Azov commander from Mariupol admits capitulation for the first time - message from Moscow follows later
Created: 05/21/2022, 07:20
By: Momir Takac
Ukraine has apparently given up Mariupol for good.
In response to the planned NATO expansion, Russia wants to build twelve new military bases.
News ticker.
Russia announces new military bases near NATO - in response to Sweden and Finland.
War crimes proven by Russian soldiers?
New videos from Bucha are said to show executions.
End of Mariupol defenses:
Azov commander concedes surrender.
This
news ticker on the Ukraine war
is continuously updated.
Update from May 20, 9:04 p.m .:
According to Russian information, all fighters in the besieged Azovstal steelworks in the Ukrainian port of Mariupol have now surrendered.
The Ministry of Defense in Moscow announced on Friday evening that the industrial zone is now completely under Russian control.
A total of 2,439 Ukrainian soldiers have been taken prisoner by the Russians since May 16.
Update from May 20, 4:41 p.m .:
Honor for a suspected war criminal after his death: Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had recently shown himself confident in winning the Ukraine war, awarded the separatist leader Arsen Pavlov, who was killed in 2016, with the Order of Bravery.
A decree on the posthumous award was published in Russia's official law database.
The human rights organization Amnesty International had accused Pavlov of killing at least one Ukrainian prisoner of war during the conflict in eastern Ukraine under the name "Motorola".
Pavlov was killed in a bomb attack.
The Russian himself claimed in front of journalists that he shot at least 15 captured Ukrainian soldiers.
According to the media, the man fled to the Donbass region in April 2014 to avoid prosecution for car theft and drunk driving in Russia.
There he was considered one of the most dangerous and bloodiest militia leaders in the pro-Russian uprisings.
War in Ukraine: Azov commander publicly admits surrender for the first time
Update from May 20, 2:42 p.m.:
The Ukrainian military has apparently ordered the remaining fighters of the Azov regiment at the Mariupol steel plant to abandon the city's defenses.
The military leadership gave the order "to save the lives of the soldiers of our garrison and to stop defending the city," commander Denys Prokopenko said in a video released on Friday.
Work is now being done to bring the fallen soldiers out of the facility.
All the wounded were evacuated and only the "killed heroes" remained, the commander said.
Ukraine-Russia News: Heavy airstrikes on the front line
Update from May 20, 1:48 p.m .:
According to their own statements, the Russian armed forces have concentrated their air attacks on the near-front rear of Ukraine.
The spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, reported on Friday of attacks on the towns of Bakhmut, Berestove, Kostyantynivka, Maslyakivka, Pokrovske, Soledar in the Donetsk region and the city of Chuhuiv in the Kharkiv region.
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Four enemy command posts and seven depots are said to have been destroyed by Russian surface-to-air missiles.
Russia's missile forces and artillery, in turn, destroyed 3 depots and 24 artillery and rocket launcher positions, Konashenkov said.
In addition, according to him, army aviation and tactical air force liquidated 280 soldiers and 59 armored military vehicles.
This information could not be verified independently.
Ukraine War: Russia reports near-total capture of Luhansk region
Update from May 20, 1:04 p.m .:
According to information from Moscow, the Russian troops are still advancing in the Donbass.
"The liberation of the Luhansk People's Republic is nearing completion," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at a ministry meeting.
Before invading Ukraine, Russia recognized the separatist areas in the east of the neighboring country, the "Luhansk People's Republic" and the "Donetsk People's Republic", as sovereign states.
While Ukraine is talking about a bloody invasion and occupation by Russia, Russia is talking about "liberating" the regions from nationalists.
Shoigu also informed that Ukrainian fighters were still holding the fort at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.
"The blockade of Azovstal continues," Shoigu said.
Russia wants to build twelve new military bases in the west of the country - Shoigu blames NATO and the USA
Update from May 20, 11:50 a.m .:
Russia wants to build twelve new military bases in the west of the country in response to the planned NATO expansion with Sweden and Finland.
This was announced by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Friday.
He said, according to Russian news agencies, "Twelve military bases and units will be set up in the Western Military District by the end of the year."
Shoigu denounced "the increase in military threats on the Russian borders" and accused the US and NATO.
Bucha: Videos are supposed to prove war crimes in the Kyiv suburbs by Russian soldiers
First report from May 20, 2022:
Bucha - The suspicion that Russian fighters are responsible for the murder of hundreds of defenseless civilians in the Kiev suburbs in the escalating Ukraine conflict may be confirmed.
The alleged war crimes in Bucha and Irpin, northwest of the capital, had caused horror around the world.
Russian politicians and officials have consistently denied the killings.
However , the
New York Times
has now published videos purporting to show executions of Ukrainian civilians by Russian soldiers.
You can see how two soldiers drive eight men - one of them wearing a light blue sweater - through a street at gunpoint.
A voice calls out, "Go right, bitch."
The recordings are said to have been made on March 4, 2022 by a security camera and a witness in a nearby house in Bucha.
Other witnesses told the
New York Times
that the men were then led behind a building.
Then shots were heard.
The men did not return.
Butscha: Videos are supposed to prove executions of men
A third video, also leaked to the
New York Times
, shows the footage taken by a drone for the Ukrainian military a day later.
It shows her taking pictures of a building.
She pans to the corpses lying next to the house - guarded by soldiers.
A bruise can be seen briefly - the man with the light blue sweater.
So the drone video seems to confirm the eyewitness accounts.
In order to prove what happened to the men in Bucha and to document possible war crimes, the
New York Times
said it spent several weeks in the Kiev suburb speaking with a survivor, witnesses, medical examiners, and police and military officials.
War in Ukraine: Russian offensive in Donbass - Zelenskyj speaks of "hell"
Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine continues with undiminished severity on the 85th day of the Russian invasion.
The focus is currently on the Donbass in the east of the country.
In its situation report, the Ukrainian general staff spoke of an “offensive in the Lysychansk and Sievjerodonetsk area” by the enemy.
Further south, on the border between Donetsk and Luhansk, fierce fighting is said to be taking place around the towns of Vyskryva and Oleksandropillya.
This is evidenced by several fatalities reported by Ukrainian authorities in the Donetsk region alone.
According to the situation report, however, Russian troops are said not to have achieved any significant successes.
Neither does Ukraine, which for its part continues to work on liberation in the Kharkiv region, like President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"It's hell in Donbass, and that's not an exaggeration," said Zelenskyy, describing the situation.
(mt/dpa/afp)
