UKRAINE WRAP | Britain says Russia continues to hit non-military targets in Ukraine

May 04 2022 - 20:00

Britain says Russia continues to hit non-military targets in Ukraine

Russia continues to hit non-military targets in Ukraine such as residential properties and transport hubs in a bid to weaken the country's resolve, Britain's defence ministry said on Wednesday.

In a regular military intelligence update, Britain also said that despite Russian ground operations focusing on eastern Ukraine, missile strikes continued across the country as Moscow sought to hamper Ukrainian resupply efforts.

"As Russian operations have faltered, non-military targets including schools, hospitals, residential properties and transport hubs have continued to be hit, indicating Russia’s willingness to target civilian infrastructure in an attempt to weaken Ukrainian resolve," the update, posted on Twitter, said.

"The continued targeting of key cities such as Odessa, Kherson and Mariupol highlights their desire to fully control access to the Black Sea, which would enable them to control Ukraine’s sea lines of communication, negatively impacting their economy." 

-Reuters

May 04 2022 - 15:22

Russian Orthodox Church scolds Pope Francis after 'Putin's altar boy' remark

The Russian Orthodox Church scolded Pope Francis on Wednesday for using the wrong tone after he urged Patriarch Kirill not to become the Kremlin's “altar boy”, cautioning the Vatican that such remarks would hurt dialogue between the churches.

Francis told Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper that Kirill, who has given the Ukraine war his backing, “cannot become [President Vladimir] Putin's altar boy”.

The Russian Orthodox Church said it was regrettable that a month and a half after Francis and Kirill, the patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, had spoken directly, the pope had adopted such a tone.

“Pope Francis chose an incorrect tone to convey the content of this conversation,” the Moscow Patriarchy said, though it did not explicitly mention the “altar boy” comment.

May 04 2022 - 15:10

Czech Republic in talks on EU oil embargo exemption, PM says

The Czech Republic will seek an exemption period to the European Union's proposed embargo of Russian oil, gaining time for pipeline capacities to be increased, Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on Wednesday.

"We are ready to support this decision (on sanctions including oil), given the Czech Republic will have some postponement until capacity is increased in oil pipelines which can deliver oil to the Czech Republic," Fiala said.

"We are trying to get that postponement for two, maybe three years."

The European Commission on Wednesday proposed a phased oil embargo on Russia, along with other tough measures to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. The measures include phasing out supplies of Russian crude oil within six months and refined products by the end of 2022.

The Czech Republic has been seeking an increase to capacity of the TAL pipeline - running from Italy via Austria to Germany - which is waiting for the approval by Bavarian authorities.

Fiala said he would debate the issue with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during a visit to Berlin on Thursday.

The Czech Republic joins others EU countries seeking a longer transition to introduce the ban. Slovakia, which gets nearly all its crude imports from Russia, wants a three-year transition period.Hungary also said it could not support measures in their current form.

Reuters 

May 04 2022 - 15:04

Keeping any NATO ratification period short is key to Finland, says PM

Finland, which is considering whether to apply for membership to the NATO alliance, said that keeping any transition period as short as possible would be important for its security, Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Wednesday.

"The key issue is to keep the ratification process as short as possible ... That would be the best security guarantee," Sanna Marin told a joint news conference with her Nordic counterparts in the Danish capital.

Reuters 

May 04 2022 - 14:40

Ukraine says Russia is trying to increase tempo of eastern offensive

Ukraine's defence ministry said on Wednesday that Russia was attempting to increase the tempo of its offensive in the east of the country.

Defence Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk gave few details but said Moscow had conducted nearly 50 air strikes on Tuesday alone.

He also said Russian artillery fire and air strikes were continuing periodically on the Azovstal steel works in Mariupol where the last Ukrainian defenders of the southern port city are holed up."

Russia's military command is attempting to increase the tempo of its offensive operation in eastern Ukraine," Motuzyanyk told a briefing.

He said Russian strategic bombers had fired 18 rockets from airspace above the Caspian Sea at targets in Ukraine "with the aim of damaging our country's transport infrastructure."

The ministry's account of the military situation across Ukraine could not immediately be verified.

Russian forces have turned their heaviest firepower on Ukraine's east and south after failing to take Kyiv, the capital, in the opening weeks of the war.

When asked about the situation in the Azovstal steel works, Motuzyanyk said there had been Russian attempts to storm the plant. Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko said separately that fighting at the plant continued on Wednesday.

Asked about the situation at the steel works, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "The order was publicly given by the supreme commander (Russian President Vladimir Putin) to cancel the storming (of the plant). There is no storming."

"We see that there are escalations associated with the fact that fighters are taking up firing positions. These attempts are being suppressed very quickly, there is nothing else to say at the moment," he said.

Reuters 

May 04 2022 - 13:14

Ukraine war set to worsen severe hunger worldwide — UN report

Conflict, extreme weather and economic shocks increased the number of people facing a severe lack of food by a fifth to 193 million last year and the Ukraine war means the outlook will worsen without urgent action, a UN agency said on Tuesday.

The Global Network Against Food Crises, set up by the United Nations and the European Union, said in its annual report that the number of people facing acute food insecurity and requiring urgent, life-saving food assistance had nearly doubled in the six years since 2016 when it began tracking it.

“The outlook moving forward is not good. If more is not done to support rural communities, the scale of the devastation in terms of hunger and lost livelihoods will be appalling,” the GNAFC report said.

May 04 2022 - 13:00

Kremlin dismisses speculation Putin to declare war on Ukraine on May 9

The Kremlin on Wednesday dismissed speculation that President Vladimir Putin planned to declare war against Ukraine and declare a national mobilisation on May 9 when Russia commemorates the Soviet Union's victory in World War Two.

Putin has so far characterised Russia's actions in Ukraine as a "special military operation", not a war. But Western politicians and some Russia watchers have speculated that he could be preparing for a major announcement next Monday with a range of possible scenarios ranging from an outright declaration of war to a declaration of victory.

Asked about speculation that Putin will declare war against Ukraine on May 9, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "There is no chance of that. It's nonsense.

"Peskov also said that people should not listen to speculation that there could be a decision on a national mobilisation.

"It is not true. It is nonsense," Peskov told reporters.

The May 9 Victory Day is one of Russia's most important national events - a remembrance of the enormous Soviet sacrifice made in defeating Nazi Germany in what is known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War.

An estimated 27 million Soviet citizens were killed in the 1941-45 war which left the Soviet Union devastated and almost every Soviet family mourning.

Putin has used previous Victory Day speeches to needle the West and showcase the firepower of Russia's post-Soviet armed forces.

Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands of people, displaced millions more and raised fears of the most serious confrontation between Russia and the United States since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Putin says the "special military operation" in Ukraine is necessary because the United States was using Ukraine to threaten Russia and Moscow had to defend against the persecution of Russian-speaking people.

He casts the conflict as an inevitable confrontation with the United States, which he accuses of threatening Russia by meddling in its backyard and enlarging the NATO military alliance.

Ukraine says it is fighting an imperial-style land grab and that Putin's claims of genocide are nonsense.

Reuters 

May 04 2022 - 11:11

Steenhuisen’s visit to Ukraine ruffles feathers as he insists he visited crisis-stricken locals ‘in the past three months’

DA leader John Steenhuisen’s visit to war-ridden Ukraine has triggered mixed responses ranging from praise to criticism.

Steenhuisen on Sunday announced his arrival in Lviv in western Ukraine, from where he started his six-day tour of parts of the country. He will visit refugee camps and meet leaders of cities to assess the damage caused by Russia’s invasion. 

“We owe it to the people of Ukraine to tell the unfiltered truth about what is taking place here so the world can stand united in bringing this injustice to an end,” he said.

May 04 2022 - 11:09

EU desperate for SA coal, but our railways are too clapped out to carry it

Mining companies in SA have resorted to trucking coal to ports to meet a surge in European demand since the war in Ukraine started, bypassing the deteriorating rail infrastructure they blame for billions in lost revenue.

May 04 2022 - 11:07

Africa the new frontier as EU looks to replace Russian gas imports

The EU will seek to step up cooperation with African countries to help replace imports of Russian natural gas and reduce dependence on Moscow by almost two thirds this year.

Countries in Africa, in particular in the western part of the continent such as Nigeria and Senegal offer largely untapped potential for liquefied natural gas, according to a draft EU document. The communication on external energy engagement is set to be adopted by the European Commission later this month as part of a package to implement the bloc’s plan to cut energy reliance on Moscow.

The 27-nation bloc wants to shift away from its biggest supplier after President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. Its draft energy strategy also seeks to prepare the region for imports of 10-million tons of renewable hydrogen by 2030, to help replace gas from Russia, in line with the ambitious EU Green Deal to walk away from fossil fuels and reach climate neutrality by mid-century.

May 04 2022 - 11:03

Ex-Belarus leader Shushkevich, the man who sacked Gorbachev, dies at 87

Former Belarus leader Stanislav Shushkevich, the man who broke the news to Mikhail Gorbachev that the Soviet Union was being consigned to history, has died at the age of 87, Belarusian media quoted his wife as saying on Wednesday.

Shushkevich was one of the three main actors, with Russian president Boris Yeltsin and Ukraine's Leonid Kravchuk, at a meeting in a Belarusian hunting lodge in December 1991 at which they sounded the death knell of the former superpower led by Gorbachev.

“The USSR as a geopolitical reality, and as a subject of international law, has ceased to exist,” they said in a joint statement announcing the formation of a new Commonwealth of Independent States.

May 04 2022 - 10:28

EU to sanction Credit Bank of Moscow, Russian Agricultural Bank -sources

The European Commission has proposed sanctions against Credit Bank of Moscow and the Russian Agricultural Bank, two EU sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

Earlier on Wednesday the head of the EU commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that Sberbank would also be sanctioned. EU governments need to back the proposal before it is adopted.

If the proposal is approved, the three banks would be excluded from the SWIFT banking system, the source said, complicating their transactions with other lenders.

However, the Commission did not propose a full ban on transactions or asset freezes, which have been imposed on other Russian banks in a previous round of EU sanctions, including VTB. Sberbank is Russia's biggest bank.

The Commission refrained from proposing sanctions on Gazprombank, which is crucial for gas payments.

The EU has imposed no sanctions on Russian gas yet. Previous rounds of EU sanctions have targeted other Russian and Belarusian lenders, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a "special military operation".

Reuters

May 04 2022 - 09:26

EU to ban three Russian state-owned broadcasters - von der Leyen

The European Union will ban three Russian state-owned broadcasters as part of a sixth sanctions package over Moscow's war in Ukraine, the bloc's chief executive said on Wednesday.

"They will not be allowed to distribute their content anymore in the European Union, in whatever shape or form, be it on cable, via satellite, on the internet or via smartphone apps," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg.

She called the TV channels "mouthpieces that amplify (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's lies and propaganda aggressively".

"We should not give them a stage anymore to spread these lies," she added. 

Reuters

May 04 2022 - 09:13

Ukraine does not exclude possibility Belarus could join Russian war effort - border service

Kyiv does not rule out the possibility that Moscow could at some point use the armed forces of Russian ally Belarus in the war against Ukraine, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian State Border Service said on Wednesday.

Speaking after the Belarusian armed forces began large-scale drills, spokesperson Andriy Demchenko said: "We do not rule out that the Russian Federation could at some point use the territory of Belarus, the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus, against Ukraine. Therefore, we are ready." 

Reuters

May 04 2022 - 07:30

Britain says Russia deploys 22 battalion tactical groups near Izium

 Russia has deployed 22 battalion tactical groups near Ukraine's eastern city of Izium in an effort to advance along the northern axis of the Donbas region, Britain said on Wednesday.

In an update on Twitter, British military intelligence said it was highly likely that Russia intended to move beyond Izium to capture the cities of Kramatorsk and Severodonetsk.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

Reuters 

May 04 2022 - 07:15

Belarus says surprise army drills no threat to neighbours

The armed forces of Belarus began sudden large-scale drills on Wednesday to test their combat readiness, the defence ministry of Ukraine's neighbour said.

"It is planned that the (combat readiness) test will involve the movement of significant numbers of military vehicles, which can slow down traffic on public roads," the Belarusian ministry said in a statement.

Against the backdrop of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the ministry said the exercise posed no threat to its neighbours or the European community in general.

Belarus is a close ally of Russia. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special military operation".

Areas of Ukraine adjacent to Belarus, including its capital Kyiv, came under Russian assault in the initial stage of the invasion which began in late February and followed joint drills held by Russia and Belarus.

Now, however, Russia has focused its attacks on Ukraine's eastern and southeastern regions.

Reuters 

May 04 2022 - 07:00

Fuel shortage in Ukraine causes long lines

Millions of Ukrainian civilians likely face several weeks of fuel disruptions due to Moscow's strikes on energy infrastructure, transportation bottlenecks and a supply cutoff by Russia and Belarus.

May 04 2022 - 06:33

Pope wants to visit Moscow to meet Putin over Ukraine - paper

Pope Francis said in an interview published on Tuesday that he asked for a meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to stop the war in Ukraine but had not received a reply.

The pope also told Italy's Corriere Della Sera newspaper that Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church, who has given the war his full-throated backing, "cannot become Putin's altar boy".

Francis, who made an unprecedented visit to the Russian embassy when the war started, told the newspaper that about three weeks into the conflict, he asked the Vatican's top diplomat to send a message to Putin.

Reuters 

May 04 2022 - 06:00

Russian strikes pound Ukraine on eve of new EU sanctions

Russian forces pounded targets in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, unleashing rockets on a steel plant that is Ukraine's last redoubt in the port city of Mariupol as the European Union prepared to slap oil sanctions on Moscow.

Scores of evacuees who did manage to leave the city under United Nations and Red Cross auspices over the weekend reached the relative safety of Ukraine-controlled Zaporizhzhia after cowering for weeks under the sprawling Azovstal steel plant.

Mariupol is a major target for Russia as is seeks to cut Ukraine off from the Black Sea and connect Russian-controlled territory in the south and east. Parts of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk were held by Russian-backed separatists before President Vladimir Putin launched the Feb. 24 invasion.

Fresh Russian attacks in Donetsk on Tuesday killed 21 civilians and injured 27, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said. He said the figure was the highest daily death toll in the region since last month.

Attacks and shelling also intensified in Luhansk, with the most difficult area being Popasna, where it was impossible to organize evacuations, regional governor Serhiy Haida said.

"There are no safe cities in Luhansk region," he said on Telegram.

Russia's defense ministry said its forces had struck a military airfield near the Black Sea port of Odesa with missiles destroying drones, missiles and ammunition supplied to Ukraine by the United States and its European allies. Ukraine said three missiles targeted the Odesa region and all were intercepted.

Russian forces turned their heaviest firepower on Ukraine's east and south after failing to take Kyiv, the capital, as it seeks to limit Ukraine's access to the Black Sea, vital for its grain and metal exports.

Pummelled by Western sanctions, Russia now faces new measures from the EU that would target its oil industry and banks. The proposed new sanctions were expected to be detailed on Wednesday.

Reuters