UKRAINE WRAP | African Union head to push Russia, Ukraine to unblock grain exports

May 25  2022 - 20:27

African Union head to push Russia, Ukraine to unblock grain exports

Senegal's president and African Union chairman Macky Sall said on Wednesday that when he visits Russia and Ukraine in the coming weeks he will push them to unblock exports of grains and fertilizer to avoid widespread famine.

Africa is suffering from disruptions in food supply and soaring prices of basic goods and risks "disastrous consequences" if the situation endures, Sall said during a conversation with philanthropist Mo Ibrahim at the Ibrahim Governance Forum.

Nearly half of Africa's 54 countries rely on Russia and Ukraine for wheat imports, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Russia is also a major supplier of fertilizer to at least 11 countries.

"We have pleaded for a ceasefire, for an end to the war and for the release of all food products ... so that the world doesn't know a famine after two years of COVID and almost three months of war," said Sall. Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

"There are multiple initiatives to call on countries that have (grain) stocks to liberate them ... and to ensure that Russia can authorize the export of cereals from Ukraine and can also export itself. This is the African position," he said.

Parts of Africa are already facing record hunger levels, driven by insecurity, climate shocks and the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

If food supply blockages were to continue and there was a famine, Sall said: "The world would not be able to contain the consequences because it would be massive on immigration. It would be dramatic for African countries."

Sall said on Sunday he would visit Moscow and Kyiv in his capacity as chairman of the African Union, which wants peace in Ukraine through dialogue between the two sides.

-Reuters

May 25  2022 - 18:42

Putin's social spending hike to cost budget $10.5 bln in 2022, FinMin says

Higher social spending that President Vladimir Putin promised on Wednesday will cost Russia's federal budget around 600 billion roubles ($10.46 billion) this year and about 1 trillion roubles in 2023, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.

Putin told a televised meeting of Russia's State Council that he was ordering a 10% increase to pensions and the minimum wage, among other social spending measures. 

-Reuters

May 25  2022 - 16:56

Swiss move to seize assets of ex-Ukrainian leader's confidant

The Swiss government plans to seize more than 100 million Swiss francs' ($104 million) worth of assets from an associate of Ukraine's former president, Viktor Yanukovych, who was deposed in 2014, it said on Wednesday.

The proceedings concern assets of Yuriy Ivanyushchenko and his family that were frozen after Ukraine's 2014 revolution, it said in a statement, stressing the move was unrelated to sanctions that Bern imposed against Russians this year.

-Reuters

May 25  2022 - 14:00

Russia to service debt in rubles after US closes loophole

Russia will service its dollar debt in rubles because the expiry of a sanctions loophole means Moscow can no longer make payments in the US currency.

“The current situation has nothing in common with 1998, when Russia didn’t have sufficient funds to pay its debts,” Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in a statement, referring to the year Russia defaulted on about $40 billion of its local bonds. 

The announcement from Moscow came a day after the US confirmed the end of the waiver, creating another headache for Russia as it tries to get funds to investors and avoid being declared in default.

Russia faces an “artificial situation created by an unfriendly nation,” Siluanov said. “We have the money and the willingness to pay.”

The ruble payments will be made to foreign investors’ type ‘C’ accounts, which they will be able to access after applying to Russia’s National Settlement Depository, the ministry said. Russia is being pushed closer to a potential default by the sanctions and restrictions imposed as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine.

US banks and individuals are barred from accepting bond payments from Russia’s government since 12:01 a.m. New York time on Wednesday.

Russia is scheduled to make about $100 million in foreign debt payments Friday. Given the expiry of the loophole was expected, it started transferring the money last week to get ahead of the new restrictions. It said at the time that because the funds had gone to the paying agent, its obligations on the debt were fulfilled.

Reuters 

May 25  2022 - 13:23

Russia ready to set up corridor for ships leaving Ukraine with food, with conditions

Russia is ready to provide a humanitarian corridor for vessels carrying food to leave Ukraine, in return for the lifting of some sanctions, the Interfax news agency cited Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko as saying on Wednesday.

Ukraine's Black Sea ports have been blocked since Russia sent thousands of troops into Ukraine on February 24 and more than 20 million tonnes of grain are stuck in silos in the country.

Russia and Ukraine account for nearly a third of global wheat supplies and the lack of significant grain exports from Ukraine ports is contributing to a growing global food crisis.

May 25  2022 - 12:53

Russia's June 1-10 western port oil loadings set to drop 3% m/m -sources

Russia's Urals and Siberian Light crude oil exports and transit from its western ports of Primorsk, Ust-Luga and Novorossiisk June 1-10 will fall by 3% versus the provisional loading plan for the same period of May, according to market sources and Reuters calculations.

The ports will load 2.44 million tonnes of crude June 1-10, down from 2.52 million tonnes which had been set for loading May 1-10, the sources said.

Year on year, loadings for June 1-10 are set to rise by 12%, up from 2.18 million tonnes. Russia is ramping up oil exports amid lower refinery runs.

Beginning this month Russian oil exporters will be provided with the loading dates for their own cargoes only instead of a document including full loading plans for all exporters as pipeline monopoly Transneft limits access to data.

The ports of Primorsk and Ust-Luga will load a total of 1.9 million tonnes of Urals June 1-10, the sources said.

Urals and Siberian Light loadings from Novorossiisk in the first 10 days of June were set at 540,000 tonnes, they added.

Official sanctions and self-sanctioning by European buyers have hammered demand for Urals, but Asian buyers have stepped in to keep export flows.

Russia is expected to complete its May loadings from its Baltic ports in full.

Reuters 

May 25  2022 - 12:19

EU cracks widen over Ukraine as Italy, Hungary urge truce

Italy and Hungary have urged the EU to call explicitly for a ceasefire in Ukraine and peace talks with Russia, putting themselves at odds with other member states determined to take a hard line with Moscow ahead of a summit next week.

A draft concluding statement for the May 30-31 summit, seen by Reuters and dated May 19, describes the European Union as "unwavering in its commitment to help Ukraine exercise its inherent right of self-defence against the Russian aggression." It does not mention peace talks.

At a meeting of EU envoys on Friday, Italy's ambassador proposed changes to the text saying it should refer to peace talks and set out an immediate ceasefire as one of the EU's first goals, according to people who attended the meeting.

That proposal was backed by Hungary and Cyprus, which are among the states most critical of a new package of EU sanctions against Russia that has been blocked for weeks because of internal divisions.

Hungary opposes a planned oil embargo, while Cyprus has concerns about a proposed ban on property sales to Russian citizens.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in a speech at the Davos forum on Tuesday, took a hawkish stand on Russia and made no mention of peace talks.

"Ukraine must win this war, and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's aggression must be a strategic failure," she said.

The latest draft of the summit conclusions says the EU "remains committed to bolstering the ability of Ukraine to defend its territorial integrity and sovereignty.

"Baltic countries and Poland are among the strongest supporters of a hard line, and Latvia has urged even more explicit wording for increased military support, diplomats said.

A revised draft is due later on Wednesday after a meeting of EU envoys, one diplomat said.

Italy last week proposed a peace plan that would involve the United Nations, the EU and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe as facilitators to initially arrange localised ceasefires. 

Reuters 

May 25  2022 - 11:00

Estonian PM says must avoid a bad peace for Ukraine

Ukraine has to be able to negotiate with Russia from a position of strength so that Moscow is not encouraged to take further aggressive action, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said on Wednesday.

"We must avoid a bad peace, a badly negotiated peace for Ukraine would mean a bad peace for us all," she said in a speech in Stockholm.

"It is much more dangerous giving in to Putin, than provoking him. All these seemingly small concessions to the aggressor lead to big wars. We have done this mistake already three times: Georgia, Crimea and Donbas."

Reuters 

May 25  2022 - 10:18

Russia aims for stranglehold around twin Ukrainian cities

Russian forces sought to encircle Ukrainian troops in twin eastern cities straddling a river as President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Moscow was seeking to destroy the industrial Donbas region where it has focused its attacks.

Russia is attempting to seize the separatist-claimed Donbas' two provinces, Donetsk and Luhansk, and trap Ukrainian forces in a pocket on the main eastern front.

Musa Magomedov, a Ukrainian MP, said Russian forces were shelling Avdiivka, a town just inside the Ukrainian-controlled part of Donetsk, “in totally inhuman fashion”.

May 25  2022 - 09:40

Ukraine's embattled farmers running on empty as world faces food crisis

After making it through the spring planting season, sometimes with the help of bulletproof vests and helmets, Ukraine's farmers are facing another challenge — finding enough diesel for the harvest to come.

The war with Russia cut fuel supplies just as farmers stepped up work for the spring season and they have lost about 85% of their normal supplies since the conflict started on February 24, farmers, fuel distributors and analysts say.

The total area planted with grain this spring is already expected to be up to 30% smaller than last year because of the fighting, and yields could drop too if farmers don't get fuel so they can apply chemicals and harvest crops at the Right time.

Ukraine was the world's fourth-largest grain exporter last season, shipping staples such as wheat and maize to Africa and the Middle East, as well as supplying half the grain procured by the UN's World Food Programme for emergency aid.

May 25  2022 - 06:50

Russia is 'using hunger and grain to wield power,' EU says

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen called for talks with Moscow on unlocking wheat exports that are trapped in Ukraine as a result of a Russian sea blockade.

May 25  2022 - 06:30

Ukraine war exacerbated climate change impact, say activists in Davos

Climate activist Elizabeth Wathuti said on the fringes of the World Economic Forum that the war in Ukraine is exacerbating the effects of climate change on the most vulnerable.

May 25  2022 - 06:00

Ukraine gathers Russian dead in chilled train for prisoner exchange

Ukraine is gathering the bodies of dead Russian soldiers strewn among the rubble of formerly occupied towns and trying to verify their identities in the hope of exchanging them for prisoners of war.