Russia ‘takes control of Azovstal steel plant’; gas supply to Finland to be cut – as it happened

Plant was last part of Mariupol in Ukrainian hands; Gazprom will suspend gas sales to Finland from Saturday. This blog is now closed

• Intense fighting around Severodonetsk as Donbas labelled hell'
• Russian soldier says he will accept punishment for war crime
• Russia may scrap age limits for soldiers to bolster forces
• Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 86 of the invasion

Serhiy Gaidai, Ukraine's governor of Luhansk, has given a short update on the situation in Severodonetsk. He writes on Telegram:

The Russians are shelling Severodonetsk very powerfully. Up to 15,000 people remain in bomb shelters. Wells in the old districts of the city were preserved to provide people with water. All mobile towers are de-energized. 70% of high-rise buildings are destroyed or damaged, many of them need to be demolished and new ones built.

Speaking of friends", it is notable that US senators were visiting Stockholm on the day the historic" decision was announced. Not rank-and-file congressmen, but leader of the Senate Republicans Mitch McConnell. Sweden has not yet joined the alliance, but the Americans are already dictating to the Swedish authorities what to say to their people. And this is just a demo of what is in store for them.

More than 200 years of neutrality, which guaranteed the Kingdom's security and prosperity, are now history.