BERLIN — Russia on Friday took new steps to start an escalating battle with the West over the war in Ukraine, expanding military recruitment to older civilians and cutting off gas supplies to Finland in apparent retaliation for the application from its Nordic neighbor to join the NATO alliance.
The two developments reflected increasing pressure on Russia over the three-month-old invasion of Ukraine, which has grown into a sort of stalemate that has severely depleted the Kremlin’s conventional war capabilities, even as Russia has made some incremental progress.
The conflict has also made Russia increasingly vulnerable economically and fueled Western opposition in a way President Vladimir V. Putin had wanted to avoid. Both Sweden and Finland, which share land and sea borders with Russia, broke with their time-honored neutrality policies and last week applied to join NATO, a vote of confidence in the unity of a conflict-affected alliance. strengthens.
Russia said Friday it was suspending gas shipments to Finland because the Finnish gas company had failed to make payments in rubles. But the Kremlin has historically used Russia’s energy supply as a political weapon and previously threatened “retaliation” against Sweden and Finland if they join NATO. Last weekend, Moscow suspended electricity exports to Finland after it became clear that the country intended to join the alliance.
The Finnish company Gasum called the latest move by the Russian gas giant Gazprom “very regrettable”, but said it did not expect any disruptions.
“It is very unfortunate that the supply of natural gas under our supply contract is now running out,” Gasum chief executive Mika Wiljanen said in a statement. “However, we have prepared ourselves well for this situation and if there are no disruptions in the gas transport network, we will be able to supply gas to all our customers in the coming months.”
Gas exports are vital to the Russian economy. They also give Moscow a powerful diplomatic tool: Last month, Russia stopped supplying natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria, two NATO countries that depend on Russian gas but have strongly opposed the war in Ukraine. Poland and Bulgaria had also waived payments in rubles.
Russia’s response underscored the geopolitical ramifications of the war in Ukraine as it sparked what could become one of the most radical reshaping of the European security order in decades.
That fallout spread further Friday when state-controlled Russian oil giant Rosneft announced that Gerhard Schröder, Germany’s former chancellor and one of Mr Putin’s last prominent Western cheerleaders, would step down as chairman of its board.
Moscow is increasingly mired in trouble on the ground in Ukraine, the former Soviet republic that Mr Putin does not consider a legitimate country. His plan for a swift subjugation of Ukraine after the February 24 invasion was turned upside down by a series of blood-curdling battles that have forced him to reduce his territorial ambitions and exhaust Russian forces and leave his equipment behind.
Pressured to win victories and bolster its forces for an intensification of fighting in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, Moscow decided on Friday to expand the pool of potential recruits for its army by eliminating the age limit for service.
An amendment tabled by senior lawmakers in the Russian parliament would allow Russians over 40 to sign contracts for military service for the first time. Under current law, Russian citizens must be between 18 and 40 years old to sign a first contract.
The law would bring in more military personnel with specialisms, such as medical personnel and engineers, according to a statement from the House of Representatives.
“Very professional specialists are needed” to operate military equipment, the statement said.
It made no mention of a staff shortage in the field. But experts say Russia is suffering from that deficit and under pressure, especially after a series of humiliating setbacks in capturing Ukraine’s capital Kiev, and more recently in failing to capture the country’s second-largest city, Kharkiv.
Mr Putin has resisted ordering a large-scale military draft, apparently for fear of domestic backlash, and is ramping up recruitment instead.
The lack of reserve forces is forcing Russian commanders to consolidate depleted tactical battalion groups, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based research group monitoring the conflict.
The institute quoted an unidentified US defense official as saying that Russian forces have had to disband and combine some tactical battalion groups in Ukraine to make up for the casualties and other losses.
At the same time, the institute said some Russian troops withdrawn from Kharkov, in the northeast of the country, have been redeployed to the Donetsk region of Donbas.
Even as Russia’s war targets narrowed, it strengthened control over parts of Ukraine this week.
After the near total capture of the southeastern port city of Mariupol, Russian officials appeared to be laying the groundwork for the annexation of parts of southeastern Ukraine. They have already made changes in some areas, introducing the ruble currency, installing proxy politicians and cutting the population of Ukrainian broadcasts.
Units that fought in Mariupol can now be sent elsewhere after the surrender of Ukrainian fighters defending a large steel plant. A spokesman for Russia’s defense ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov, said on Friday that his troops were in full control of the factory, which has been “completely liberated”.
The focus has shifted to the eastern battlefield. In the Donbas region, which Russia has vowed to conquer after abandoning its more ambitious goals of overthrowing the central government, Russian forces carried out 13 strikes on Ukrainian positions, the Ukrainian military said.
A week-long battle around the town of Sievierodonetsk, in the Luhansk region, has intensified over the past day, with Russian troops firing artillery on Friday at a school where more than 200 people were hiding, killing three of them, a regional military official said.
War between Russia and Ukraine: important developments
Russia’s punishment of Finland. Russia will stop supplying natural gas to Finland on May 21, the Finnish state energy supplier said. Russia said it was suspending delivery because Finland had failed to comply with its demand to make payments in rubles. Finland has also applied to join NATO, much to Russia’s anger.
Russian artillery fire on the city and nearby areas has killed 12 civilians and damaged more than 60 buildings in the past day, the governor of Luhansk province said. The Ukrainian army said in its regularly published morning assessment of the war on Friday that its forces had repulsed a Russian attempt to storm defensive positions near Sievierodonetsk.
To sustain Ukraine’s war effort, the Group of 7 Economic Powers agreed on Friday to provide nearly $20 billion in grants and loans to support Ukraine’s economy in the coming months.
Ukraine needs about $5 billion a month to maintain basic government services, according to the International Monetary Fund. Financing of the G-7 was agreed after the United States, which contributes more than $9 billion in short-term financing, pressured allies to do more to secure Ukraine’s future.
While the Ukrainian government has expressed gratitude for Western economic and military aid, it has been critical of NATO over what Ukrainian officials have called the alliance’s lack of support since the Russian invasion.
“Can you name at least one consensus decision taken by NATO over the past three months that would benefit and help Ukraine?” Dmytro Kuleba, the foreign minister, said during a nationwide telethon on Thursday evening to raise money for the country.
Under the NATO treaty, an attack on one of its 30 members is an attack on everyone – a provision that has increased the risk of escalation with Russia, including the possibility, however small, of nuclear war.
While NATO officials have expressed strong support for Ukraine, they have taken no steps that could provoke a Russian attack on an alliance member, including, for example, echoing the Ukrainian government’s repeated pleas to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine. turned down.
Individually, many NATO countries have provided Kiev with weapons and missiles — aid Mr Kuleba acknowledged.
“Yes, it is true that the members of the alliance, individually or in small groups, are doing a really great and important work and providing essential help,” said Mr. Kuleba. “But NATO as an institution has done nothing during this time.”
The latest tests for NATO’s unity are Finland’s and Sweden’s accession requests, which continue to face opposition from Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has complained about what he calls their tolerance of Kurdish militant separatist groups in his country as terrorist organisations.
The Biden administration, which has strongly supported Finland and Sweden’s applications, has repeatedly expressed confidence that Turkey’s concerns will be resolved.
Katrin Bennhold reported from Berlin, Matthew Mpoke Bigg from Krakow, Poland, and Andrew E. Kramer from Kiev, Ukraine. Reporting contributed by Alan Rappeport of Königswinter, Germany; Safak Timur from Istanbul; Erika Solomon from Lviv, Ukraine; and James C. McKinley Jr. and Rick Gladstone from New York.
