UKRAINE WRAP | Russia says arms supplies to Ukraine could lead to unacceptable escalation - Tass

May 26 2022 - 20:10

Russia says arms supplies to Ukraine could lead to unacceptable escalation - Tass

 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned the West that supplying weapons to Ukraine capable of hitting Russian territory would be "a serious step towards unacceptable escalation", Tass news agency said on Thursday.

Lavrov told the RT Arabic channel that he hoped sane people in the West would understand this, adding "There are still a few left there", RIA quoted him as saying.

-Reuters

May 26 2022 - 18:52

Russia says civil vessels may use Mariupol port, mine danger lifted

Civil vessels may safely use the Azov Sea port of Mariupol in Ukraine as the danger from mines has been eliminated, the Russian defence ministry said on Thursday.

It said a maritime humanitarian corridor was opened on Wednesday in the Azov Sea.

Russia took full control of Mariupol last week when more than 2,400 Ukrainian fighters surrendered at the besieged Azovstal steelworks.

-Reuters

May 26 2022 - 18:18

Russia says civil vessels may use Mariupol port, mine danger lifted

Civil vessels may safely use the Azov Sea port of Mariupol in Ukraine as the danger from mines has been eliminated, the Russian defence ministry said on Thursday.

It said a maritime humanitarian corridor was opened on Wednesday in the Azov Sea.

Russia took full control of Mariupol last week when more than 2,400 Ukrainian fighters surrendered at the besieged Azovstal steelworks.

-Reuters

May 26 2022 - 14:51

Ukraine's Zelenskiy says money making some countries tolerant of Russia

The appeal of Russian money is making some countries tolerant of its aggression, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday as he rejected calls to accept territorial concessions to appease Moscow.

"Today we hear that allegedly Russia should be given what it wants, supposedly it is necessary to agree that some peoples may be deprived of some of their foreign policy rights," Zelenskiy said in a video address to the Latvian parliament.

"We must fight for the principle that nation(hood) is important," he said. 

Reuters 

May 26 2022 - 14:27

Nigeria to import potash from Russia, Canada -sovereign fund head

Nigeria plans to import 105,000 tonnes of potash from Russia and Canada to ensure to help avert any shortfall in output from its fertiliser plants, the head of the country's sovereign wealth fund said on Thursday.

Uche Orji, the head of Nigeria's Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), said Nigeria could import potash from Russia despite the ongoing war because "fertiliser is excluded from the ban in terms of doing business with Russia.

"Western sanctions were imposed on Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine in February.

In April, Nigeria bought emergency supplies of Canadian potash after Russia was unable to deliver due to the Western sanctions.

The NSIA negotiates imports of raw fertilizer materials like potash as part of the Nigerian government's programme to develop its capacity to produce blended fertiliser.

"We have a total of 105,000 metric tonnes of potash coming into the country. Subsequently more supplies will come from Russia because it saves us time for the vessels to come in than from central Canada," Orji said.

Nigeria plans to buy 35,000 tonnes from Russia with a June 3 delivery date. The rest is due to come from Canada on June 6, Orji said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said earlier this month that global food security problem could not be solved without restoring Ukrainian agricultural production and Russian food and fertiliser output to the world market.

Nigeria has for years been battling double-digit inflation, which quickened to 16.83% last month, and its population of 200 million will face even higher food costs this year and the next as the agricultural sector passes on the higher costs of imported wheat, diesel and fertiliser. 

Reuters 

May 26 2022 - 14:00

VTB says Russian banks could get $52 bn boost if country ditches Basel rules

Russia's banks could get a 3.3 trillion rouble ($52 billion)capital boost if the central bank ditches Basel capital requirements, the head of VTB Bank Andrey Kostin said on Thursday.

Russia has relaxed some capital requirements for banks in response to sweeping Western sanctions levied against the Russian financial sector following Moscow's move to send thousands of troops into Ukraine.

Central Bank governor Elvira Nabiullina dismissed on Thursday the idea of ditching the Basel requirements - international standards that dictate the levels and kinds of assets lenders must keep on their balance sheets - and instead called for a readjustment in how they are applied in Russia.

Nabiullina told a forum that the central bank was considering extending a number of the support measures until the end of the year but acknowledged that some banks may require a capital injection. She did not provide details.

"It seems that sanctions-hit banks will have to focus on domestic rouble operations, primarily on lending to the state sector, sanctioned companies... Keeping in mind a risk of secondary sanctions, this is important to avoid splitting the banking system into two isolated parts," she said.

Kostin told the same forum that by his estimates, the entire sector could get a capital boost of 3.3 trillion roubles if Basel rules are abandoned, of which VTB alone would gain 550 billion roubles.

Nabiullina also said the central bank is considering allowing banks to group together and form banking associations, without buying out each others' shares, in order for smaller banks to team up with bigger lenders and benefit from their support. 

Reuters 

May 26 2022 - 13:46

Russian bailiffs seize around $120m from Google - Ifax

 Russian bailiffs have seized more than 7.7 billion roubles ($123.2 million) from Alphabet's Google that the US tech giant had been ordered to pay as part of a fine on its turnover, Interfax news agency reported on Thursday.

Google's Russian subsidiary last week said it planned to file for bankruptcy after authorities seized its bank account, making it impossible to pay staff and vendors, but free services including search and YouTube will continue operating.

Reuters 

May 26 2022 - 12:55

Ukraine says Russia shells more than 40 towns in Donbas push

Russian forces shelled more than 40 towns in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, Ukraine's military said, threatening to shut off the last main escape route for civilians trapped in the path of their invasion, now in its fourth month.

After failing to seize Ukraine's capital Kyiv or its second city Kharkiv, Russia is trying to take full control of the Donbas, comprises two eastern provinces Moscow claims on behalf of separatists.

Russia has poured thousands of troops into the region, attacking from three sides in an attempt to encircle Ukrainian forces holding out in the city of Sievierodonetsk and its twin Lysychansk. Their fall would leave the whole of Luhansk province under Russian control, a key Kremlin war aim.

“The occupiers shelled more than 40 towns in Donetsk and Luhansk region, destroying or damaging 47 civilian sites, including 38 homes and a school. As a result of this shelling five civilians died and 12 were wounded,” the Joint Task Force of Ukraine's armed forces said on Facebook.

The statement said 10 enemy attacks were repelled, four tanks and four drones destroyed, and 62 “enemy soldiers” were killed.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian troops “heavily outnumber us” in some parts of the east.

May 26 2022 - 12:26

Talk to Ukraine about ports, not us, says Russia ahead of UN talks in Moscow

A senior UN official is due to visit Moscow in the coming days to discuss reviving fertiliser exports, Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said on Wednesday, stressing that the talks were not linked to a resumption of Ukrainian grain shipments.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Ukrainian grain shipments from its Black Sea ports have stalled and more than 20 million tonnes of grain are stuck in silos, while Moscow says the chilling effect of Western sanctions imposed on Russia over the war have disrupted its fertiliser and grain exports.

The conflict is fuelling a global food crisis with prices for grains, cooking oils, fuel and fertiliser soaring. Russia and Ukraine account for nearly a third of global wheat supplies, while Russia is also a key global fertiliser exporter and Ukraine is a major exporter of corn and sunflower oil.

Nebenzia said that “formally fertilisers and grain are not under sanctions, but there are logistical, transport, insurance, bank transfer problems” created by Western sanctions that “prevent us from exporting freely”.

May 26 2022 - 11:52

Spain, Britain call on NATO to look at Russian threat from Africa

Russia's expanding influence and activity in Africa pose a “worrying” threat to the security of NATO countries along with its invasion of Ukraine and must be addressed by the military alliance, the Spanish and British defence ministers said Wednesday.

At a joint news conference in Madrid, Spain's Margarita Robles said the expansion of operations by the Russian state and Russian private security companies such as the Wagner Group in countries like Mali and Libya was “very clear” and accused them of fomenting organised crime and terrorism.

“NATO cannot remain indifferent in this situation,” she added.

Britain's Ben Wallace, in Madrid for a bilateral meeting ahead of Spain's hosting of a crunch NATO summit in late June, said rising instability coupled with hunger in Africa could significantly impact Europe.

May 26 2022 - 11:43

Ukraine conflict squeezes SA's citrus exports to Russia

The conflict in Ukraine has throttled SA's citrus exports to Russia and driven input costs higher, further squeezing fruit producers already suffering from spiralling shipping costs, an industry body said.

The war, which started on February 24, blocked SA's citrus shipments to Russia in the immediate aftermath, Citrus Growers Association of Southern Africa (CGA) CEO Justin Chadwick told Reuters.

Although shipments to Russia have since resumed, exports have slumped as producers concerned about payments and shipping delays explore other markets.

“Since then, the United Kingdom's share of soft citrus has increased from 24% to 61%, at the expense of Russia decreasing from 32% to 5%,” Chadwick said.

May 26 2022 - 11:36

Ukraine health emergency sparks rival resolutions at WHO assembly

A proposal to condemn the regional health emergency triggered by Russia's aggression in Ukraine will come before a World Health Organisation (WHO) assembly on Thursday, prompting a rival resolution from Moscow that makes no mention of its own role in the crisis. 

The original proposal, backed by the US and more than 40 other countries, condemns Russia's actions but stops short of immediately suspending its voting rights at the UN health agency. The Russian document backed by Syria, which echoes the language of the first text, will also be decided on.

If the Western-led initiative passes nearly unanimously, observers say it would send a powerful political message that is rare in the multilateral system.

“The devastating military actions undermine the efforts to ensure health and wellbeing for everybody, undermine the mission of WHO,” Adam Niedzielski, the health minister for Poland which is one of the resolution's backers, told the assembly. “I believe the Organization cannot remain silent in these cases.”

May 26 2022 - 09:20

LIVE: WHO session on Ukraine

The World Health Assembly holds a session on Ukraine, with an update by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

May 26 2022 - 08:27

Ukraine savages idea of concessions to end war, evokes appeasement of Nazis

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday savaged suggestions that Kyiv give up territory and make concessions to end the war with Russia, saying the idea smacked of attempts to appease Nazi Germany in 1938.

The angry comments by Zelensky and a senior aide come as Ukrainian troops are facing a renewed offensive in two eastern regions that Russian-speaking separatists seized part of in 2014.

The New York Times editorial board said on May 19 that a negotiated peace might require Kyiv to make some hard decisions, given that a decisive military victory was not realistic.

May 26 2022 - 06:00

Oil firms on tight supply though EU ban on Russian oil still uncertain

 Oil prices rose on Thursday, extending a cautious rally this week on signs of tight supply while the European Union (EU) wrangles with Hungary over plans to ban imports from Russia, the world's second-largest crude exporter, after it invaded Ukraine.

Brent crude futures for July settlement inched up 7 cents, or 0.1%, to $114.10 a barrel at 0142 GMT.U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for July delivery climbed 22 cents, or 0.2%, to $110.55 a barrel.

A bigger-than-expected drawdown in U.S. crude inventories in the week to May 20, following soaring exports, buoyed the market on Wednesday.

Analysts said the inventory draw and the prospect of an EU embargo on Russian oil, in retaliation for what Moscow calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine, were pushing prices higher.

"The main upside driver is an EU ban on Russian oil imports," said Commonwealth Bank commodities analyst Vivek Dhar.

European Council Charles Michel on Wednesday said he is confident that an agreement can be reached before the council's next meeting on May 30.

However, Hungary remains a stumbling block to the unanimous support needed for EU sanctions. Hungary is pressing for about 750 million euros ($800 million) to upgrade its refineries and expand a pipeline from Croatia to enable it to switch away from Russian oil.

Even without a formal ban, much less Russian oil is available to the market as buyers and trading houses avoid dealing with crude and fuel suppliers from the country.

ANZ analysts pointed to cargoes from Baltic ports taking longer journeys to Asian refineries, while deliveries to the Netherlands and France have all but halted.

A forecast increase in oil output to a record high of 5.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in the Permian Basin of the United States is unlikely to plug the 2 million to 3 million bpd gap from lost Russian supply, CBA's Dhar said.

Still, this week's rise in oil markets has been tempered by strict Covid-19 lockdowns increasing concerns about falling fuel demand in China, the world's biggest oil importer, and worries about inflation leading to slower global growth.

Reuters