UKRAINE WRAP | Russia bans 29 British journalists from entering

June 14 2022 - 21:19

Russia's Wildberries selling Zara clothes online despite Inditex halting operations

Russian e-commerce leader Wildberries is still selling clothes from Inditex brands that have suspended operations in the country, including the Spanish group's main Zara label.

The TASS news agency reported on Tuesday that Zara items were being sold on Wildberries, which the Russian company confirmed.

Inditex is one of many Western brands to shutter stores and suspend operations in response to Russia's actions in Ukraine, but the continued sale of some of its products highlights the difficulties companies face in keeping control of their brands.

Other Inditex brands, Massimo Dutti and Pull&Bear, were also available on Wildberries, which said it would continue offering such goods to Russian consumers.

"We are buying goods that we sell from Wildberries without intermediaries, only directly from producers or official distributors," Wildberries said in a statement on Tuesday.

It was not immediately clear which distributors Wildberries was referring to.

A source close to Inditex said the items being sold by Wildberries were clearance stocks that were already in Russia when it suspended activities there. Inditex has stopped sending products to Russia since the suspension, the source added.

Products from many other Western brands are also still available on Wildberries.

The company started out as an online platform reselling clothes from the likes of German mail order group Otto and now supplies everything from electronics to kitchenware, its success turning founder Tatyana Bakalchuk into Russia's richest woman.

Hit by sanctions and supply chain issues, Russia has legalised so-called parallel imports, which allow retailers to import products from abroad without the trademark owner's permission.

Bakalchuk in March described the scheme as an effective support measure, highlighting its importance for small and medium-sized businesses and for the import of socially-significant products. 

-Reuters

June 14 2022 - 17:07

Russia bans 29 British journalists from entering

Russia has banned dozens of British journalists, media representatives and defence industry figures from entering the country, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

In a move that Moscow said was a response to Western sanctions and pressure on its state-run media outlets abroad, 29 journalists and members of British media organisations such as the BBC, the broadcaster Sky News and the Guardian and Times newspapers were personally banned.

More than a dozen British figures who Moscow said were linked to the defence industry were also banned from entering Russia. 

-Reuters

June 14 2022 - 15:48

Six injured in shelling of Russian town bordering Ukraine, official says

Six people were injured on Tuesday by shelling in a Russian town on the border with Ukraine, the regional governor said.

The incident occurred in Klintsy, some 50km (30 miles) from the Ukrainian border in the Bryansk region.

Regional governor Alexander Bogomaz wrote on the Telegram messaging app that the number of injured had risen to six from an earlier tally of four.

June 14 2022 - 14:34

Ukraine faces budget cut without $5 bn in monthly external aid - parliamentarian

Ukraine's budget revenues cover less than half of expenditures following Russia's invasion, and Kyiv will have to cut budget spending sharply if more external financial assistance does not arrive, the head of parliament's financial committee said. "We have to borrow $5 billion monthly. If we do not get it, we will have to cut spending," Danylo Hetmantsev told local television on Tuesday.

He said the government had collected 101 billion hryvnias ($3.42 billion) in taxes in May, but had to spend 250 billion hryvnias financing the army and supporting people who had been forced to leave their homes or whose homes had been destroyed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said this month that about 20% of Ukrainian territory in the industrialised east and southern parts of the country had been occupied by Russian forces that invaded on Feb. 24. Other areas are being fought over.

International financial organisations expect the Ukrainian economy to shrink 35%-45% because a large significant number of businesses has suspended their operations and are unable to pay taxes.

"We have no potential in the economy to raise taxes. We cannot do without the help of our partners as long as the fighting continues," said Hetmantsev.

He said the United States, the European Commission and some countries had provided financial support - loans and grants - but the amount was far below the $5 billion needed each month.

Finance Ministry data showed Ukraine received 151.1 billion hryvnias ($5.12 billion) from foreign partners in January-May. 

Reuters 

June 14 2022 - 12:43

German howitzers soon to be ready for use in Ukraine - minister

The training of Ukrainian troops on German howitzers will soon be completed, paving the way for the use of the weapons in the war in Ukraine, German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said on Tuesday.

Ukraine has pleaded for the West to send more and better artillery as the country runs out of ammunition for its existing Soviet-era arsenal, which is dwarfed by Russia's.

Western countries have promised NATO-standard weapons but deploying them is taking time.

"The training on the Panzerhaubitze 2000 will soon be completed so that it can be used in battle in Ukraine," Lambrecht told reporters during a visit to a military base in the western German town of Rheinbach.

The Panzerhaubitze 2000 is one of the most powerful artillery weapons in Bundeswehr inventories and can hit targets at a distance of 40 km (25 miles).

Germany pledged in May to supply Kyiv with seven self-propelled howitzers, adding to five such artillery systems the Netherlands have promised.

But Berlin has also faced accusations from Ukraine that it is dragging its feet and taking too much time to deliver heavy weapons as the conflict has shifted into a punishing war of attrition.

Lambrecht gave no details on when the howitzers would be sent to Ukraine.

"The first howitzers will be delivered (to Ukraine) when the training has been completed and it is responsible (to supply them)," she said, adding she would make neither the date nor transport routes public for security reasons.

Kyiv needs 1,000 howitzers, 500 tanks and 1,000 drones among other heavy weapons, Presidential Adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Monday. 

Reuters 

June 14 2022 - 11:42

World’s wealthy flock to UAE as war spurs Russian capital flight

he United Arab Emirates is poised to attract the biggest share of private wealth this year as Russian capital seeks a new home, according to a new report published by Henley & Partners.

The London-based investment migration consultancy projects the UAE will attract a net inflow of 4,000 millionaires, the most of any country globally, and as many as 2,500 may move to Israel.

Russia could suffer a net outflow of 15,000 high net worth individuals. 

“Affluent Russians seeking to escape the impact of the devastating Western sanctions on their country have started to move to the UAE and Israel in large numbers,” Henley said in the report published on Monday.

“They have now come under further pressure from many Western countries, such as Britain, where they had previously made their homes.”

Even before the war, the UAE was gaining momentum as a wealth hub, buoyed by its low tax regime, one of the world’s fastest vaccination rates and Dubai’s role in hosting the first world expo of the Covid-19 era.

The country’s success in attracting tourism and trade through visa waivers has propelled the UAE up to the No. 15 position on the Henley Passport Index from No. 64 a decade ago. 

Meanwhile, the estimated exodus from Russia accounts for about 15% of the country’s population of HNWIs, according to Henley. The invasion is also driving millionaires out of Ukraine, which is predicted to suffer the highest net loss in the nation’s history -- 2,800 people or 42% of its HNWIs. 

Led by Christian Kalin, a Swiss lawyer known as “the passport king,” Henley has carved out a niche in the lucrative industry of citizenship and residency, which Kalin has previously estimated could rake in $20 billion per year.

The UAE is home to one of the firm’s largest offices, according to data compiled by LinkedIn, trailing just a few countries like Malta, South Africa and Switzerland.

Bloomberg

June 14 2022 - 11:30

Conflict in Ukraine could aggravate drug problems, EU body warns

Russia's invasion of Ukraine could create "new vulnerabilities" in Europe to illegal drugs by triggering shifts in smuggling routes and potentially exposing more people to narcotics, the Lisbon-based EU drugs agency warned on Tuesday.

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) said in its annual report that many people who have suffered "severe psychological stress" during the conflict may be more vulnerable to substance misuse problems in the future.

Drug traffickers might switch to alternative routes to avoid areas with a heightened security presence, it said, while health services in European countries, especially those bordering Ukraine, are likely to become more strained as drug users fleeing the conflict require support.

"Continuity of treatment, language services and the provision of accommodation and social welfare support are likely to be key requirements," it said, adding that even those who were not drug users were at risk.

The agency also said the difficult financial situation in Afghanistan that has been under Taliban control since August could make drug revenues a more important source of income and lead to an increase in heroin trafficking to Europe.

It said that despite a ban on the production, sale and trafficking of illicit drugs, poppy cultivation appeared to continue in Afghanistan.

Concerns over the impact international developments could have on drug problems in Europe come at a time substance use is returning to pre-pandemic levels and there are signs of rising production, EMCDDA said. It called on European countries to scale up treatment and harm reduction services.

"Established drugs have never been so accessible, and potent new substances continue to emerge... everyone can be affected, whether directly or indirectly," said EMCDDA director Alexis Goosdeel.

A record 213 tonnes of cocaine were seized in the European Union and over 350 illegal drug production laboratories dismantled in 2020, according to its latest data. 

Reuters 

June 14 2022 - 10:52

Russia strikes weapons depot in Ukraine with cruise missiles - RIA

Russia struck an artillery weapons depot with Kalibr cruise missiles in Ukraine's Chernihiv region, the RIA news agency reported on Tuesday, citing the Russian defence ministry.

Russian air defence forces shot down a Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter jet and an Mi-24 helicopter, the TASS news agency reported, citing the ministry. 

Reuters 

June 14 2022 - 10:24

No way out for Ukrainians in embattled city as Russian forces destroy last bridge

Russian forces cut off all routes for evacuating citizens from the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk by destroying the last bridge linking it to a Ukrainian held city on the other side of the river, a Ukrainian official said. 

Regional governor Sergei Gaidai said on social media that some 70% of Sievierodonetsk was under enemy control, as the Russian offensive in the eastern Donbas region moved closer securing a breakthrough victory.

June 14 2022 - 09:30

Pope criticises Russia over cruelty in Ukraine but says war perhaps provoked

Pope Francis has taken a new series of swipes at Russia for its actions in Ukraine, saying its troops were brutal, cruel and ferocious, while praising "brave" Ukrainians for fighting for survival.

But in the text of a conversation he had last month with editors of Jesuit media and published on Tuesday, he also said the situation was not black and white and that the war was "perhaps in some way provoked".

While condemning "the ferocity, the cruelty of Russian troops, we must not forget the real problems if we want them to be solved," Francis said, including the armaments industry among the factors that provide incentives for war.

"It is also true that the Russians thought it would all be over in a week. But they miscalculated. They encountered a brave people, a people who are struggling to survive and who have a history of struggle," he said.

Francis said that several months before President Vladimir Putin sent his forces into Ukraine, the pontiff had met with a head of state who expressed concern that NATO was "barking at the gates of Russia" in a way that could lead to war.

Francis then said in his own words: "We do not see the whole drama unfolding behind this war, which was perhaps somehow either provoked or not prevented".

Asking himself rhetorically if that made him "pro-Putin," he said "No, I am not. It would be simplistic and wrong to say such a thing".

Reuters 

June 14 2022 - 09:10

Ukraine's besieged farmers fear wartime harvest 'hell'

As 10-metre high mounds of sunflower meal smoulder among the blackened ruins of one of Ukraine's top agricultural terminals, farmers in this front-line region are scrambling to survive a harvest under Russian fire.

They see Russia's shelling of the Nika-Tera port facility in the southern city of Mykolaiv on June 4 as just the most dramatic example of a wider assault on a pillar of Ukraine's economy — and the world's.

June 14 2022 - 06:15

This is how Ukraine plans to get its Bauhaus in order after the war

Africa is “the last business frontier” and that is why geopolitical tensions between countries like France and Russia include a renewed scramble for Africa. This is the view of Koffi Kouakou, an Africa analyst and senior fellow at the Centre of Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg. He unravelled this claim in detail in the latest episode of Eusebius on TimesLIVE.

June 14 2022 - 06:00

PODCAST | France vs Russia: the renewed scramble for Africa

Africa is “the last business frontier” and that is why geopolitical tensions between countries like France and Russia include a renewed scramble for Africa. This is the view of Koffi Kouakou, an Africa analyst and senior fellow at the Centre of Africa-China Studies at the University of Johannesburg. He unravelled this claim in detail in the latest episode of Eusebius on TimesLIVE.