UKRAINE WRAP | Ukraine condemns Russia strike that killed 23 in 'ordinary, peaceful' city

July 14 2022 — 21:22

Ukraine condemns Russia strike that killed 23 in 'ordinary, peaceful' city

Russian missiles struck the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia far behind the frontlines on Thursday in an attack which Ukrainian officials called a war crime and said had killed at least 23 people, including three children.

The strike, which Ukraine said had been carried out with Kalibr cruise missiles launched from a Russian submarine in the Black Sea, came a day after a breakthrough in talks between Moscow and Kyiv to unblock Ukrainian grain exports and underscored how far the two sides remain from a peace settlement.

"What is this, if not an open act of terrorism?" Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was "appalled" by the missile attack and "condemns any attacks against civilians or civilian infrastructure," a spokesperson said.

The Russian defence ministry, which denies deliberately targeting civilians, did not immediately comment on the strike.

Ukraine's state emergency service said on its Facebook page that 23 people including three children had been killed, with 66 hospitalized and 39 others still missing.

It posted a photograph on its Telegram channel of a toy kitten, a toy dog, and flowers lying in the grass. "The little girl Lisa, killed by the Russians today, has become a ray of sunshine," it said, above a second image of a setting sun over ruined roofs. "Forgive us, little one, that we did not save you."

Zelenskiy told an international conference aimed at prosecuting war crimes in Ukraine that the attack had been mounted on "an ordinary, peaceful city".

"Cruise missiles hit two community facilities, houses were destroyed, a medical centre was destroyed, cars and trams were on fire," he said.

Ukraine's interior minister, Denys Monastyrskyi, said later two more missiles had been intercepted en route by air defences.

Russia, which launched what it called its "special military operation" against Ukraine on Feb. 24, says its it uses high-precision weapons to degrade Ukraine's military infrastructure to protect its own security.

Vinnytsia, a city of 370,000 people about 200km (125 miles) southwest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, hosts the command headquarters of the Ukrainian Air Force, according to an official Ukrainian military website, a target which Russia used cruise missiles to try to hit in March, the Ukrainian air force said at the time.

Video footage showed thick black smoke billowing out of a tall building, while photographs posted online by the State Emergency Service showed grey smoke rising later from the twisted remains of burnt-out cars and smouldering rubble.

One showed an abandoned, overturned pram lying on the street.

In comments on Twitter, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Russia of committing "another war crime".

"This is terrorism. Deliberate murder of civilians to spread fear. Russia is a terrorist state and must be legally recognised as such," Kuleba wrote.

Reuters 

July 14 2022 — 20:16

EU Set to boost weapons fund by $500m

Russian forces continue to hit civilian targets far from the front lines and with little apparent military significance. As rescue efforts wound down from a weekend strike in Chasiv Yar that killed 48, missiles hit the central Ukraine city of Vinnytsia on Thursday.

An estimated 23 people were killed, including three children.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the latest strike “an open act of terrorism,” and later, in a video address at The Hague, called for international accountability for Russian actions.

EU member states are set to agree on 500 million euros more in military aid to Ukraine when the bloc’s foreign ministers meet Monday, taking the total to 2.5 billion.

Reuters 

July 14 2022 — 20:00

IMF expects Ukraine to continue servicing debt - spokesman

The International Monetary Fund expects Ukraine to continue to service its foreign debt, an IMF spokesman said on Thursday.

At the moment Ukraine is servicing its debt in an orderly way, said Fund spokesman Gerry Rice in a scheduled news briefing. "We would expect that to continue.

"He said the IMF sees international community grant financing as a priority for the immediate and short-term, as "that would allow the Ukrainian government to remain operational without incurring further debt."

Ukraine's state-owned gas company Naftogaz asked its international creditors earlier this week to allow for a two-year deferral on debt payments, fueling bets that the sovereign could follow.

Creditors were urged Thursday to reject the company's request.

Ukraine's economy and government revenue have shrunk significantly since Russia's invasion in late February. 

Reuters 

July 14 2022 — 19:45

Separatist leader says two killed in Ukrainian strike on bus station

Two people were killed when Ukrainian forces shelled a bus station in the separatist-held city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, a separatist leader said on Thursday.

In a post on Telegram, Denis Pushilin, head of the self-proclaimed, Russian-backed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), said that two civilians had been killed and three wounded when the bus station was struck by a howitzer.

Ukrainian interior ministry adviser Anton Herashchenko accused Russian forces on social media of striking the centre of Donetsk but pinning the blame on Ukraine.

Reuters video from the scene showed a bus driver dead at the wheel and another body covered by a sheet on the ground. Reuters was unable to independently establish who was responsible.

Donetsk city has been held by DPR forces since 2014 but Ukraine still controls part of wider Donetsk province, which Russia is trying to capture with the help of its proxies in east Ukraine.

Reuters 

July 14 2022 — 18:00

Brazil's Bolsonaro: I know how the Ukrainian war could be resolved

 Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday he knows how the war between Russia and Ukraine could be "resolved" and that he will pitch his suggestions to Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy, with whom he is set to have a phone meeting next week.

"I'll tell him my opinion, what I think. The solution to this. I know how it could be resolved. But I won't tell anyone," Bolsonaro told reporters while on a visit to the northeastern state of Maranhao.

"The solution to this case would be like how Argentina's war with the UK ended in 1982," he said, without providing further details.

Argentina and Britain fought a short conflict in 1982 over sovereignty of the Falkland Islands in the south Atlantic, known in Argentina as the Malvinas. It began in April 1982 when Argentine troops landed on the British-controlled islands, and Britain sent a naval task force to retake them. The poorly-equipped Argentine troops stood little chance and Argentina surrendered two months later.

Bolsonaro has a phone call scheduled for July 18 with Zelensky. He said the Ukrainian leader was the one who initially reached out and that he immediately agreed to the call.

The Brazilian president visited his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow in February, a few days before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Bolsonaro has so far taken a neutral stand on the conflict as Brazil looks to keep doing business with Russia.

Earlier this week his foreign relations minister said Brazil is looking to buy as much diesel as it can from Russia, which is also a large supplier of fertilizers to the South American agricultural powerhouse.

"This war has been causing huge disruption. Less for Brazil, much more for Europe," Bolsonaro said. 

Reuters 

July 14 2022 — 17:00

Russia's central bank resisting calls to take over running of Western banks' local arms -sources

Russia's central bank is resisting domestic calls to take over the running of foreign lenders' local businesses, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters, concerned in part that this could prompt depositors to pull out funds.

The central bank is under mounting pressure to act from some Russian officials and businesses after Western-owned branches stopped lending as their governments imposed sanctions on Moscow over the Ukraine conflict. That has angered Russian customers struggling with economic recession and galloping inflation.

According to two separate sources, Russian authorities have looked into a scheme that would transfer day-to-day management of some foreign-owned local banks into Russian hands, while leaving ownership with the parent company.

For now, however, the central bank is resisting such a move, the two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said, with one adding it was worried about the possibility of depositors rushing to pull out funds.

"The Bank of Russia supervises all credit institutions registered in Russia, ensuring the stability of the banking sector," the central bank told Reuters in emailed comments."

Foreign banks' subsidiaries are Russian legal entities licensed by the Russian central bank and are subject to the same requirements in regard to the mandatory ratios, provisions etc as for banks with Russian shareholders," it added.

The pressure on the central bank is building."A number of foreign banks have suspended their operations and sit full of liquidity - are there prospects for introducing external management for such banks? They are just sitting (on the cash) and not lending," an investor, who did not give her name, asked a central bank official at the St Petersburg International Legal Forum late last month.

Calls to introduce external management, while preserving foreign ownership, were supported last month by Andrei Kostin, the chief executive of Russia's state-controlled VTB bank.

"I personally believe that it should be a quid pro quo: our banks were seized and their banks should be taken away," he added.Foreign banks accounted for 11% of total Russian banking capital at the end of 2021, the latest data shows.

Raiffeisen, UniCredit and Citi, the biggest three units of Western banks, held 3.5 trillion roubles ($60 billion) in assets versus 38 trillion roubles at top Russian player Sberbank.

Together, Raiffeisen, UniCredit and Citi held 264 billion roubles in retail deposits versus Sberbank's almost 10 trillion, according to Interfax data.

Making use of a law passed in 2002, the central bank has already installed its representatives at over 100 financial institutions, including the Russian units of Raiffeisen, UniCredit, Intesa Sanpaolo, ING and Citi.

The central bank vets any decision that goes beyond day-by-day management and closely monitors capital and liquidity levels at the Russian businesses of foreign banks, a Western source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Since the outbreak of the conflict, Western banks that have kept a presence in Russia have also removed foreign nationals from boards and senior management teams, the source added.

Local staff who have remained in charge are under pressure from authorities to make sure Western sanctions are not applied given a proposed Russian law that make it a criminal offence to harm businesses by enforcing them.

A VTB spokesperson confirmed that Kostin's stance on the foreign banks operations had not changed, while declining further comments. The Russian arms of Raiffeisen, UniCredit, Intesa Sanpaolo and ING did not reply to requests for a comment.

Citibank Russia declined to comment.

The Ukraine conflict has prompted Western banks to study quitting Russia, but escalating sanctions have restricted the number of buyers.

Russia says it is conducting a special military operation in Ukraine.

Experts say that stripping Western banks of day-to-day management, while preserving them as owners, could leave them on the hook for any moves that broke international sanctions.

"Even if you don't directly run your bank's Russian operations, you may still be exposed to it through counterparty risk," said John Sedunov of the Villanova School of Business.

Reuters 

July 14 2022 — 16:27

Forty-five nations pledge to co-ordinate evidence of war crimes in Ukraine

More than 40 US and European judicial authorities agreed on Thursday to co-ordinate investigations into suspected war crimes in Ukraine, shortly after what Kyiv said was a Russian missile strike that killed civilians far from front lines.

July 14 2022 — 15:22

Ukrainian official proposes commission to help track weapons

A senior Ukrainian official proposed on Thursday creating a special commission to help track weapons received from Kyiv's foreign allies.

Andriy Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office, made his proposal following signs of concern abroad that criminals might steal some of the weapons and smuggle them out of Ukraine for sale on the black market.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Kyiv has received increasingly sophisticated weapons from its foreign allies, including U.S.-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems.

But the Financial Times, quoting Western officials, reported this week that NATO and European Union states are pushing for better tracking of the weapons supplied to Ukraine.

"I would like to suggest that people's deputies (parliamentarians) consider one important idea. Namely, the creation of a Temporary Special Commission, which will deal with the preparation and consideration of issues related to control over the use of weapons received from our partners," Yermak wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

"All received Western weapons are registered and sent to the front. Everything is clearly controlled and now this process will become even more open."

Yermak gave few details of the commission but said it should draw up an "optimal model of parliamentary control over the use of weapons."

"Parliament, as a legislative body, should be involved in the control of allied defence assistance," he said. "The issue of weapons is a priority for our country."

Reuters 

July 14 2022 — 15:04

Special tribunal for war crimes in Ukraine needs to be considered, Dutch minister says

 Western countries need to consider establishing a special tribunal to try war crimes committed in Ukraine to prevent them from going unpunished, Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said on Thursday.

"There are merits to look into this, the way I understand it, we have to fill the vacuum. The International Criminal Court doesn't have the jurisdiction," Hoekstra said following an international conference on the possibilities of prosecuting war crimes in Ukraine.

"So I can imagine we do look into coming up with such a tribunal. It will probably not be easy, but we will seek to help Ukraine where we can."

Ukraine's top prosecutor Iryna Venediktova said Ukraine had already started prosecutions of 127 war crimes suspects.

Reuters 

July 14 2022 — 14:34

Russia says Ukraine must recognise 'territorial reality' for peace - Interfax

A top Russian official said on Thursday that Moscow would respond positively should Kyiv be ready to resume peace negotiations, but that Ukraine must accept the "territorial realities" of the situation, the Interfax news agency reported.

Russia's deputy foreign minister Andrey Rudenko said Kyiv must provide a clear response to Moscow's proposals that Ukraine accept "non-aligned" and "non-nuclear" status in order to strike a peace deal.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would also have to recognise Russia's control over Crimea and the status of the breakaway "people's republics" in Donetsk and Luhansk, Interfax reported, a day after Kyiv ruled out territorial concessions.

Negotiations on a possible peace deal have been stalled since tentative rounds of talks between the two sides broke down just weeks into the conflict.

"Russia's approach remains the same. A future agreement should fix the neutral, non-aligned and nuclear-free status of Ukraine and recognise the existing territorial realities, including the current status of Crimea, as well as the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics," Interfax quoted Rudenko as saying. He also blamed Ukraine for the collapse of talks and said the West had "forbidden Kyiv from negotiating."

Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba on Wednesday ruled out ceding territory to Russia as part of any peace deal and said no peace talks were under way between Moscow and Kyiv. "The objective of Ukraine in this war... is to liberate our territories, restore our territorial integrity, and full sovereignty in the east and south of Ukraine," he told a briefing.

A return to negotiations has been hampered by an intensification of shelling on both sides of the frontline and by Russian strikes on cities, despite its insistence it does not target civilians.

– Reuters

July 14 2022 — 14:31

Twenty killed, dozens hurt in Russian missile strikes on Vinnytsia

Russian missiles slammed into the heart of the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia on Thursday, killing 20 people including two children and wounding dozens, the Ukrainian prosecutor-general's office said. It said residential buildings, and administrative and office premises had suffered "significant damage and destruction" in an attack which the Ukrainian military said was carried out with Kalibr missiles fired from a submarine in the Black Sea.

About 90 people sought medical attention and around 50 of them were in a serious condition following the attack, which also destroyed a medical centre and involved three missiles, the police said.

Video footage showed thick black smoke billowing out of a tall building and sirens blaring as emergency workers rushed to the scene. Photographs posted online by the State Emergency Service showed grey smoke rising later from the twisted remains of burnt-out cars and smouldering rubble. One showed an abandoned, overturned pram lying on the street.

"What is this, if not an open act of terrorism?" Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

The Russian defence ministry did not immediately comment on the reports from Vinnytsia but has denied deliberately targeting civilians.

Vinnytsia lies about 200km southwest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and is far from the main frontlines in eastern and southern Ukraine. The missile strike hit the car park of the nine-storey "Yuvelirniy" office block at around 10.50am, the State Emergency Service said. "Unfortunately, there is probably no chance of finding anyone who survived [under the rubble]," a senior regional emergency service official told Ukrainian television.

In a comment on Twitter, foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Russia of committing "another war crime". "We will put Russian war criminals on trial for every drop of Ukrainian blood and tears," he wrote.

– Reuters

July 14 2022 — 12:15

West seeks to coordinate evidence of war crimes in Ukraine

Ukraine's top war crimes prosecutor and European judicial authorities met on Thursday to coordinate investigations into atrocities during Russia's invasion of Ukraine, warning that a failure to do so would embolden autocrats.

With more than 20,000 war crimes investigations open and different countries heading teams, evidence needs to be credible and organised, officials said. "Just like a climate strategy and a Covid strategy, we need an accountability strategy," Dutch foreign minister Wopke Hoekstra told a meeting in The Hague, adding that raw emotion emanating from stories of rape and murder were not enough to prosecute suspects.

Russian forces have bombed Ukrainian cities to ruins and left behind bodies in the streets of towns and villages they occupied since invading in February. Ukraine says tens of thousands of civilians have died. Moscow denies targeting them. There have also been some reports of Ukrainians mistreating Russian prisoners, though the vast majority of accusations documented by bodies such as the United Nations are of alleged atrocities committed by Russian invaders and their proxies.

"As this meeting takes place, Russian forces continue to commit atrocities in Ukraine with harrowing intensity," said US envoy Uzra Zeya, who attended the meeting. "With each day the war crimes mount: rape, torture, extrajudicial executions, disappearances, forced deportations, attacks on schools, hospitals, playgrounds, apartment buildings, grain silos, water and gas facilities."

The European Union's justice commissioner, Didier Reynders, noted that war crimes and genocide suspects were still at large from conflicts in places such as Rwanda, Darfur, Syria, Congo and the Balkans. Countries trying to document crimes faced a "gigantic task, not least because it requires the collection and storage of evidence in the midst of a war", he said.

– Reuters

July 14 2022 — 12:12

Russian foreign ministry: four-way contacts on grain to continue - Ifx

Contacts between Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Nations on the issue of exports of Ukrainian grain will continue, Interfax news agency reported on Thursday, citing Russia's foreign ministry. Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations are due to sign a deal next week aimed at resuming Ukraine's Black Sea grain exports, Turkish defence minister Hulusi Akar said on Wednesday. – Reuters

July 14 2022 — 11:27

Janet Yellen says Russians have ‘no place’ at G20 session in Bali

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Russian government officials had “no place” at the upcoming meetings for finance chiefs from the world’s leading economies in Bali, Indonesia.

“Russia’s actions are not the actions of a government that upholds international norms and laws,” Yellen told reporters when discussing Russia’s war in Ukraine. “Representatives of the Putin regime have no place at this forum.”

Yellen said she hopes India and China will see the benefits of a proposal to cap the price paid for Russia’s oil exports, adding that the lack of a price-cap plan would be worse for Russia. She said a decision on an oil price-cap level hadn’t yet been made. Energy-related price growth was responsible for almost half of the US inflation surge, Yellen said. Consumer inflation is “unacceptably high” and the Biden administration supports the Federal Reserve’s efforts to curb it, she told reporters.

Yellen argued that officials from the Group of 20 should put more pressure on China over debt issues, including working to restructure debt for lower-income countries such as Sri Lanka. Yellen spoke on the eve of two days of meetings on the Indonesian resort island. An impasse on how to characterise the economic fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is hanging over prospects for agreement at the G-20 meetings.

– Bloomberg

July 14 2022 — 10:51

Russian forces hit Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, two dead - police

Russian missiles struck the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia on Thursday, killing at least two civilians, police said. "There are dead and wounded," Serhiy Borzov, governor of the Vinnytsia region, wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Police later put the initial toll at two dead and six wounded and said about 50 vehicles were on fire. - Reuters

July 14 2022 — 10:49

Estonia PM Kallas gets mandate from president to form new government

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas received a mandate from President Alar Karis to form a new administration after she clinched a coalition deal last week. Kallas has called for the Estonian parliament, which is on summer recess, to convene for a special session on Friday to vote on the new coalition, the government said in a statement on Thursday.

“Our government came to lead the country at a very difficult time, with the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s war against Ukraine and the energy crisis,” Kallas said in the statement.

The Estonian prime minister struck a deal for a new three-party coalition government, ending a political stalemate that’s dragged on for months as the Baltic Nato and EU nation of 1.3-million confronts inflation, an energy supply crunch and security challenges posed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

– Bloomberg

July 14 2022 — 10:47

Lithuania to keep Kaliningrad trade restrictions while working out new rules

Lithuania will keep restrictions on Kaliningrad trade in place while it works out rules on how to resume the trade, Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said on Thursday.The European Union executive said on Wednesday that sanctioned Russian goods could transit through the bloc's territory by rail, after tensions between Moscow and EU member Lithuania escalated over trade with Russia's Kaliningrad exclave. – Reuters

July 14 2022 — 10:44

Russian foreign ministry attacks West for giving Ukrainian forces weapons training

Russia's foreign ministry on Thursday attacked the United States and Britain for helping train Ukraine's armed forces, calling it part of "hybrid warfare" being waged by Nato countries against Russia.

In a media briefing, spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Washington had provided Ukraine with instructors who were helping Kyiv's forces use advanced US-made high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) against Russian positions. She noted the rockets, which have a longer range and are more precise than other artillery weapons, were being used "widely" by Ukrainian forces.

Zakharova also criticised Britain's decision to bring Ukrainian service personnel to the UK for weapons training.

– Reuters

July 14 2022 — 10:42

Germany faces painful H2 amid Russian gas woes - ministry

The German economy weathered the impact of the Ukraine war well in the first half of 2022 but there are major concerns about what effect a further reduction of Russian gas deliveries will have in the coming months, the economy ministry said. "Uncertainties about the continuation of Russian gas supplies are creating a noticeably gloomier outlook for the second half of the year," the ministry said in its monthly report published Thursday. – Reuters

July 14 2022 — 10:24

Ukrainian military launch new attack on Russian forces in southern Ukraine

Ukrainian forces hit two military checkpoints and a landing pad on Thursday in the second strike this week on a Russian-held area in southern Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said. The new attack on Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region killed 13 "occupiers", Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Odesa regional administration, quoted the Operational Command South as saying. He cited no evidence for the death toll.

Russia's defence ministry did not immediately comment.

Ukraine's military said on Tuesday that an attack by its forces on Nova Kakhovka had killed 52 people. The town’s Russia-installed authorities said at least seven people were killed in that attack, Russia’s TASS news agency reported.

Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield accounts.

– Reuters

July 14 2022 — 09:36

Polish activists help Ukrainian refugees, women access abortions

The death of a husband in war, rape by Russian soldiers and an uncertain future as a refugee — just some of the tragic reasons Ukrainian women have sought abortions in neighbouring Poland.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February and millions fled west, Polish rights groups saw a surge in calls from Ukrainians wanting an abortion. One group, the Foundation for Women and Family Planning (FEDERA), even set up a dedicated hotline.

July 14 2022 — 09:00

Water supplies in Ukraine's Mariupol to resume this month - TASS

Water supplies will resume this month in the Russian-held Ukrainian city of Mariupol, state news agency TASS cited the Russian-designated mayor, Konstantin Ivaschenko, as saying.

Ivaschenko, whose appointment to the post has not been recognised by Ukraine, added in Wednesday's comments that authorities plan to resume operation of the city's passenger port that links to Russia's Rostov-on-Don and Black Sea cities.

- Reuters

July 14 2022 — 06:30

UN chief hopes for final Ukraine grain deal next week

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that an "important and substantive step" was made towards a comprehensive deal to resume Black Sea exports of Ukraine grain after talks between Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and UN officials on Wednesday.

"Next week, hopefully, we'll be able to have a final agreement. But, as I said, we still need a lot of goodwill and commitments by all parties," he told reporters in New York.

He said that although Ukraine and Russia had engaged, "for peace we still have a long way to go."

- Reuters