pay for every home, school, hospital and business it destroys
  • G7 and global financial institutions agree to provide more money to bolster Ukraine’s finances

POKROVSK, Ukraine: Russia claimed to have captured Mariupol on Friday in what would be its biggest victory yet in its war with Ukraine, after a nearly three-month siege that reduced much of the strategic port city to a smoking ruin, with over 20,000 civilians feared dead.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to President Vladimir Putin the “complete liberation” of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol — the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance — and the city as a whole, spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
There was no immediate confirmation from Ukraine.
Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti quoted the ministry as saying a total of 2,439 Ukrainian fighters who had been holed up at the steelworks had surrendered since Monday, including over 500 on Friday.
As they surrendered, the troops were taken prisoner by the Russians, and at least some were taken to a former penal colony. Others were said to be hospitalized.
The defense of the steel mill had been led by Ukraine’s Azov Regiment, whose far-right origins have been seized on by the Kremlin as part of an effort to cast its invasion as a battle against Nazi influence in Ukraine. Russia said the Azov commander was taken away from the plant in an armored vehicle.




A bus carries captured Ukrainian defenders of the besieged Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol on May 20, 2022, to an undisclosed location. (REUTERS)

Russian authorities have threatened to investigate some of the steel mill’s defenders for war crimes and put them on trial, branding them “Nazis” and criminals. That has stirred international fears about their fate.
The steelworks, which sprawled across 11 square kilometers (4 square miles), had been the site of fierce fighting for weeks. The dwindling group of outgunned fighters had held out, drawing Russian airstrikes, artillery and tank fire, before their government ordered them to abandon the plant’s defense and save themselves.
The complete takeover of Mariupol gives Putin a badly needed victory in the war he began on Feb. 24 — a conflict that was supposed to have been a lightning conquest for the Kremlin but instead has seen the failure to take the capital of Kyiv, a pullback of forces to refocus on eastern Ukraine, and the sinking of the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
Military analysts said Mariupol’s capture at this point is of mostly symbolic importance, since the city was already effectively under Moscow’s control and most of the Russian forces that were tied down by the fighting there had already left.
In other developments Friday, the West moved to pour billions more in aid into Ukraine and fighting raged in the Donbas, the industrial heartland in eastern Ukraine that Putin is bent on capturing.
Russian forces shelled a vital highway and kept up attacks on a key city in the Luhansk region, hitting a school among other sites, Ukrainian authorities said. Luhansk is part of the Donbas.
The Kremlin had sought control of Mariupol to complete a land corridor between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014, and free up troops to join the larger battle for the Donbas. The city’s loss also deprives Ukraine of a vital seaport.

Mariupol endured some of the worst suffering of the war and became a worldwide symbol of defiance. An estimated 100,000 people remained out a prewar population of 450,000, many trapped without food, water, heat or electricity. Relentless bombardment left rows upon rows of shattered or hollowed-out buildings.
A maternity hospital was hit with a lethal Russian airstrike on March 9, producing searing images of pregnant women being evacuated from the place. A week later, about 300 people were reported killed in a bombing of a theater where civilians were taking shelter, although the real death toll could be closer to 600.
Satellite images in April showed what appeared to be mass graves just outside Mariupol, where local officials accused Russia of concealing the slaughter by burying up to 9,000 civilians.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday the evacuation of his forces from the miles of tunnels and bunkers beneath Azovstal was done to save the lives of the fighters.
Earlier this month, hundreds of civilians were evacuated from the plant during humanitarian cease-fires and spoke of the terror of ceaseless bombardment, the dank conditions underground and the fear that they wouldn’t make it out alive.
As the end drew near at Azovstal, wives of fighters who held out at the steelworks told of what they feared would be their last contact with their husbands.
Olga Boiko, wife of a marine, wiped away tears as she said that her husband had written her on Thursday: “Hello. We surrender, I don’t know when I will get in touch with you and if I will at all. Love you. Kiss you. Bye.”
Natalia Zaritskaya, wife of another fighter at Azovstal, said that based on the messages she had seen over the past two days, “Now they are on the path from hell to hell. Every inch of this path is deadly.”
She said that two days ago, her husband reported that of the 32 soldiers with whom he had served, only eight survived, most of them seriously wounded.




A resident walks near a building heavily damaged during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, on May 20, 2022. (REUTERS)

While Russia described the troops leaving the steel plant as a mass surrender, the Ukrainians called it a mission fulfilled. They said the fighters had tied down Moscow’s forces and hindered their bid to seize the east.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky, described the defense of Mariupol as “the Thermopylae of the 21st century” — a reference to one of history’s most glorious defeats, in which 300 Spartans held off a much larger Persian force in 480 B.C. before finally succumbing.
In other developments Friday:
• Zelensky said Russia should be made to pay for every home, school, hospital and business it destroys. He called on Ukraine’s partners to seize Russian funds and property under their jurisdiction and use them to create a fund to compensate those who suffered.
Russia “would feel the true weight of every missile, every bomb, every shell that it has fired at us,” he said in his nightly video address.
• The Group of Seven major economies and global financial institutions agreed to provide more money to bolster Ukraine’s finances, bringing the total to $19.8 billion. In the US, President Joe Biden was expected to sign a $40 billion package of military and economic aid to Ukraine and its allies.
• Russia will cut off natural gas to Finland on Saturday, the Finnish state energy company said, just days after Finland applied to join NATO. Finland had refused Moscow’s demand that it pay for gas in rubles. The cutoff is not expected to have any major immediate effect. Natural gas accounted for just 6 percent of Finland’s total energy consumption in 2020, Finnish broadcaster YLE said.
• A captured Russian soldier accused of killing a civilian awaited his fate in Ukraine’s first war crimes trial. Sgt. Vadim Shishimarin, 21, could get life in prison.
• Russian lawmakers proposed a bill to lift the age limit of 40 for Russians volunteering for military service. Currently, all Russian men 18 to 27 must undergo a year of service, though many get college deferments and other exemptions.

Heavy fighting was reported Friday in the Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking expanse of coal mines and factories.
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Luhansk, said Russian forces shelled the Lysychansk-Bakhmut highway from multiple directions, taking aim at the only road for evacuating people and delivering humanitarian supplies.
“The Russians are trying to cut us off from it, to encircle the Luhansk region,” he said via email.
Moscow’s troops have also been trying for weeks to seize Severodonetsk, a key city in the Donbas, and at least 12 people were killed there on Friday, Haidai said. A school that was sheltering more than 200 people, many of them children, was hit, and more than 60 houses were destroyed across the region, he added.
But he said the Russians took losses in the attack on Severodonetsk and were forced to retreat. His account could not be independently verified.
Another city, Rubizhne, has been “completely destroyed,” Haidai said. “Its fate can be compared to that of Mariupol.”

Rewilding Arabia
Return of the leopard is at the heart of plans to conserve and regenerate Saudi Arabia’s landscapes and wildlife

Enter


keywords

 


Mexican citizen dies in US immigration detention center

Updated 4 sec ago
Follow

Mexican citizen dies in US immigration detention center

  • The man died on June 7 at an ICE facility in the southern state of Georgia
  • US authorities notified the Mexican consulate in Georgia’s capital Atlanta of the death
MEXICO CITY: A Mexican citizen died in a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center from undetermined circumstances, Mexico’s foreign ministry has said.
The death comes amid ongoing demonstrations in several US states, most prominently in California, against immigration enforcement raids launched by US President Donald Trump’s administration.
The man died on June 7 at an ICE facility in the southern state of Georgia, where he was being held after he was transferred from a state prison, the foreign ministry said in a statement Thursday.
US authorities notified the Mexican consulate in Georgia’s capital Atlanta of the death.
“Consular staff has established communication with local and ICE authorities, as well as with the individual’s family members, to clarify the facts, confirm the official cause of death, and provide legal advice and support to the family,” the ministry said.
Mexico’s foreign ministry said consular staff had not been notified to interview the detainee while he was in custody, despite regular visits to the facility to assist Mexican nationals.
“The consulate has requested an explanation from the (detention) center’s authorities,” the ministry said.
It also said it was examining legal options and maintaining communication with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the state’s independent investigative body.

Japan ‘strongly condemns’ Israel’s attack on Iran

Updated 24 min 34 sec ago
Follow

Japan ‘strongly condemns’ Israel’s attack on Iran

TOKYO: Japan has joined in the condemnation of Israel’s attack on Iran with Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya saying the attack “escalates the situation” in the Middle East, Japan’s Foreign Ministry reported.

“We deeply regret that military force was used despite ongoing diplomatic efforts, including talks between the US and Iran, to achieve a peaceful resolution to the Iranian nuclear issue,” Iwaya said. “Our country strongly condemns this action, which escalates the situation.”

Iwaya emphasized that peace and stability in the Middle East are “extremely important” to Japan and urged all parties involved to exercise maximum restraint.

He called for de-escalation of the situation, adding that the Japanese government will spare no effort to protect Japanese nationals residing in the region.

“We will continue to take all necessary measures to prevent further deterioration of the situation,” he said.

• This article also appears on Arab News Japan


Pakistan, other nuclear states together spent $100 billion on weapons in 2024 — report

Updated 13 June 2025
Follow

Pakistan, other nuclear states together spent $100 billion on weapons in 2024 — report

  • US spent $56.8 billion in 2024, followed by China at $12.5 billion, says International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
  • ICAN says level of nuclear weapons spending in 2024 by these nine nations could have paid UN budget almost 28 times over

GENEVA: Nuclear-armed states spent more than $100 billion on their atomic arsenals last year, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons said Friday, lamenting the lack of democratic oversight of such spending.

ICAN said Britain, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia and the United States together spent nearly $10 billion more than in 2023.

The United States spent $56.8 billion in 2024, followed by China at $12.5 billion and Britain at $10.4 billion, ICAN said in its flagship annual report.

Geneva-based ICAN won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its key role in drafting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which took effect in 2021.

Some 69 countries have ratified it to date, four more have directly acceded to the treaty and another 25 have signed it, although none of the nuclear weapons states have come on board.

This year’s report looked at the costs incurred by the countries that host other states’ nuclear weapons.

It said such costs are largely unknown to citizens and legislators alike, thereby avoiding democratic scrutiny.

Although not officially confirmed, the report said Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkiye were hosting US nuclear weapons, citing experts.

Meanwhile Russia claims it has nuclear weapons stationed in Belarus, but some experts are unsure, it added.

The report said there was “little public information” about the costs associated with hosting US nuclear weapons in NATO European countries, citing the cost of facility security, nuclear-capable aircraft and preparation to use such weapons.

“Each NATO nuclear-sharing arrangement is governed by secret agreements,” the report said.

“It’s an affront to democracy that citizens and lawmakers are not allowed to know that nuclear weapons from other countries are based on their soil or how much of their taxes is being spent on them,” said the report’s co-author Alicia Sanders-Zakre.

Eight countries openly possess nuclear weapons: the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea.

Israel is widely assumed to have nuclear weapons, although it has never officially acknowledged this.

ICAN said the level of nuclear weapons spending in 2024 by these nine nations could have paid the UN budget almost 28 times over.

“The problem of nuclear weapons is one that can be solved, and doing so means understanding the vested interests fiercely defending the option for nine countries to indiscriminately murder civilians,” said ICAN’s program coordinator Susi Snyder.

The private sector earned at least $42.5 billion from their nuclear weapons contracts in 2024 alone, the report said.

There are at least $463 billion in ongoing nuclear weapons contracts, some of which do not expire for decades, and last year, at least $20 billion in new nuclear weapon contracts were awarded, it added.

“Many of the companies that benefited from this largesse invested heavily in lobbying governments, spending $128 million on those efforts in the United States and France, the two countries for which data is available,” ICAN said.

Standard nuclear doctrine — developed during the Cold War between superpowers the United States and the Soviet Union — is based on the assumption that such weapons will never have to be used because their impact is so devastating, and because nuclear retaliation would probably bring similar destruction on the original attacker.


Philippines’ former leader Duterte seeks interim release from ICC

Updated 59 min 57 sec ago
Follow

Philippines’ former leader Duterte seeks interim release from ICC

  • Duterte stands accused of crimes against humanity over his years-long campaign against drug users and dealers
  • International Criminal Court prosecutors have agreed not to oppose the request, according to the filing

MANILA: Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s defense team at the International Criminal Court has filed a motion for his interim release to an unnamed country, stating the prosecution would not object.

The 80-year-old stands accused of crimes against humanity over his years-long campaign against drug users and dealers that rights groups say killed thousands.

In a filing posted to the court’s website late Thursday, defense lawyers said the involved country – the name of which was redacted – had expressed its “principled agreement to receive Mr. Duterte onto its territory.”

ICC prosecutors have agreed not to oppose the request, according to the filing, which said discussions about an interim release had been under way since Duterte’s first court appearance at The Hague on March 14.

“The Prosecution has confirmed its non-opposition to interim release to (REDACTED) (REDACTED) State Party” as long as certain conditions were met, the filing reads.

An annex spelling out the conditions for Duterte’s release was not publicly available, but the defense team’s filing noted that the octogenarian posed no flight risk and cited humanitarian concerns around his age.

Lawyers representing relatives of those killed in Duterte’s drug war condemned the application for release, citing threats made against victims’ families, and saying they had legal avenues to oppose it.

“There is still a procedure within the ICC that requires the prosecution to comment and the ICC Pre Trial Chamber (PTC) to decide on the application for provisional release,” lawyer Neri Colmenares said in a statement.

In an interview with local radio, lawyer Kristina Conti said she believed it was “50-50” the former president would be released.

“I hope the (drug war) victims can weigh in but that would be difficult if (the release is based on) humanitarian grounds, and he is reportedly sick,” she said.

Duterte was arrested in Manila on March 11, flown to the Netherlands that same night and has been held at the ICC’s detention unit at Scheveningen Prison since.

ICC deputy prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang is currently overseeing the case against Duterte after Karim Khan stepped aside during an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct.

Requests for comment sent to the ICC prosecutor’s office were not immediately returned.


Prosecutors say Republican South Carolina lawmaker used ‘joebidennnn69’ to send child sex material

Updated 13 June 2025
Follow

Prosecutors say Republican South Carolina lawmaker used ‘joebidennnn69’ to send child sex material

  • RJ May was arrested after a lengthy investigation and ordered by a federal judge to remain jailed until his trial
  • The three-term Republican helped create the Freedom Caucus, a group of the House’s most conservative members

COLUMBIA, South Carolina: A Republican member of the South Carolina House who prosecutors say used the screen name “joebidennnn69” has been arrested and charged with 10 counts of distributing sexual abuse material involving children.
RJ May was arrested at his Lexington County home after a lengthy investigation and was ordered Thursday by a federal judge to remain jailed until his trial.
The three-term Republican is accused of using “joebidennnn69” to exchange 220 different files of toddlers and young children involved in sex acts on the Kik social media network for about five days in spring 2024, according to court documents that graphically detailed the videos.
Each charge carries a five-to-20 year prison sentence upon conviction and prosecutors suggested May could spend over a decade in prison if found guilty.
The files were uploaded and downloaded using May’s home Wi-Fi network and his cellphone, prosecutors said. Some were hidden by the use of a private network but others were directly linked to his Internet addresses.
May says someone else could have used his Wi-Fi
At his arraignment, May’s lawyer suggested someone could have used the Wi-Fi password that was shown on a board behind a photo May’s wife may have posted online. Attorney Dayne Phillips also suggested investigators didn’t link each Kik message directly to May.
Prosecutors asked that May, 38, not be given bail because he lives at home with his wife and young children, and some of the files he is accused of sharing feature children of about the same age as his.
 

Statement of the South Carolina Freedom Caucus announcing that RJ May was expelled from the group last year. (X photo)

May investigated for paid sex in Colombia
Prosecutors said they also investigated whether May used a fake name to travel to Colombia three times after finding videos on his laptop of him allegedly having sex with three women. An agent from the Department of Homeland Security testified the women appeared to be underage and were paid. US agents have not been able to locate the women.
Prosecutors said May created a Facebook account with his fake name and his Internet history showed him switching between his real account and the fake one and even searching his primary opponent from the fake login.
Phillips, May’s lawyer, told the courtroom that no sexual images of toddlers or young children were found directly on his laptop or cellphone.
After spending the night in jail. May appeared in court Thursday in shorts and a T-shirt with his wrists and ankles in cuffs. After being ordered to stay in jail, he appeared to blow a kiss at his wife, who was at the hearing.
May’s political rise to the state House
After May’s election in 2020, he helped create the Freedom Caucus, a group of the House’s most conservative members who say mainstream House Republicans aren’t the true conservative heart of the GOP. He also helped the campaigns of Republicans running against GOP House incumbents.
“We as legislators have an obligation to insure that our children have no harm done to them,” May said in January 2024 on the House floor during a debate on transgender care for minors.
His son charmed the House in April 2021 when May brought him to visit for his third birthday and the boy practiced his parade wave around the chamber.
The Freedom Caucus released a statement Wednesday night saying they kicked May out of their group after his arrest.
May spent a quiet 2025 House session
Many of his onetime friends have distanced themselves from May as rumors of the investigation spread through the Statehouse. During the current session he could largely be seen at his corner desk in the back of the 124-seat chamber, mixing with very few colleagues.
The House Speaker suspended May from his seat after the indictment.
May’s lawyer suggested he could have been framed and asked the Homeland Security agent if she knew that May had a lot of political enemies.
“There are a fair amount of people who don’t like me either, Mr. Phillips,” agent Britton Lorenzen replied.