Tag Archives: Imports

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China’s July Russian coal imports hit 5-year high as West shuns Moscow

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China brought in 7.42 million metric tons of coal from Russia last month, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Saturday. That was the highest monthly figure since comparable statistics began in 2017, up from 6.12 million metric tons in June and 6.49 million metric tons in July 2021.

Western countries were avoiding cargoes from Russia ahead of a European Union ban on Russian coal that came into force on August 11, aimed at reducing the Kremlin’s energy revenue over its February invasion.

The ban has forced Russia to target buyers such as China and India and sell at a steep discount.

Russian thermal coal with a heating value of 5,500 kilocalories (kcal) traded around $150 per metric ton on a cost-and-freight basis in late July, while coal of the same quality at Australia’s Newcastle port was assessed at more than $210 per metric ton on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.

Some Chinese traders expect more Russian coal to flow into China in the fourth quarter when utilities in northern China build stocks for the winter heating season.

July shipments of Indonesian coal, mostly cheap, low-quality thermal coal with a heating value below 3,800 kcal, were 11.7 million metric tons. That was up 22% from June but down 40% from a year earlier. China has reduced its overall coal imports in recent months amid surging domestic output.

Power plants in southern China have increased tenders to buy Indonesian coal in August as it is cheaper than domestic coal, while demand for coal-fired power generation has been boosted by a record heat wave.

Indonesian thermal coal with a heating value at 3,800 kcal changed hand at about $78 per metric ton on a FOB basis last week, which would still below about 690 yuan (about $100) for local coal when considering shipping costs.

China’s customs data showed zero coal shipment from Australia in July.

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US unveils new Russia sanctions, implements ban on new imports of Russian gold

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The moves are the latest in response to Russia’s months-long war in Ukraine and were taken after G7 leaders in Germany agreed to steps, including the gold import ban, meant to weaken Moscow.

In a statement, the US Treasury Department announced sanctions on 70 entities, including State Corporation Rostec — “a massive Russian state-owned enterprise formed to consolidate Russia’s technological, aerospace, and military-industrial expertise” — and its key holdings and affiliates, as well as 29 Russian individuals.

Rachel Rizzo, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center, told CNN that imposing sanctions on Rostec is significant, noting that it “is basically the foundation of Russia’s defense industrial base.”

“It’s a massive state-owned enterprise and it involves different sections on tech, aerospace, military industrial expertise,” she said. “The company subsidiaries, they’re basically engaged in a super wide range of different industries, like auto and defense and metals.

“If we can cut off their ability to export, import, sell, buy in these different sectors that then help Russia fund and continue to wage war against Ukraine, then that significantly decreases Russia’s ability to do so,” Rizzo said.

However, she noted that she does not believe “that any of the sanctions that we are implementing are meant to deter Russia in the very near term.”

“I don’t think that this is meant to cut off Russia from its defense industrial base today or tomorrow or next week, but in the long term, it will certainly have an effect and I think that’s how the United States and its allies are thinking about these,” she said.

The Treasury Department re-designated the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR) — two pro-Russian separatist regions of Ukraine recognized as independent by Moscow — and sanctioned Vitaliy Pavlovich Khotsenko, who is “the newly appointed chairperson of the so-called government of the DNR,” and six individuals who “are or have been high level officials in the so-called DNR and LNR governments.”

In a separate statement Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the State Department was imposing sanctions on 45 entities and 29 individuals, and moving to impose visa restrictions “on 511 Russian military officers for threatening or violating Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, or political independence, in connection with Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine,” and “on 18 Russian nationals in relation to suppression of dissent, including politically motivated detentions.”

Among those sanctioned by the State Department were 19 members of the Rostec board of directors, nine of their spouses or adult children, and Halyna Danylchenko, “the illegitimate Russia-installed ‘mayor’ of Melitopol,” who the State Department noted “was installed by Russia following the kidnapping of the democratically elected mayor of Melitopol.” The State Department also sanctioned Uzbekistan-based Promcomplektlogistic Private Company for doing business with a sanctioned Russian entity.

“The Department of State is also designating Russian military units that have been credibly implicated in human rights abuses or violations of international humanitarian law as part of our commitment to promote accountability for atrocities in Ukraine,” Blinken said in his statement.

According to a State Department fact sheet, the sanctioned units include the 76th Guards Air Assault Division and its subordinate 234th Guards Airborne Assault Regiment, and the 64th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade.

“In March 2022, Russia’s 76th Guards Air Assault Division and its 234th Guards Airborne Assault Regiment encamped on Bucha, Ukraine’s Yablunska Street, which became an epicenter of violence against civilians and other human rights abuses in Bucha,” the fact sheet said. “Images of dead civilians lining Yablunska Street are seared into our global memory and will not be forgotten.”

The State Department also sanctioned Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) for its role in human rights abuses in the war, including its reported involvement in Russia’s so-called filtration camps.

The West’s withering set of sanctions on Russia has taken a dramatic toll — on Monday, the country defaulted on its foreign debt for the first time since the Bolshevik revolution more than a century ago. The White House said the default showed the power of Western sanctions imposed on Russia since it invaded Ukraine.

At the same time, the sanctions have inflicted pain on Americans through higher gas prices, an effect of global bans on importing Russian energy. Targeting Russian energy has been a point of contention since the start of the war. And the complexities of going after one of the world’s largest producers have been borne out in the following months. As Americans and Europeans are suffering high gas prices, Moscow is still reaping massive revenues from its oil exports — due in part to the skyrocketing prices.

A plan from US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen seeks to reverse that. Over the past several months, she has pressed G7 nations to apply a price cap on Russian oil, limiting the amount of money Russia makes from the places it is still exporting.

Leaders agreed to the idea at the summit this week. But the precise mechanism for doing so remains undecided. Officials said they were confident Western nations wield enough leverage through their transportation and distribution networks to enforce the caps.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

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Biden: G-7 to ban Russian gold imports to pressure Putin on Ukraine

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TELFS, Austria — President Biden and several of his counterparts in the Group of Seven nations on Sunday announced a ban on new imports of Russian gold — and appeared to be moving toward consensus on a price cap on Russian gas — to further isolate the country from financial markets and punish President Vladimir Putin for his invasion of Ukraine.

The ban on gold imports, which could amount to a penalty of tens of billions of dollars, appeared to be the primary new economic sanction targeting Russia to come out of the summit. Administration officials declined to comment on whether other punitive steps would be taken.

“The United States has imposed unprecedented costs on Putin to deny him the revenue he needs to fund his war against Ukraine,” Biden tweeted Sunday morning, noting that gold is “a major export that rakes in tens of billions of dollars for Russia.”

Biden and other leaders of industrialized nations began their meetings in southern Germany on Sunday for a summit set to be dominated by discussions about the fallout from the war in Ukraine.

Biden, who arrived late Saturday night, attended Mass with a priest from the U.S. Army before starting his day with a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to discuss the war.

The two leaders made small talk as Biden, silhouetted by the Alps, quipped that he used to ski a lot but had not done so in some time. “It’s beautiful,” he remarked.

The conversation then turned more serious, with Biden thanking Scholz for Germany’s resolve and his ability to keep the alliance united. “We have to stay together. Because Putin has been counting on from the beginning that somehow NATO and the G-7 would splinter,” Biden said. “But we haven’t, and we’re not going to.”

In the afternoon, the summit’s leaders announced a new global infrastructure investment program, with a goal of mobilizing $600 billion in public and private investments by 2027. The spending aims — with the United States pledging $200 billion — would go toward improving health, communications and energy infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries. It aims to help counter ambitious spending around the world by China, which has invested heavily in Africa and Asia through its Belt and Road Initiative.

“Our nations and our world stand at a genuine inflection point in history,” Biden said.

Some of the initial plans that Biden administration officials highlighted include a $2 billion project to develop a solar panel project in southern Angola; building telecommunications cables that would connect Singapore to France through Egypt and the Horn of Africa, extending high-speed internet access; and building a large multi-vaccine manufacturing facility in Senegal.

The day also included hints of disagreements among some of the top leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

In a statement, Downing Street said that Johnson had “stressed” to Macron that “any attempt to settle the [Ukraine] conflict now will only cause enduring instability and give Putin licence to manipulate both sovereign countries and international markets in perpetuity.”

The remarks appeared to be criticism of Macron’s comments in mid-June that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his officials will need to negotiate with Russia at some point. Coming before Macron, Scholz and other European leaders traveled to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, those comments raised concerns among Ukrainian officials that France and Germany might push for talks with Russia as the economic toll of the war mounts.

Russia made nearly $100B from fuel exports in war’s first 100 days, report says

French officials have rejected those concerns and clarified that it is up to Ukraine to determine when the time for talks has come. A spokesperson for the French presidency said Sunday that Macron and Johnson “had a discussion on Ukraine in which the President strongly reaffirmed his determination to support Ukraine.”

France has delivered or pledged almost one-fourth of its existing stocks of Caesar artillery weapons systems to Ukraine, and the country’s lower dependency on Russian fossil fuels allowed France to become an early champion of an European Union embargo on Russian oil.

But both Macron and Scholz have spoken to Putin several times on the phone since the invasion, which has prompted particular criticism in Eastern Europe.

The United States has been pushing for an agreement on a price cap on Russian oil imports to hurt Moscow’s ability to finance the war. The G-7 leaders are moving toward a consensus on a price cap, according to one person with knowledge of Sunday’s discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks.

The aim is to simultaneously put a ceiling on the amount that nations pay for Russian oil, with the hope of hurting Moscow’s ability to fund the war, while trying to tamp down inflation at the fuel pump. Soaring prices for oil have taken some of the bite out of countries’ efforts to diversify from Russian energy because Moscow is paid more for lower volume.

To incentivize other countries to take part, the leaders have discussed ways to make it difficult to insure or ship Russian oil that doesn’t comply with the price cap.

During the meeting Sunday, Macron stressed that a price cap should also cover gas. Price caps on Russian natural gas flowing in pipelines to Europe are considered easier to enforce as the infrastructure means it can’t be sold elsewhere.

Scholz has cautioned that an oil price cap would only be useful if all purchasers were on board. “The questions that need to be solved are not trivial questions,” a German official said. “But we are well on the way to finding an agreement.”

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi raised concerns about the potential political ramifications of rising prices. “The energy crisis must not produce a return of populism,” he said, according to the individual with details of the discussion.

“Putting a ceiling on the price of fossil fuels imported from Russia has a geopolitical objective as well as an economic and social one,” Draghi said. “We need to reduce our funding to Russia. And we must eliminate one of the main causes of inflation.”

Biden seeks a dramatic increase in aid for Ukraine

During a background briefing with reporters ahead of the summit, administration officials cast the move to ban gold imports as an important demonstration that the world’s largest economies are willing to continue punishing Russia, one of the world’s biggest exporters of gold. The official announcement will come Tuesday, according to administration officials, and the U.S. Treasury Department will make a formal determination to prohibit new imports of gold.

“The U.S. has rallied the world in imposing swift and significant economic costs to deny Putin the revenue he needs to finance his war,” said one of the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules for the briefing.

The official hinted at additional steps that could be taken to further isolate Russia but suggested those would come in the weeks ahead, rather than more immediately as part of the summit.

“This is a key export, a key source of revenue, a key alternative for Russia, in terms of their ability to transact in the global financial system,” the official said. “Taking this step cuts off that capacity and again is an ongoing illustration of the types of steps the G-7 can take collectively to continue to isolate Russia and cut it off from the global economy.”

One aim of the United States and its international partners, the official said, would be to prevent Russia — which has found ways around previous sanctions — from evading the ban on imports. The fact that they have moved toward banning gold imports, administration officials say, was effectively a sign that other ways for Russia to access global financial markets had been cut off.

Russian oligarchs, for example, have sought to purchase gold bullion as a way to avoid the financial impact of Western sanctions, and G-7 leaders hope this will send another signal to Putin’s top allies.

“The measures we have announced today will directly hit Russian oligarchs and strike at the heart of Putin’s war machine,” Johnson said as part of his own announcement about the ban on gold imports.

“We need to starve the Putin regime of its funding,” he added. “The U.K. and our allies are doing just that.”

Ashley Parker in Telfs and Annabelle Timsit in London contributed to this report.



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China May oil imports from Russia soar to a record, surpass top supplier Saudi

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Oil and gas tanks are seen at an oil warehouse at a port in Zhuhai, China October 22, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song

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  • Russia overtakes Saudi as top supplier after 19-month gap
  • Russian imports nearly 2 mln bpd in May
  • Imports from Malaysia more than doubled in May yr/yr
  • Customs reports 3rd Iranian shipment since last Dec

SINGAPORE, June 20 (Reuters) – China’s crude oil imports from Russia soared 55% from a year earlier to a record level in May, displacing Saudi Arabia as the top supplier, as refiners cashed in on discounted supplies amid sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

Imports of Russian oil, including supplies pumped via the East Siberia Pacific Ocean pipeline and seaborne shipments from Russia’s European and Far Eastern ports, totalled nearly 8.42 million tonnes, according to data from the Chinese General Administration of Customs.

That’s equivalent to roughly 1.98 million barrels per day (bpd) and up a quarter from 1.59 million bpd in April.

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The data, which shows that Russia took back the top ranking of suppliers to the world’s biggest crude oil importer after a gap of 19 months, indicates that Moscow is able to find buyers for its oil despite western sanctions, though it has had to slash prices.

And while China’s overall crude oil demand has been dampened by COVID-19 curbs and a slowing economy, leading importers, including refining giant Sinopec and trader Zhenhua Oil, have stepped up buying cheaper Russian oil on top of sanctioned supplies from Iran and Venezuela that allows them to scale back competing supplies from West Africa and Brazil. read more

Saudi Arabia trailed as the second-largest supplier, with May volumes up 9% on year at 7.82 million tonnes, or 1.84 million bpd. This was down from April’s 2.17 million bpd.

Customs data released on Monday also showed China imported 260,000 tonnes of Iranian crude oil last month, its third shipment of Iran oil since last December, confirming an earlier Reuters report.

Despite U.S. sanctions on Iran, China has kept taking Iranian oil, usually passed off as supplies from other countries. The import levels are roughly equivalent to 7% of China’s total crude oil imports. read more

China’s overall crude oil imports rose nearly 12% in May from a low base a year earlier to 10.8 million bpd, versus the 2021 average of 10.3 million bpd. read more

Customs reported zero imports from Venezuela. State oil firms have shunned purchases since late 2019 for fear of falling foul of secondary U.S. sanctions.

Imports from Malaysia, often used as a transfer point in the last two years for oil originating from Iran and Venezuela, amounted to 2.2 million tonnes, steady versus April but more than double the year-earlier level.

Imports from Brazil fell 19% from a year earlier to 2.2 million tonnes, as supplies from the Latin American exporter faced cheaper competition from Iranian and Russian barrels.

Separately, data also showed China’s imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) amounted to nearly 400,000 tonnes last month, 56% more than May of 2021.

For the first five months, imports of Russian LNG – from mostly Sakhalin-2 project in the Far East and Yamal LNG in Russian Arctic – rose 22% on the year to 1.84 million tonnes, according to customs data.

Below is the detailed breakdown of oil imports, with volumes in million tonnes:

(tonne = 7.3 barrels for crude oil conversion)

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Reporting by Chen Aizhu and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Tom Hogue and Muralikumar Anantharaman

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Algeria suspends Spain treaty, bars imports over Western Sahara

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Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, speaks during the start of a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (not pictured), at El Mouradia Palace, the President’s official residence in Algiers, Algeria March 30, 2022. Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via REUTERS

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ALGIERS/MADRID, June 8 (Reuters) – Algeria suspended a 20-year-old friendship treaty with Spain that committed the two sides to cooperation in controlling migration flows, and also banned imports from Spain, escalating a row over Madrid’s stance on Western Sahara.

Algerian state media reported the suspension of the treaty without citing any reason, though Algeria had in March withdrawn its ambassador to Spain for consultations because of the Western Sahara dispute. read more

Spanish diplomatic sources said Spain regretted the decision but remained committed to the content and principle of the treaty.

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Separately, Algeria’s banking association issued a statement telling banks that imports of goods and services from Spain were stopping because the treaty was suspended.

The 2002 treaty called on both sides to “deepen their cooperation in the control of migratory flows and the fight against trafficking against human beings” according to the text recorded in Spain’s official journal.

On Wednesday, 113 undocumented migrants arrived in Spain’s Balearic islands, a route that Spanish authorities said tended to be used by boats coming from Algeria.

Migrant flows have sharply increased across the Mediterranean this year as the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has hit the global economy.

Algeria was angered when Spain said in March it supported a Moroccan plan to offer autonomy to Western Sahara. Algeria backs the Polisario Front movement seeking full independence for the territory, which Morocco regards as its own and mostly controls. read more

A former Algerian official told Reuters that Algiers believed the Spanish government had decided not to preserve good ties with Algeria.

Algeria is a key gas supplier to Spain, but Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has previously said he would not break the supply contract over the row.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said there was no indication that had changed and Spanish Energy Minister Teresa Ribera said Algeria’s gas supply conduct had been exemplary.

Algeria is expected to review prices for any new gas contract with Spanish firms, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. The current contract is long-term with prices well under the current market level, the same source, who asked not to be identified, said.

Since the Western Sahara conflict flared again in 2020, nearly three decades after a ceasefire, relations between Algeria and Morocco have sharply deteriorated. read more

Spain’s shift towards Morocco’s stance on Western Sahara ended a dispute between Madrid and Rabat last year involving both the disputed territory and migration. read more

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Reporting by Enas Alashray and Lamine Chikhi; editing by Angus McDowall and Richard Pullin

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Oil prices jump after EU leaders agree to ban most Russian crude imports

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EU leaders reached an agreement to ban 90% of Russian crude by the end of 2022.

Joe Klamar | Afp | Getty Images

Oil prices jumped after EU leaders reached an agreement late Monday to ban 90% of Russian crude by the end of the year.

During Asia hours on Tuesday, U.S. crude futures for July were up 2.81% to $118.29, while Brent crude futures rose 0.93% to $122.80. Contracts for August also traded higher: U.S. crude rose 2.84% to $115.42, and Brent was up 1.17% to $118.98 per barrel.

The agreement resolves a deadlock after Hungary initially held up talks. Hungary is a major user of Russian oil and its leader, Viktor Orban, has been on friendly terms with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Charles Michel, president of the European Council, said the move would immediately hit 75% of Russian oil imports.

The embargo is part of the European Union’s sixth sanctions package on Russia since it invaded Ukraine. Talks to impose an oil embargo have been underway since the start of the month.

“The European Council agrees that the sixth package of sanctions against Russia will cover crude oil, as well as petroleum products, delivered from Russia into Member States, with a temporary exception for crude oil delivered by pipeline,” according to a May 31 statement from the European Council.

The European Council added that in case of “sudden interruptions” of supply, “emergency measures” will be introduced to ensure security of supply.

That temporary exception covers the remaining Russian oil not yet banned, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a press conference.

“We have agreed that the Council will revert to the topic as soon as possible in one way or the other. So this is a topic where we will come back to and where we will still have to work on, but this is a big step forward, what we did today,” she said, referring to the temporary exemption.

Von der Leyen explained that the temporary exemption was granted so that Hungary, along with Slovakia and the Czech Republic — all connected to the southern leg of the pipeline — have access which they cannot easily replace.

Roughly 36% of the EU’s oil imports come from Russia, a country that plays an outsized role in global oil markets.

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The ban could exacerbate worries over an already-tight energy market. Energy prices have soared over the past year, contributing to a heated inflationary environment in many countries.

“While pipeline imports were not included in this agreement, an embargo on seaborne oil imports is still significant, accounting for around two thirds of the EU’s oil imports from Russia,” Vivek Dhar, director of mining and energy commodities research at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, wrote in a note following the news.

“A further ban on Russian Crude delivered by shipments will tighten already strained supply amid rising demand due to onset of driving season in [the] United States,” wrote Avtar Sandu, senior manager of commodities at trading platform Philip Nova.

Meanwhile, OPEC+ is expected to stick to its original plan of a modest increase of 432,000 barrels a day for July, Sandu added.

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Finnish transmission system operator says Russian company cutting off electricity imports Saturday

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A Finnish transmission system operator announced on Friday that a Russian energy company would be cutting off its electricity imports to Finland beginning the next day.

Beginning on Saturday at 1 a.m. local time, a subsidiary of Russia’s Inter RAO firm will cut off electricity imports to Finland, Fingrid announced in a press release.

“Due to problems in receiving payments for electricity sold on the market, further direct or bilateral sales of electricity imported from Russia will be halted until further notice,” the subsidiary, RAO Nordic Oy, wrote in a market message. “Trading is intended to continue when problems with payments have been resolved.”

However, Fingrid noted that the curbed Russian electricity imports would not cause a disruption for Finland, noting Russian electricity makes up 10 percent of the country’s consumption.

“The lack of electricity import from Russia will be compensated by importing more electricity from Sweden and by generating more electricity in Finland,” Reima Päivinen, senior vice president of power system operations at Fingrid, said in a statement. 

The development comes as top Finnish leaders urge for the country to join NATO.

A top Kremlin spokesperson said that Finland joining the military alliance would be a threat to Russia.

“As we have said many times before, NATO expansion does not make the world more stable and secure,” Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday. 

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G-7 bans Russian oil imports; US adds sanctions

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The United States and top allies will ban the import of Russian oil and impose a new round of sanctions, world leaders said Sunday.

The moves, announced after a virtual meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, are meant to further pressure Russia to end its war with Ukraine, which started Feb. 24. Only the U.S. had committed previously to a ban on importing Russian oil. 

Following the G-7’s virtual meeting with Zelenskyy, the leaders’ released a statement condemning Russia’s actions and underscoring their commitment to helping Ukraine.

“Today, we, the G-7, reassured President Zelenskyy of our continued readiness to undertake further commitments to help Ukraine secure its free and democratic future, such that Ukraine can defend itself now and deter future acts of aggression,” the leaders said.

The announcement comes hours after first lady Jill Biden traveled to Ukraine to meet with Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine.

USA TODAY ON TELEGRAM: Join our Russia-Ukraine war channel to receive updates straight to your phone

Latest developments: 

►Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made an unexpected visit to Ukraine on Sunday, stopping by the town of Irpin — which was heavily damaged by Russia’s attempt to take Kyiv at the start of the war — before meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

►Acting ambassador Kristina Kvien, the top American diplomat in Ukraine, has temporarily returned to the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv. 

►Almost 7,000 civilians have been killed or injured since the war in Ukraine started in February, according to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

►Ukrainian forces have been making gains against Russian troops and may be able to push them out of artillery range of Kharkiv in the coming days, the Institute for the Study of War said in an assessment

The Russian airstrike that may have killed as many as 60 people sheltering in the basement of a school in the eastern Ukrainian town of Bilohorivka — one of the deadliest assaults against civilians in the war — is drawing widespread condemnation.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “appalled” by Saturday’s attack, which flattened much of the school and also ignited a fire.

Luhansk province Gov. Serhiy Haidai said emergency crews found two bodies and rescued 30 people. “Most likely, all 60 people who remain under the rubble are now dead,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app. 

The act is part of a long list of war crimes Russia has committed, said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

“We have called out the Russians very early on for committing war crimes, and this contributes to that,” she said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said the organization “strongly condemns yet another attack on a school in Ukraine” and reminded that “targeting civilians and civilian objects, including schools, is a violation of international humanitarian law.”

— Jorge L. Ortiz, Rebecca Morin

The new round of sanctions on Russia imposed by the G-7 nations – a group that comprises the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom – came on the eve of Russia’s celebration of Victory Day.

The May 9 holiday commemorates the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Western officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin could use the Victory Day celebration to announce either a triumph in Ukraine or an escalation of the war.

Besides a commitment by the G-7 nations to boycott Russian oil – only the U.S. had taken that step on one of Russia’s top exports – the Biden administration will sanction three Russian TV stations.

RUSSIAN OIL: Russia has earned $66 billion in fuel exports since war began, report says

A senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity told reporters that U.S. advertising dollars, broadcast technology  and equipment will no longer be available to those stations.

The U.S. will also impose new export controls and sanctions that will make it difficult for Russia to access wood products, industrial engines, boilers, motors, fans, ventilation equipment, bulldozers and many other items with industrial and commercial applications.  

The White House will also prohibit individuals in the U.S. from providing accounting, trust and corporate formation and management consulting services to any person in  Russia. The White House said those services are key to Russian companies and elites building wealth. Officials from several top banks in Russia will also be sanctioned.

— Rebecca Morin

First lady Jill Biden made an unannounced trip into Ukraine on Sunday, entering an active war zone where she met with her Ukrainian counterpart.

Biden met Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine, during a visit to a public school in Uzhhorod, which is being used as temporary housing and shelter for 163 displaced Ukrainians, including 47 children. 

This is the first time Zelenska has appeared in public since Russia invaded the country on Feb. 24.

Zelenska thanked Biden for visiting “because we understand what it takes for the US first lady to come here during a war when the military actions are taking place every day, where the air sirens are happening every day, even today.”

“We all feel your support and we all feel the leadership of the U.S. president, but we would like to note that the Mother’s Day is a very symbolic day for us because we also feel your love and support during such an important day,” the Ukrainian first lady said.

Biden and Zelenska met privately for an hour. Biden spent a little less than two hours in Ukraine before crossing the border back into Slovakia.

— Rebecca Morin

Bono and The Edge of U2 performed Sunday in a Kyiv subway station at the invitation of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the band said on Twitter.

Zelenskyy “invited us to perform in Kyiv as a show of solidarity with the Ukrainian people and so that’s what we’ve come to do,” Bono and The Edge tweeted.

Video clips on social media show the Irish band members singing “With or Without You” and performing a twist on “Stand by Me” with Taras Topola, the frontman of a popular Ukrainian band, Antibody.

Later in the day, Bono visited the church grounds in Bucha – site of multiple alleged Russian atrocities – where a mass grave was discovered in March.

— Katie Wadington

Bono and bandmate perform concert in metro station in Kyiv, Ukraine

U2’s Bono and The Edge performed in Kyiv, at the invitation of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the band said on Twitter.

Patrick Colson-Price, Newsflare

Oksana Markarova, the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S., said Sunday that her country “will do everything possible on the battlefield, but also diplomatically, to restore our territorial integrity and sovereignty.”

Asked on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” about moves Russia has made to annex parts of eastern Ukraine, Markarova said she was “positive” the world would not recognize the Kremlin’s efforts to assert control there.

“We will never recognize it, the whole world will never recognize it,” she said.

The interview came the day before Russian President Vladimir Putin may officially announce his country is at war with Ukraine, allowing for the conscription of more troops.

“Well, that would be the first time when Putin will say the truth, that it is war and that he is in dire need of conscripting soldiers,” the ambassador said. “I hope that then it will be evident to all Russians what they are doing in Ukraine. That it’s an aggressive war. They attacked a neighboring country, a peaceful country. And the question is, are they prepared to have more tens of thousands dying in Ukraine for no reason at all?”

– Katie Wadington

WAR EXPLAINED: Evacuations, accusations and denials: Key events in Russia’s war in Ukraine in 5 graphics

In its invasion, Russia is invoking World War II and Nazism in an effort to smear Ukrainian leaders, including attacks on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently fanned those flames when he raised the unproven claim that Adolf Hitler had Jewish ancestry. Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, accused Russia of spreading anti-Semitic tropes.

“Right now, at times, Russian propaganda even equates Nazis and Western civilization,” said Anton Shirikov, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin who specializes in propaganda and misinformation.

Russia’s propaganda machine is a “firehose of falsehood” whose primary target audience is the Russian public, said Christopher Paul, senior social scientist at the RAND Corp., a global policy think tank based in Santa Monica, California.

Read more here about the propaganda being used in war.

Now that evacuations have successfully removed all women, children and elderly people from the Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said another mission will attempt to rescue injured people and medics.

Zelenskyy added in his nightly video address to the nation late Saturday that an effort to also evacuate the Ukrainian soldiers still there, the “heroes who defended Mariupol,” would be “difficult.”

Iryna Vereshchuk, a deputy prime minister for Ukraine, announced Saturday that the evacuations of vulnerable citizens had taken place from the steel mill, where civilians and Ukrainian troops were the last holdouts from Russian forces. More than 300 people were evacuated in recent days, Zelenskyy said, after conditions in the underground bunkers increasingly worsened and Russia ramped up its shelling. 

Russia held a dress rehearsal Saturday for the military parade to commemorate Victory Day on May 9, when the country marks the defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II.

In Moscow on Saturday, an RS-24 Yars intercontinental ballistic missile rolled through Red Square as part of the rehearsal, warplanes and helicopters flew overhead, troops marched in formation and self-propelled artillery vehicles rumbled past.

Contributing: The Associated Press



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EU proposes ban on Russian oil imports, removes Sberbank from Swift

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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday the measures would form part of a sixth round of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

“We now propose a ban on Russian oil,” she said during a speech to the European Parliament. “Let’s be clear: it will not be easy. But we simply have to work on it. We will make sure that we phase out Russian oil in an orderly fashion, to maximize pressure on Russia, while minimizing the impact on our own economies.”

Crude oil supply would be phased out within six months, and imports of refined oil products by the end of 2022, she added.

News of the proposal, which still needs the approval of all EU member states, boosted crude oil prices by more than 3.5%. Brent futures, the global benchmark, was trading at nearly $109 a barrel, while US oil futures were at $106 a barrel at 7.20 am ET.

Oil prices have risen by about 40% since the start of the year on fears that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will deliver a supply shock, fueling inflation and piling pressure on European economies.

EU countries have already agreed to phase out Russian coal imports but the bloc has found it much harder to reach consensus on an oil embargo despite weeks of talks. Slovakia is reportedly seeking an exemption, and Hungary said Wednesday said it was worried about what the proposal would mean for its energy security.
“We do not see any plans or guarantees on how a transition could be managed based on the current proposals, and how Hungary’s energy security would be guaranteed,” Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs posted on Twitter.

Russia is the world’s second-biggest crude oil exporter, and last year accounted for about 27% of EU oil imports. The United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia have already banned imports.

Those sanctions — and a de-facto embargo by some European oil refineries and traders — have already hit the price of Russian oil. Its benchmark Urals crude is now trading at a $35 per barrel discount to Brent, compared with less than $1 before the invasion.

Some customers in Asia are reportedly buying more Russian oil but not in sufficient volumes to offset the loss of Western buyers.

“Russia’s ability to redirect all unwanted cargoes from the West to Asia are limited, meaning that, in the case of embargoes, Russia will be forced to cut production further as it lacks storage capacity for extra crude volumes,” analysts at Rystad Energy wrote in a research report on Monday.

The International Energy Agency recently estimated that Russia’s oil supply would fall by 1.5 million barrels per day in April as demand falters, with those losses accelerating to 3 million barrels per day this month.

But the surge in global prices for oil and natural gas means Moscow continues to earn vast amounts of money from its energy exports. Rystad estimates that Russia will collect more than $180 billion in energy tax revenues this year — up 45% on 2021 — despite the oil production cuts.

Financial isolation

Western countries continue to look for other ways to make it harder for Russian President Vladimir Putin to finance his war effort. Von der Leyen said the EU was proposing to remove Sberbank (SBRCY), and two other major banks, from the SWIFT system, the secure network that more than 11,000 financial institutions use to send messages and payment orders.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, based in Belgium, must comply with EU regulations. With no globally accepted alternative, it is essential plumbing for global finance.

“We hit banks that are systemically critical to the Russian financial system and Putin’s ability to wage destruction,” von der Leyen said. “This will solidify the complete isolation of the Russian financial sector from the global system.”

Three big Russian state-owned broadcasters will also be banned from Europe’s airwaves.

— Anna Cooban and Julia Horowitz contributed to this article.



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EU slashes 10% of Russian imports with new sweeping sanctions

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  • EU bans Russian coal in first hit to energy imports
  • Existing coal contracts must be terminated by start of August
  • EU also bans imports of Russian chemicals, vodka, caviar
  • Exports of technology, jet fuel to Russia banned
  • More oligarchs, Putin’s daughters face asset freezes

April 8 (Reuters) – The European Union on Friday formally adopted new sweeping sanctions against Russia, including bans on the import of coal, wood, chemicals and other products which were estimated to slash at least 10% of total imports from Moscow.

The measures also prevent many Russian vessels and trucks from accessing the EU, further crippling trade, and will ban all transactions with four Russian banks, including VTB. (VTBR.MM)

The ban on coal, the first the EU has so far imposed on any energy import from Russia, will be fully effective from the second week of August. No new contracts can be signed from Friday.

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Existing contracts will have to be terminated by the second week of August, meaning that Russia can continue to receive payments from the EU on coal exports until then. read more

“These latest sanctions were adopted following the atrocities committed by Russian armed forces in Bucha and other places under Russian occupation,” EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said in a statement.

The Kremlin has said that Western allegations Russian forces committed war crimes by executing civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha were a “monstrous forgery” aimed at denigrating the Russian army.

The coal ban alone is estimated by the Commission to be worth 8 billion euros a year in lost revenues for Russia. That is twice as big as the EU Commission’s head Ursula von der Leyen had said on Tuesday read more .

Oil and gas imports from Russia, which remain so far untouched, are together worth about 100 billion euros a year.

In addition to coal, the new EU sanctions ban imports from Russia of many other commodities and products, including wood, rubber, cement, fertilisers, high-end seafood, such as caviar, and spirits, such as vodka, for a total additional value estimated in 5.5 billion euros ($5.9 billion) a year.

An EU official said that the combined import bans were worth at least 10% of what the EU buys from Russia in a year. That comes in addition to previous import bans that hit the steel and iron sectors. In total, up to a fifth of all imports from Russia by value are expected to be cut because of direct sanctions.

The EU also restricted export to Russia of a number of products, including jet fuel, quantum computers, advanced semiconductors, high-end electronics, software, sensitive machinery and transportation equipment, for a total value of 10 billion euros a year.

Adding previous export bans on other technology, the EU has blocked so far about a quarter of its total exports by value to Russia, one EU official said.

The sanctions also forbid Russian companies from participating in public procurement in the EU and extend prohibitions in the use of crypto-currencies that are considered a potential means to circumvent sanctions read more .

BLACKLIST

The Commission said that another 217 people were added to the EU blacklist as part of the new sanctions package, meaning their assets in the EU will be frozen and they will be subject to travel bans in the EU.

Most of them are political leaders of the separatist regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, but the sanctions also hit top businessmen, politicians military staff close to the Kremlin and even two daughters of Vladimir Putin.

This brings close to 900 the number of people sanctioned by the EU since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special operation” to demilitarise and “denazify” the country.

Another 18 entities have also been hit by asset freezes, including four banks and military firms, nearly doubling the number of companies blacklisted by the EU since the start of the war.

The sanctioned banks are VTB (VTBR.MM), one of Russia’s largest, Sovkombank, Novikombank and Otkritie. All of them had been already excluded from the SWIFT messaging system, in what was a big blow to their ability to transfer money.

However, EU officials said by freezing their assets the EU is now blocking all transactions with these banks in what it considers the harshest possible measure against lenders.

Top Russian banks which handle energy transactions, notably Sberbank (SBER.MM) and Gazprombank, were again spared, although Sberbank’s boss Herman Gref was hit by an asset freeze.

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Reporting by Francesco Guarascio and Bart Meijer; editing by Philip Blenkinsop, Andrew Heavens, Nick Macfie and Raissa Kasolowsky

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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