Live War in Ukraine: Russia boycotts G20 but says not isolated

Inflation in Russia, the highest in 20 years, continued to decline in June, reaching 15.9% year-on-year, according to data from the Rosstat statistics agency. Food prices were still the most affected by inflation, rising 19.1% year-on-year in June, particularly sugar (+48%), cereals (+35%), pasta (+28%) and butter (+26%).

“Uniber is draining the order of several million euros per day. This situation cannot be sustained any longer,” laments the CEO of German energy company Klaus-Dieter Maubach. The energy company, which was Russia’s Gazprom’s biggest customer in Ukraine before the war, has been hit hard by cuts in Russian supplies since mid-June.

Dieter Maubach fears that Univer “could lose up to ten billion euros” “by the end of the year” if nothing is done.

Russian assets frozen in Switzerland amount to 6.7 billion Swiss francs (equivalent in euros), the Swiss Economy Ministry said in a tweet, noting that fifteen real estate properties were also frozen.

French exports to Russia decreased from 500 million euros in April 2021 to 100 million in April 2022, which explains the consequences of the war in Ukraine. A study published by Customs. Before the war, France mainly exported “medium-high-tech” products in aeronautics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, information, or automobiles. In 2021, these sales will reach 6.3 billion euros.

“Further use of the sanctions policy will have even more serious, if not exaggerated, catastrophic consequences for the world energy market,” the Russian president warned. “Sanctions against Russia do the most damage precisely to the countries that impose them,” he repeated, again a phrase he favored in reference to rising energy prices in the West.

Britain’s competition watchdog (CMA) has opened an in-depth investigation into the fuel market, whose prices are rising, with refineries worried about a growing gap between the price of crude oil and the price of petrol or diesel.

The reasons behind the exploding costs were due to increased demand after the end of health restrictions, when some refining capacity was closed during the pandemic, but also the effects of the war in Ukraine and sanctions on Russia, a major exporter. According to the CMA, refined products.

“Russia is so isolated that Lavrov walked out of the conference after speaking in the afternoon,” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said. “We expected a meeting with different dividing lines, but […] Russia has isolated itself, its responsibility has been pointed out, and one would have thought that even some countries could qualify things and support it. »

“The G7 plan to boycott Russia at the G20 summit has failed. “No one supports Western regimes,” Russian Foreign Minister Maria Zakharova said in a telegram, adding that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov boycotted the meetings and dismissed the minister’s accusations. The German Foreign Office said Moscow had no “willingness to negotiate”.

The ‘Vkusno i Totchka’ chain, which took over McDonald’s restaurants in Russia in June, is facing a shortage of fries due to Western sanctions against Moscow, the business news site reported. R.P.K. According to the group, the 2021 potato harvest for the production of French fries in Russia is poor, leading to shortages and “imports from foreign markets (…) impossible” due to Western sanctions against Moscow as a result of the Russian offensive against Ukraine.

In almost all regions of Ukraine, farmers began to harvest early cereals and legumes. According to the first figures, 1.1 million tonnes of cereals have been harvested so far in an area of ​​417,300 hectares (3% of the area).

The European Union has handed over 977,000 euros worth of personal protective equipment to the National Border Guard Service of Ukraine. Deliveries to meet other service requirements including purchase of additional personal protective equipment, diesel generators, cameras are currently underway.

According to the operator of Ukrainian gas pipelines OGTSOU, which denounces Moscow’s “gas threat”, Russian gas transit through Ukraine fell to its historic low in June, at 334 million cubic meters per day.

He criticizes the Russian group Gazprom for “using only one-seventh of the Ukrainian gas pipelines and not using the quota allocated and paid under the contract with OGTSOU”.

Russian gas transit through Ukraine fell to its lowest historical level in June, or 334 million cubic meters per day, the operator of Ukrainian gas pipelines OGTSOU announced, condemning Russia’s “gas threat”. He criticizes the Russian group Gazprom for “using only one-seventh of Ukrainian gas pipelines and not even the quota allocated and paid under the contract with OGTSOU”. However, the operator underlines that “alternative routes” will make it possible to send much larger volumes to Western Europe and completely replace the transport with the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, currently used by Russia at 40% of its capacity.

At the same time as the destruction of Russian ammunition stockpiles, the Russian military also announced the destruction of British Harpoon anti-ship missiles. A spokesman for the Russian president said it was the result of a strike carried out from the sea.

In the Donetsk region, the Russian army is advancing towards the city of Chiversk. A Ukrainian soldier hails “partial victories” for the occupier.

The Ukrainian military has reportedly destroyed a Russian ammunition depot in Nova Khakovka in the Kherson region near the Black Sea. Local officials say “several dozen” Russian soldiers died in the operation in the occupied city.

At Germany’s request, Canada could make an exception to lift sanctions against Gazprom by returning a gas turbine for the Nord Stream pipeline. With this turbine, Russia will be able to send gas to the EU and especially to Germany.

For its part, Ukraine considers this decision “unfair and sanctions are dangerous for the regime.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky believes that the UK supports Ukraine and that its policy will not change after the resignation of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. In an interview with CNN, the Ukrainian president believes, “What Johnson did for Ukraine helped us a lot. I consider him a friend of Ukraine, but I think his company has supported Ukraine in Europe. That’s why I think England is on the side of good, on the side of Ukraine.”

Belgian Prime Minister Alexandre de Groove said it would reopen its embassy in Kyiv on July 11 and send a new ambassador, Pieter van de Velde, to represent Belgium in Ukraine.

Speaking at the G20 meeting in Bali, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Russia of playing a “hunger game” with the world.

According to him, the international community has no right to allow Russia to threaten the world with high energy prices, hunger and security threats. He said the Russian naval blockade of Ukrainian ports “has already severed global food supply chains and has a detrimental effect on global food security”.

The European Investment Bank, the European Union’s lending arm, lent 1.5 billion euros to Kyiv. The Commission guarantees EIB loans operating outside the EU, usually amounting to 9% of the total financing. But in this case, the Commission wants to allocate 70% of the total, as it did in a previous operation of 1 billion euros to Ukraine.

The situation in occupied Severodonetsk is “on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe” and the city is often looted by Russian troops, Ukrainian Luhansk governor Serhai Haidai said. He says 80% of the houses in the city have been destroyed or damaged. Now, some try to come back to get things, but more and more often… even if they survive, they find the apartment empty.

Also, there is no centralized water, gas or electricity supply. Ditto for sewage treatment plants and pumping stations. According to estimates, 15,000 civilians may still be in the city.

Alexey Korinov, an elected official in Moscow, was sentenced to 7 years in prison for condemning Russian aggression against Ukraine. Judge Olesya Mendeleeva found the 60-year-old guilty of using her “official duties” to spread “clearly false information” about the Russian military as part of an organized group motivated by “political hatred”.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbach criticizes Russia, which, according to her, is “disinterested” in a conversation with the G20 after the head of Russian diplomacy walked out during a meeting. Sergey Lavrov’s departure comes as he criticized Russia for the war it started, “underscoring even more clearly that he is not interested in international cooperation or exchanges with other partners” within the G20.

In an interview with an American channel CNN, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says, “Ukrainians are not ready to give up their land. But he admits that Russia currently occupies “virtually the entire Luhansk region.” US President Joe Biden is going there to send a message to Russia, urging the West to continue arming his country and bemoaning the fact that his country will not be able to join NATO.