Russia has objected the adoption of a joint declaration by a United Nations conference on nuclear disarmament.
Russia noted that it has “grave concern” over military activities around Ukraine’s nuclear plants, in particular Zaporizhzhia.
The draft section also remarked on “the loss of control by the competent Ukrainian authorities over such locations as a result of those military activities, and their profound negative impact on safety”.
Russia’s representative, Igor Vishnevetsky, said the draft final text lacked “balance”.
“Our delegation has one key objection on some paragraphs which are blatantly political in nature,” he said – adding that other countries also disagreed with the text.
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which is reviewed by its 191 signatories every five years, aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she was “deeply disappointed” at the lack of agreement.
“Russia obstructed progress by refusing to compromise on proposed text accepted by all other states,” she said.
There was an impasse in 2015 during the last review.
The 2022 meeting, which had been due in 2020, was delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The failure to agree a joint declaration followed a four-week conference in New York.
The final document needed approval of all countries at the conference. A number of countries, including the Netherlands and China, expressed disappointment that no consensus had been reached.
The Dutch said they were “content with the useful discussions”, but “very disappointed that we have not reached consensus”.
China’s ambassador, meanwhile, said despite the lack of agreement, the process was “an important practice of common security and genuine multilateralism”.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons regretted that “in a year when a nuclear-armed state invaded a non-nuclear armed state, a meeting of nearly all countries in the world failed to take action on nuclear disarmament”, while the Washington-based Arms Control Association said the conference represented a “missed opportunity to strengthen the treaty and global security”.
The Non-Proliferation Treaty, backed by 190 countries in 1970, commits countries which signed up – including the US, Russia, France the UK and China – to reducing their stockpiles and bars others from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Last week, the Zaporizhzhia plant was temporarily disconnected from the power grid, raising fears of a possible radiation disaster.
Russia’s military took control of the plant, the largest nuclear plant in Europe, in early March, but it is still being operated by Ukrainian staff under difficult conditions.
The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is expected to organised a trip to the Zaporizhzhia plant in the coming days to inspects facilities there.
Last week, Russia said it would allow IAEA inspectors to visit the plant.
Hungary’s Foreign Minister, Peter Szijjarto, has announced that plans are underway for the construction of two new nuclear reactors in the country.
According to Peter Szijjarto, Russian nuclear power giant Rosatom will be constructing these reactors in Hungary in some weeks to come.
“Let the construction begin!” said Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto in a Facebook post.
The deal, reached between Russia and the EU state in 2014, aims to expand the existing Paks nuclear plant.
“This is a big step, an important milestone,” Mr Szijjarto said in a Facebook post quoted by AFP news agency.
“In this manner we will ensure Hungary’s energy security in the long term and protect Hungarians from wild swings in energy prices,” he added.
Russia’s nuclear industry has not been subjected to EU sanctions over its bloody invasion of Ukraine.
Moves to isolate and sanction its oil and gas exports have not been unconditionally supported by Hungary.
The Paks site currently generates 40% of Hungary’s electricity supply.
With the additional two reactors, the nuclear power station – currently made up of four Soviet-built reactors – will see its capacity more than double.
According to Peter Szijjarto, the nuclear reactors could be ready for service by 2030.
The controversial €12.5bn (£10.6bn; $12.4bn) project is largely financed by Russia.
In the wake of the war in Ukraine, many EU states have been trying to lessen their dependence on Russian supplies of energy.
As Europe’s energy costs skyrocket, Russia is burning off large amounts of natural gas, according to analysis shared with BBC News.
They say the plant, near the border with Finland, is burning an estimated $10m (£8.4m) worth of gas every day.
Experts say the gas would previously have been exported to Germany.
Germany’s ambassador to the UK told BBC News that Russia was burning the gas because “they couldn’t sell it elsewhere”.
Scientists are concerned about the large volumes of carbon dioxide and soot it is creating, which could exacerbate the melting of Arctic ice.
The analysis by Rystad Energy indicates that around 4.34 million cubic metres of gas are being burned by the flare every day.
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It is coming from a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant at Portovaya, north-west of St Petersburg.
The first signs that something was awry came from Finnish citizens over the nearby border who spotted a large flame on the horizon earlier this summer.
Portovaya is located close to a compressor station at the start of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline which carries gas under the sea to Germany.
Supplies through the pipeline have been curtailed since mid-July, with the Russians blaming technical issues for the restriction. Germany says it was purely a political move following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But since June, researchers have noted a significant increase in heat emanating from the facility – thought to be from gas flaring, the burning of natural gas.
While burning off gas is common at processing plants – normally done for technical or safety reasons – the scale of this burn has confounded experts.
“I’ve never seen an LNG plant flare so much,” said Dr Jessica McCarty, an expert on satellite data from Miami University in Ohio.
“Starting around June, we saw this huge peak, and it just didn’t go away. It’s stayed very anomalously high.”
Miguel Berger, the German ambassador to the UK, told BBC News that European efforts to reduce reliance on Russian gas were “having a strong effect on the Russian economy”.
“They don’t have other places where they can sell their gas, so they have to burn it,” he suggested.
President Volodomyr Zelensky has revealed that Europe nearly witnessed a radiation disaster when a Russian-occupied nuclear plant was disconnected from Ukraine’s power grid on Thursday.
He noted that the Zaporizhzhia plant was able to operate safely owing to back-up electricity kicking in.
“If the diesel generators hadn’t turned on, if the automation and our staff of the plant had not reacted after the blackout, then we would already be forced to overcome the consequences of the radiation accident,” President Zelensky warned on Thursday night.
There is growing concern over fighting near the complex, which is the largest nuclear plant in Europe.
The damage was caused by fires which Ukraine’s state nuclear agency said had interfered with power lines connecting the plant on Thursday, temporarily cutting Zaporizhzhia off from the national grid for the first time in its history.
“As a result, the station’s two working power units were disconnected from the network,” Kyiv officials said.
The state nuclear company said work was under way on Friday to try to reconnect the reactors to the grid. Zaporizhzhia’s other four reactors have been out of action for most of the war.
Satellite images taken on Wednesday showed an extensive fire burning in the immediate vicinity of the nuclear complex.
President Zelensky blamed the damage on Russian shelling, and in his nightly address accused Moscow of putting Ukraine and Europe “one step away” from disaster.
But local Russian-appointed governor Yevgeny Balitsky blamed the Ukrainian military for the strikes, accusing them of causing power outages to the region as a result.
The BBC was not able to independently verify which side was responsible. Russia’s military took over the plant in early March, but it is still being operated by Ukrainian staff under difficult conditions.
Radiation levels nearby remained normal despite the Zaporizhzhia nuclear complex losing its main power supply on Thursday, local officials reported.
The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said the plant “remained connected to a 330kV line from the nearby thermal power facility that can provide back-up electricity if needed”, citing Ukraine’s state nuclear agency.
It added that all six nuclear reactor units remained disconnected from the power grid despite supplies having been restored later on Thursday.
Normally the nuclear plant supplies one-fifth of Ukraine’s total electricity – so its continued disconnection from the national grid would pose serious challenges for Ukraine.
The Kremlin has signalled it will allow international inspectors to visit the complex – but until that happens it is difficult to verify what is happening on the ground.
“Almost every day there is a new incident at or near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. We can’t afford to lose any more time,” IAEA director general Rafael Grossi said in a statement, repeating his call to lead an international mission to the plant in the next few days.
Energy experts worry that some of the site’s safety mechanisms could fail if the complex loses all power.
It comes amid claims from Kyiv that Moscow could be trying to intentionally divert power from the occupied nuclear plant to reconnect it to Russia’s own power grid.
There were reports on Thursday of power outages across towns and villages in neighbouring parts of Russian-occupied Ukraine.
The mayor of Enerhodar, which is located next to the nuclear plant, claimed on Thursday that the city had no power or water at all and there were also reports of power cuts in the Russian-occupied cities of Melitopol and Kherson.
Washington officials condemned any bid by Moscow to redirect the power generated by the Zaporizhzhia plant away from Kyiv’s national grid.
“The electricity that it produces rightly belongs to Ukraine,” US state department spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Thursday evening, adding that “no country should turn a nuclear power plant into an active war zone.”
The largest power producer in Ukraine, which operates four nuclear power plants, last week survived what officials described as the most powerful attack on Ukraine by Russia hackers since the end of February.
According to the Ukrainian nuclear agency, Energoatom, the attack did not cause any harm.
At the same time, Ukrainians are hitting back at Russian digital infrastructure. In Russia, more than 600 online resources including the federal postal service, pension fund, online banking and video conference platforms were affected by Ukrainian hackers in this month, according to a statement by the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.
“Cyberspace is a frontline of the 21st century, and victories there are as important as in actual battlefields,” Mykhailo Fedorov, the Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, told ABC News
He’s responsible for establishing the so-called “IT army” — a gathering of more than 230,000 anonymous volunteers who are working together via Telegram, an online messaging platform.
Russia’s assault on Ukraine has extended into the virtual domain as well as on real-life battlegrounds. And here the enemy is choosing very sensitive targets that could impact security for Ukraine, Europe and even the world.
But Fedorov said his country’s cyber security system was more than efficient.
None out of over 800 cyberattacks since February 24 caused real losses for the Ukrainian economy, stopped the banking system or damaged critical infrastructure,” he said.
Some IT companies in Lviv, one of the biggest hubs for the industry, said they weren’t eager to disclose their involvement in the country’s digital defense efforts. Some in the Lviv IT community told ABC News it is a matter of a personal choice for members of their staff to join the fight.
Stepan, a 41-year-old member of the IT army, spoke to ABC News but asked not to use his real name because of fears of reprisal.
“On the second or third day of a new phase of Russian aggression I saw the tweet from the minister of digital transformation about the establishment of a Telegram channel, and that was very helpful to figure it out, what exactly to do to help my country,” Stepan said.
Imports of goods from Russia also fell to £33m in June, the lowest level since records began in January 1997, the Office for National Statics (ONS) said.
The only products to see a slight rise were chemicals, driven by an increase in exports of medicinal and pharmaceutical products, which are exempt from sanctions.
The ONS said that apart from government-stipulated sanctions, trade between Russia and the UK was lessened as businesses voluntarily sought alternatives to Russian goods.
The figures were released as Ukraine marked its day of independence, exactly six months since the Russian invasion began.
As a result of Russia’s invasion, the EU has said it will cut gas imports from Russia by two-thirds within a year and has also agreed to ban all Russian oil imports which come in by sea by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the US has imposed a total ban on Russian oil and gas imports.
This data doesn’t include services, where the UK has in the past made large sums through consultants, accountants and lawyers in London advising Russian companies and wealthy individuals.
But insofar as we’re talking about imported goods, it looks like sanctions have been highly effective.
According to the ONS we imported no fuel whatsoever from Russia in June, whereas normally we’d import on average about half a billion pounds of it.
Prior to the war, gas imported from Russia was about 4.9% of total UK gas imports; now it’s dropped to zero.
The UK hasn’t cut the overall amount of gas it’s importing; Russian gas has largely been replaced with gas from elsewhere.
That shows clearly the mismatch between the effect of war on the supply to the UK of wholesale gas (modest) and the change to the prices we’re paying (huge).
A lot of the fear built into the price of wholesale gas relates to market speculation on the potential disruptions to supply to Germany, Italy and other Russian-gas-addicted countries.
Our own gas supply is much more secure.
Yet because the energy price cap is linked to international wholesale gas prices, the danger is that when the price cap re-sets in October, millions of households will end up paying unnecessarily large bills which have a whole lot of irrelevant fear built into them.
The German government has approved a set of energy-saving measures for the winter which will limit the use of lighting and heating in public buildings.
The government aims to reduce gas usage by 2% through the new rules.
However, it remains a huge market for Moscow and paid almost €9bn (£7.7bn; $9.6bn) for Russian oil and gas in the first two months of the war.
Russia has also cut flows of gas through the key Nordstream 1 pipeline to Germany to 20% of capacity, raising fears it may turn off the taps this winter.
Germany’s Economy Minister Robert Habeck told reporters that his country wanted to free itself “as quickly as possible from the grip of Russian energy imports”.
But he added: “Overall the [new] measures save energy. However, not to the extent that we can sit back and say, ‘That’ll do now.’”
Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Brandenburg Gate in Berlin had its lights turned off in July
Starting from September, public buildings apart from institutions like hospitals, are to be heated to a maximum of 19C and the heating may be turned off completely in entrances, corridors and foyers.
Public monuments and buildings will also not be lit up for aesthetic reasons and businesses could be banned from keeping their shops illuminated at night.
Private swimming pool heating could also be banned. And the country will give coal and oil cargo priority over passenger travel on railways meaning passengers will have to wait.
“We have a shortage situation on the rails right now,” Transport Minister Volker Wissing said. “That means that if additional fuel transports are temporarily necessary we would have to prioritise them.”
Boosting storage capacity
Germany also plans to run publicity campaigns to tell locals how they can cut down on their own consumption.
And amid concerns about winter shortages, the country is setting up two liquefied natural gas terminals on the North Sea coast to improve storage.
Most European Union member states have committed to voluntarily reduce gas use by 15% this winter – although this will become mandatory if there are serious shortages. Meanwhile, Spain has already brought in rules limiting use of air conditioning and heating temperatures in public and large commercial buildings, as it seeks to save energy.
On Wednesday, Switzerland’s energy minister said it would “certainly make sense” for the country to align with the EU’s plan in order to prevent an energy crisis.
Switzerland’s electricity commission has also recommended that households stock up on candles in case of blackouts caused by changes in Russian supplies.
Earlier this month Swiss energy Minister Simonetta Sommaruga said she would try to enact a plan to have the heating turned down in public buildings.
A Russian rocket strike on a Ukrainian train station has killed 22 people, Ukraine says, on the day marking six months since Moscow’s invasion began.
It says five of the victims of the attack in the eastern town of Chaplyne burnt to death in a vehicle. An 11-year-old boy was also killed.
President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the strike in the middle of a UN Security Council meeting. He said about 50 people were injured.
Russia has so far made no comment.
It has repeatedly denied targeting civilian infrastructure.
Mr Zelensky said he learned of the strike on Chaplyne, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, as he was preparing to speak to the Security Council, adding: “This is how Russia prepared for the UN Security council meeting.”
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“Four passenger carriages are on fire now… the number of fatalities could increase,” he continued.
Ukraine has spent Wednesday marking its annual independence day and Mr Zelensky had previously said Russia might do something “cruel” to disrupt the celebrations.
Earlier he accused Moscow’s forces of turning the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant into a “war zone” that endangered the plant and the people of Europe, putting the world “on the brink of radiation catastrophe”.
The UN Secretary General told the same meeting that the “senseless war” could push millions of people into extreme poverty, both in Ukraine and beyond.
Around the world, there were gatherings of supporters in the streets to mark Ukraine’s independence today. World leaders also rallied to support the embattled nation to mark the occasion.
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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared in Kyiv on an unannounced trip to show his country’s support, announcing £54m ($63.5m) in new military aid – a figure dwarfed by an announcement from US President Joe Biden of an extra $3bn (£2.5bn).
Messages of support arrived from across the globe: from Australia, Germany, Finland, Poland, Turkey and more. In the Vatican, Pope Francis called for “concrete steps” to end the war and avert the risk of a nuclear disaster at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
But in the streets of Kyiv, it was relatively quiet.
Vladimir Putin will “increase his disruption” in the West as he gets “deeper into trouble” in Ukraine, former British ambassador to Russia, Sir Roderic Lyne, has said.
Speaking to Sky News, Mr Lyne said: “I think he will try to encourage more conflict in the Balkans. I think we may well see the Russians being even more active in the east and in north Africa.”
The ambassador also said that he thought the Russian leader would “at some point” offer some kind of a ceasefire in return for recognition of annexation of four western provinces of Ukraine.
“I think he’s going to use a range of tactics as the situation on the ground in Ukraine becomes more and more difficult for his troops,” he continued.
Mr Lyne also said Ukrainian troops would not surrender their freedom and the conflict would most likely continue at a “much lower intensity”.
He said: “The intensity is going to go down as both sides are pretty exhausted, pretty depleted. And I think we’re heading into a sort of stalemate with intermittent fighting across the line of control and a long, drawn out war of attrition.”
The ambassador went on to say that Mr Putin had a “total obsession” with Ukraine and believed “pummelling” will allow him to win the war.
“There’s really no end in sight. It’s not just the last six months. This war has been going on for eight and a half years. And Putin has a total obsession with Ukraine,” he said.
“The Ukrainians are now fighting for their survival. They’re fighting for their freedom, fighting for their territory, and they’re not going to give up.
“We’d all love this horrible stop tomorrow. I’m afraid it’s not going to do so because Putin thinks that he can win a war of attrition.
“He thinks that if he goes on pummelling Ukraine, he rebuilds his military forces, that eventually and I do mean a long way down the road that he can win.
“I don’t believe he can, so long as Western support holds up for Ukraine.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Ukrainians in an emotional speech marking 31 years of independence on Wednesday that their country had been “reborn” when Russia invaded and that it would never give up its fight for freedom from Moscow’s domination.
In a recorded speech aired on the six-month anniversary of Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, Zelenskiy said Ukraine no longer saw the war ending when the fighting stopped but when Kyiv finally emerged victorious.
“A new nation appeared in the world on Feb. 24 at 4 o’clock in the morning. It was not born, but reborn. A nation that did not cry, scream or take fright. One that did not flee. Did not give up. And did not forget,” he said.
The 44-year-old wartime leader delivered the speech in combat fatigues in front of central Kyiv’s towering monument to independence from the Russian-dominated Soviet Union that broke up in 1991.
Zelenskiy underscored Ukraine‘s hardening war stance that opposes any kind of compromise that would allow Moscow to lock in territorial gains, including swathes of southern and eastern Ukraine captured over the past six months.
“We will not sit down at the negotiating table out of fear, with a gun pointed at our heads. For us, the most terrible iron is not missiles, aircraft and tanks, but shackles. Not trenches, but fetters,” he said.
He vowed that Ukraine would recapture lost territory in the industrial Donbas region in the east as well as the peninsula of Crimea that Russia annexed in 2014.
“What for us is the end of the war? We used to say: peace. Now we say: victory,” he said.
Ukrainians are bracing for a prolonged war – and a brutal winter of energy shortages – after pushing back Russian forces at the start of what Moscow describes as a “special military operation” and preventing the fall of Kyiv.
Western military sources now say Russian forces are making little headway in their offensive operation in Ukraine’s eastern and southern territories, comparing the fighting to the slow, bloody, attritional fighting of World War One.
The streets of central Kyiv were unusually empty on Wednesday morning following days of dire warnings that Russia could launch fresh missile attacks on major cities. An air raid siren rang out in the capital at 0740 GMT.
Russia‘s defense ministry claims its hypersonic Kinzhal missiles destroyed an ammunition depot in Ukraine‘s Odesa region. Meanwhile, Ukraine authorities say the missiles struck a granary.
Russia said on Sunday that its hypersonic Kalibr missiles had destroyed an ammunition depot containing missiles for the US-made HIMARS rocket system in Ukraine’s southeastern Odesa region, while Kyiv said a granary had been hit.
Russia’s defense ministry said sea-based Kalibr missiles had destroyed a depot that also housed Western-made anti-aircraft systems.
A spokesman for Odesa’s regional administration said two missiles had been shot down over the sea, but that three had struck agricultural targets.
There were no casualties, the spokesman, Serhiy Bratchuk, said on Telegram. An explosives expert and other investigators were working at the granary, he said.
Russia’s defense ministry also said its forces had destroyed two M777 Howitzers in combat positions in the Kherson region, as well as a fuel depot in the Zaporizhzhia region that it said was storing more than 100 tonnes of diesel fuel.
Zelenskyy warns Russia against trials of Ukrainian soldiers
During his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Russia against putting Ukrainian soldiers on trial.
Zelenskyy referenced media reports that indicated Moscow and its proxy forces planned public show trials of Ukrainian fighters who were captured during the siege of Mariupol.
“If this despicable court takes place, if our people are brought into these settings in violation of all agreements, all international rules, there will be abuse,” he said.
On August 24, Ukraine celebrates 31 years of independence from the former Soviet Union.
Ukraine is gearing up for the possibility for Russian state-sponsored mischief and terror. In Kyiv, authorities have banned gatherings from August 22 to August 25.
Ukraine’s Independence Day will also mark six months since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
Mykhaylo Podolyak, a Zelenskyy advisor, noted, “Russia is an archaic state that links its actions to certain dates, it’s an obsession of sorts,” and was therefore likely to intensify its bombing campaign to coincide with the holiday.
UK, US, France, Germany push for nuclear safety in Ukraine
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the leaders of the United States, France and Germany on Sunday stressed the importance of ensuring the safety of nuclear sites in Ukraine in a call, Johnson’s office said.
“On a joint call, the Prime Minister, President (Joe) Biden, President (Emmanuel) Macron and Chancellor (Olaf) Scholz underlined their steadfast commitment to supporting Ukraine in the face of Russia’s invasion,” a Downing Street spokesperson said in a statement.
“They stressed the importance of ensuring the safety and security of nuclear installations and welcomed recent discussions on enabling an IAEA mission to the Zaporizhzhia facility.”
Moscow and Kyiv have earlier accused each other of shelling the complex, and the fighting has raised fears of a nuclear catastrophe.
German Finance Minister says he wants to travel to Ukraine soon
In the ARD interview on Sunday, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) said he wants to travel to Ukraine soon.
When asked when he was going to Kyiv, Lindner answered: “Now in late summer or autumn. I’m talking to my Ukrainian colleague about it.”
In May, Lindner had already offered his counterpart in Ukraine a visit to Kyiv.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) was the first German government member to visit Kyiv in May since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24, and several other ministers have followed since. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) traveled to Ukraine in June.
Senior Ukrainian intelligence official found dead
A regional head of Ukraine’s SBU intelligence services has been found dead at his home in central
Ukraine, the prosecutor general’s office said on Sunday.
Oleksandr Nakonechny was found by his wife with gunshot wounds in a room of their apartment in the city of Kropyvnytsky late Saturday after she heard gunfire, the office wrote on Telegram.
Police have opened an investigation into the death, but made no further comments. Nakonechny has headed the SBU branch in the region since January 2021.
In July, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired the head of the SBU, his childhood friend Ivan Bakanov, saying he did not do enough to rid the agency of spies and Russian collaborators.
Zelenskyy said there would be a revision of SBU personnel and several senior officials at the agency have been fired over the past several months.
Czechs send 1,968 crowns to Ukraine in nod to 1968 Soviet invasion
Czech nationals have been sending exactly 1,968 crowns ($80) to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia and to commemorate the 1968 invasion of then Czechoslovakia by Soviet-led troops, the Ukrainian embassy said on Sunday.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has killed thousands, forced millions to flee and caused damage worth billions of dollars, enters its seventh month next week.
The Czechs were using a special payment code to donate 1,968 crowns ($80) to an already existing account set up by Ukraine’s embassy in the Czech Republic to collect funds.
“Even at the weekend, dozens and dozens of payments in the value of 1,968 crowns are arriving to our account, thank you so much, Czech friends!” the embassy said on Twitter.
On August 21, 1968, armies of the Soviet Union and its allies crossed borders into Czechoslovakia, a fellow member of the eastern bloc, to crush a reform movement started earlier that year known as the “Prague Spring”.
The troops killed dozens of civilians and the subsequent occupation pushed tens of thousands into exile. The troops eventually left after the fall of Communist rule in 1989.
A month after Russia and Ukraine agreed on a sea corridor so that global exports of grain could resume, high insurance premiums are just one issue. Experts have called for international support for Ukrainian farmers.
Over two dozen ships have left the largest Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea since July 22, when Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to allow grain exports from Ukraine to restart. After months of exports being blocked by Russian warships and Ukrainian sea mines, one of the first vessels to leave was chartered by the UN and carried 23,000 tons of wheat for the World Food Program to help avert famine in Ethiopia and other parts of Africa.
So far, according to an interim report by the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority, some 600,000 tons have arrived on the global market. The authority hopes eventually for 100 ships to be leaving ports in Odesa, Pivdennyi and Chornomorsk every month. But this is not happening yet.
Shipping companies reluctant to dock in a war zone
Apart from the UN-chartered ship that left for Ethiopia, only four vessels entered the ports of the Odesa region in accordance with new contracts. The other ships had already been waiting in port for months.
“The situation is very slow with new contracts,” Pavlo Martyshev from the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) told DW. “The participants on the market don’t really trust the Russians and expect surprises,” he added, alluding to a Russian missile strike on the port of Odesa just one day after the grain corridor agreement was signed.
At the beginning of August, Martyshev had optimistically estimated in an analysis for the KSE that revenues of over $5 billion (€5 billion) would be generated by the additional export potential — an important sum in foreign currency for war-torn Ukraine and its farmers. But the reality currently looks different.
“Freight costs vary widely, often within a day. The market is nervous. Sometimes there are reports of Russian missile fire on the Odesa region, sometimes on the port of Mykolaiv, sometimes Russian fighter planes fly over the demilitarized sea corridor intended for the safe passage of ships,” Martyshev
explained.
Risk premiums are high
Odesa resident Gennediy Ivanov, the managing director of the logistics company BPG Shipping, is familiar with transporting goods to war zones: His company organized shipments to Yemen for over 10 years. Now, he is struggling to convince shipping companies to dock in his hometown.
“There are few shipping companies that systematically work in potentially dangerous regions such as West Africa or Yemen and are also willing to serve Ukraine because they know there are risk premiums,” he told DW. “This ultimately means that shipping costs are much higher than in neighboring, ‘peaceful’ countries like Romania and Bulgaria.”
But he was confident that the longer the grain corridor functioned without incident, the more ships would enter Ukrainian ports. “When the grain agreement was signed, insurance companies expected premiums of 4 to 5% of the ships’ market value for a seven-day period. Today, they are at 1 to 1.5%, which still costs an average of $200,000 to $270,000 per week,” he said.
Advantage for Russia
Ivanov explained that it costs roughly $10,000 more per day to hire a ship to export grain from Ukraine than from Romania. Also, the time-consuming inspections in Istanbul meant shipowners charged Ukrainian clients for seven to nine days extra. A Russian condition of the agreement was that all ships entering and leaving Istanbul should be inspected by the Turkish military in order to prevent any weapons from arriving in Ukraine by ship.
“All this means that a ton of cargo leaving from ports in Ukraine costs $25 to $35 more than from Romania,” Ivanov said.
The rising costs are reducing the exporters’ returns and leading to decreased purchasing prices for Ukrainian farmers — this means an advantage for Russia, Ukraine’s main rival on the grain market, even if risk premiums for Russian ports have also increased since the war broke out.
“Russia expects a record wheat harvest of over 90 million tons this year,” Martyshev told DW. “Under these circumstances, Russian wheat will dominate the market. The Russians can give discounts and they have already managed to rid certain significant markets, such as Turkey or Egypt, of Ukrainian wheat.”
The same was true for sunflower oil, he added:Â “Many factories have been at a standstill since the beginning of the war, and instead of sunflower oil, Ukraine is now exporting unprocessed sunflower seeds, which brings in much less foreign currency.”
Potential disaster for food security
Experts estimate that around 18 million tons of grain are still stuck in Ukrainian silos. This is a tight situation for corn farmers, in particular, warned Martyshev.
“In September/October, the new harvest will be here, and if exports do not step up drastically, there will be a shortage of storage capacity for around 10 million tons of corn.”
He called for international support, including loans that could help small farms build temporary silos ahead of the next sowing season.
Heinz Strubenhoff, a consultant who worked for many years in Ukraine for the World Bank, said he believes the Istanbul grain agreement will only produce tangible results when Ukraine’s main international partners help shoulder the risk premiums of insuring cargo. “Russia has an interest in continued uncertainty and keeping insurance premiums high,” he said. “The EU and the US must have an interest in helping Ukraine with the cost of reinsurance, which would make exports competitive again,” he said.
He said more farmers in Ukraine might otherwise be tempted to grow rapeseed and sunflowers and this would do nothing to improve food security in the medium term, which was initially one of the main reasons for the grain corridor agreement.
Russian state investigators said Darya Dugina, daughter of idealogue Alexander Dugin, was killed after a suspected explosive device detonated on the Toyota Land Cruiser she was traveling in on Saturday evening.
State news agency TASS quoted Andrei Krasnov, who knew Ms Dugina, as saying the vehicle belonged to her father and he was probably the intended target.
Father and daughter had been attending a festival outside Moscow and Ms Dugin had decided to switch cars at the last minute, Russian government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported.
TV footage accompanying the statement showed investigators collecting debris and fragments from the site of the explosion.
Investigators from the Moscow region who described Darya Dugina as a journalist and political expert said they had opened a murder case.
They said they would be carrying out forensic examinations to determine what had happened.
The move would make the plant more vulnerable, a Russian official said.
The calls come amid growing concern over safety at the site – Europe’s largest nuclear plant – as both sides accuse each other of shelling the area.
Ukrainian workers operate the plant, which has been under Russian control since March.
It was one of the first sites seized by Russian troops following the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.
UN Secretary General António Guterres sounded the alarm after meeting Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Lviv on Thursday.
“Any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide,” Mr Guterres warned.
The Ukrainian president urged the UN to ensure demilitarisation of the nuclear plant – Europe’s biggest. Mr Guterres added that “the facility must not be used as part of any military operation”.
Mr Erdogan echoed the UN chief’s concerns, telling reporters that he was worried about the danger of “another Chernobyl” disaster erupting at the plant.
Mr Zelensky has criticised “deliberate” Russian attacks on the power plant.
Moscow is accused of turning the facility into an army base, with all three leaders urging the Russians to demilitarise the zone as soon as possible.
But Ivan Nechayev, deputy director of the Russian foreign ministry’s Information and Press Department, rejected the call.
“Their implementation will make the plant even more vulnerable,” Mr Nechayev told reporters.
The appeals come as Ukrainian staff, who are working at the plant under Russian direction, warned of a potential nuclear catastrophe at the facility, saying in the past two weeks it has become “the target of continuous military attacks”.
“What is happening is horrific and beyond common sense and morality,” staff wrote in a Telegram post (in Ukrainian).
Later on Thursday, an official Twitter channel used by the Ukrainian government said that members of Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation, had “urgently” left the facility, and an “unexpected day off” had been announced.
“Ukrainian intelligence officers believe that the Russians are preparing a provocation at the [facility],” Ukraine’s Centre for Information security tweeted.
“Following their extensive shelling… [Russian forces] could ‘raise the stakes’ and stage a real terrorist attack on Europe’s largest nuclear facility,” it said.
The BBC has been unable to verify the claims.
Despite concerns, though, the site is said to be far more secure than the Chernobyl plant – the site of the worst nuclear incident in history.
The reactor is in a steel-reinforced concrete building that can “withstand extreme external events, both natural and man-made, such as an aircraft crash or explosions,” experts told the BBC in March.
London’s Saatchi Gallery has canceled an exhibition of Ukrainian contemporary art after a social media outcry over it being organized by the Russian banker and art collector Igor Tsukanov, with cultural impresario and fellow Russian Marat Guelman as a consultant.
“The Ukrainian Way” had been scheduled to show 100 Ukrainian artists at the gallery from September 3-11 accompanied by an auction of physical works and NFTs. With Kyiv’s M17 Contemporary Art Center (M17 CAC) listed as a partner, a press release claimed that all proceeds would go to “charities supporting Ukrainian arts and culture including the Art for Victory Fund and the Ukrainian Emergency Art Fund.”
“Saatchi Gallery was not the organizer or curator of ‘The Ukrainian Way’ nor was it involved in any direct communication with the artists or collectors,” the venue’s press office said in a statement to The Art Newspaper.
The gallery had donated its space with the goal “of promoting Ukrainian artists and generating charitable funds for the benefit of Ukraine” and its “involvement with the project was predicated on the involvement of key Ukrainian stakeholders,” the statement continued. “We received assurances from those stakeholders that the project was one they fully supported.
Once it became apparent that support from a number of these key parties had been withdrawn, along with the reports of concerns raised by artists in recent days, Saatchi Gallery immediately took the decision to cancel the ten-day exhibition and withdraw its support from the project.”
“The Ukrainian Way” has been canceled after backlash on social media. Credit: Saatchi Gallery
The gallery says it will work with the Ukrainian Institute, which promotes Ukrainian culture internationally, to “find ways to showcase the works of Ukrainian artists, raise awareness of the unacceptable situation in Ukraine and generate funds to support Ukrainian culture”.
Tetyana Filevska, the creative director of the institute — which called for a boycott of cultural cooperation with any organizations affiliated with Russia following the invasion of Ukraine — told The Art Newspaper that “it is hard to imagine any kind of cultural cooperation between Ukrainians and Russians, especially in a Ukrainian project” and that “both Tsukanov and Guelman created a level of miscommunication” that was unacceptable.
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M17 CAC’s director Natalia Shpytkovska says in a statement: “Unfortunately, under the circumstances of the project’s flawed informational presentation, as well as uncoordinated actions and statements, M17 CAC withdraws from participation in ‘The Ukrainian Way’ exhibition.”
Tsukanov told The Art Newspaper: “The circumstances in Ukraine are so tragic that their reflections in people’s mind(s) create such surreal perceptions on the true intentions. The show ‘The Ukrainian Way’ is the biggest Ukrainian art show in history and my fifth show at Saatchi. All of them were blockbusters. This time I picked the wrong partner whose director wanted to kill it,” he said, referring to Shpytkovska. “She managed to achieve her goal.”
Last week, after seeing announcements for the show, Ukrainian curators and artists took to social media to condemn it as an egregious example of Russian cultural colonialism.
“The organizers of the exhibition […] do not pay any attention to the opinion of [Ukrainian artists],” wrote Olha Sahaidak, an art critic and curator who advocated on Facebook for the exhibition to be pulled. “Possession of the object does not necessarily give the right to publish and exhibit.”
Artists featured in the show commented on her post saying that they objected to being included in the exhibition and that it was happening without their consent. Some works are in the collections of Tsukanov and Guelman, who have worked together previously on exhibitions at the Saatchi Gallery. The Tsukanov Family Foundation and the gallery announced a partnership in 2013. Tsukanov’s wife, Natasha — also an investment banker — had been an advisor to the head of the state oil company Rosneft, Igor Sechin, an ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin. The couple, based in London, is not on Western sanctions lists against Russian oligarchs.
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Guelman, who moved to Montenegro in 2014 after facing threats in Russia, was a promoter in the late-Soviet era of a movement of Ukrainian artists presented as the “southern Russian wave” of art — a term now especially regarded as demeaning — for a Moscow exhibition in the early 1990s. He reportedly worked on political campaigns as a strategist for Kremlin interests in Ukraine during the 2000s.
Guelman withdrew from the show several days ago in a Facebook post saying that he “sincerely wanted to help” as someone who had dealt with Ukrainian art since 1987 but that “unfortunately the war, Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, and all of this is not as important as the fact that I am a Russian gallerist.”
DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author(s) and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana
Ukraine has said Russia is preparing to stage a “provocation” at Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant on Friday.
The country’s intelligence agency made the claim just hours after Moscow accused Ukraine of trying to stage an “accident” there, which may involve a radiation leak, during the UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres’ visit to the war-ravaged nation.
Located in the southeast of Ukraine, the Zaporizhzhia plant was captured by Russia in the early days of the war and in recent weeks has repeatedly come under fire.
Both sides have pointed the finger at each other for the shelling.
Russian news agencies have reported shelling over Enerhodar overnight, close to the power plant, which is being blamed on Ukraine.
There had been suggestions Russia may try to carry out a false flag operation in the area – Russia’s defense ministry earlier claimed Ukraine would stage a “minor accident” and “provocation” – and blame it on them – to coincide with Mr Guterres’ trip.
A deeper dive into the gray market has meant that Russians continue to have access to goods like iPhones and Zara dresses even months after their Western makers left Russia. But are these parallel imports even legal? Russia has been importing goods without the consent of their Western manufacturers for months. It’s part of a scheme aimed at helping the country bypass supply restrictions put in place by Western countries and companies in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
Parallel imports, or gray-market purchases, into Russia totaled $6 billion (E5.9 billion) between May and July, Denis Manturov, Russia’s deputy prime minister and minister of industry and trade, told reporters this week.
Russia launched the parallel imports scheme, covering goods ranging from auto spare parts to gaming consoles, in May as imports slumped due to Western sanctions and scores of foreign companies left its shores in protest against the war in Ukraine and to avoid any potential reputational damage.
“Russia is not going to do anything in response to Western sanctions. So, it obviously has procedures in place to try and get a lot of critical imports that it needs to sustain the economy and maintain the war,” Timothy Ash, an emerging-market strategist from BlueBay Asset Management, told DW. “The question mark and challenge will be what the West will do to try and tighten the sanctions regime to stop that happening.”
What are parallel imports?
Parallel imports refer to goods that are imported into a market without their manufacturer’s consent. To be clear, they are authentic goods, but they may be meant by the manufacturer to be sold in a different country or region.
For example, if a pair of Levi’s jeans produced, packaged and priced for the Indian market is imported by a reseller to be sold in Germany outside of the apparel maker’s certified distribution channels, then that’s a parallel import.
Such imports are deemed to be on the gray market as they are sold by unauthorized dealers. Since brand owners have no control over the distribution of these goods, they are not covered by their warranty plans.
What is Russia doing?
In May, Russia released a list of Western goods eligible to be imported under the parallel imports scheme. The list included critical imports like warships, spare parts needed for railways and auto components, as well as consumer goods like electronics and household appliances, clothing, footwear and cosmetics — goods that Russia said their Western manufacturers “refused to supply directly.”
Some of the brands on the list were Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Continental, Ferrari, Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Siemens, Duracell, Canon and PlayStation.
The Russian scheme offers importers protection from civil suits for bypassing official distribution channels.
Much of the unauthorized imports into Russia are coming via post-Soviet countries like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Belarus, members of the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Commission, The Guardian newspaper reported.
Are these gray-market purchases legal?
Parallel imports are typically not illegal. They are original, licensed products just obtained via parallel distribution channels, often more expensively.
“Gray and mysterious may only be the distribution channels by which these goods find their way to the importing country,” according to a document published by the World Intellectual Property Organization.
“If products sold or imported by third parties fall within the scope of patents, trademarks or copyrights valid in this particular country, such sale or importation by third parties is generally deemed infringing,” the document said.
The Russian scheme involves the international principle of copyright exhaustion, which allows a Russian company to import a product without the consent of the manufacturer as soon as it starts selling in any country in the world, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency.
This means when Apple, which is on the Russian parallel imports list, starts selling iPhone 14 later this year, Russian resellers like re:store would be able to import them for sale despite the US tech giant pulling out of the country months ago.
How are parallel imports supporting Russian economy?
The Russian scheme is aimed at ensuring the availability of vital imports, which plunged following the exodus of Western companies.
Moscow expects parallel imports to touch $16 billion this year, a figure that would be equivalent to only 4% of overall imports in 2021. By comparison, total imports into Russia are expected to collapse by as much as a third this year.
“The biggest problem for Putin is going to be rebuilding the Russian military, which has been massively destroyed in terms of equipment in Ukraine. If the car production in Russia has stopped because they can’t get electronics components, then imagine trying to rebuild a tank or build a tank or an airplane,” Ash said.
Experts say the Kremlin expects the parallel imports scheme to serve yet another purpose. The various consumer and luxury goods on the list are meant to ensure Russians continue to go about their daily lives without much disruption in the face of Western sanctions.
“Maybe, it’s more a PR exercise aimed at the domestic audience trying to send the message that sanctions aren’t working and that we’re winning,” Ash said.
What can the West do to curb parallel imports into Russia?
Since Russia is applying the international copyright exhaustion rule, Western companies may not be able to do a lot to prevent the parallel import of their goods.
Ash says Western governments could exhort countries and companies to not help Russia evade sanctions or even threaten them with secondary sanctions.
“The more Russia tells us about this, the more they are public about it, the more likely the West is to tighten sanctions to stop it happening,” Ash said.
Russia has been trying to change the southern Ukraine city of Kherson into one of its own, but strikes by US-supplied HIMARS missiles have helped cut off the city from its supply lines. Insiders say the signs are that a Ukrainian counterattack is imminent.
The city of Kherson, on the banks of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, was taken by Russian forces without much fight in early March, days after the invasion started.
It remains Russia‘s biggest victory in the war and still one of the only major cities that its forces have managed to capture.
In recent weeks, however, Ukrainian forces have struck three key bridges over the river, making them virtually impassable for heavy vehicles – the aim being to slowly strangle Russian supply lines and cut off thousands of soldiers in the city.
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A full-on Ukrainian counteroffensive is thought to be imminent.
Making contact with anyone still trapped in Kherson is hard – most people are understandably either too frightened to take the risk, or simply do not have a phone or internet connection with the outside world.
Ukrainian mobile phone networks have been shut down and replaced with insecure Russian equivalents that are bugged and do not allow international calls
Finland has announced a limitation on tourist visas for Russians.The decision, according to the Finnish foreign minister, was made in response to an increase of Russian visitors utilizing Finland as a jumping-off point for trips to other European countries.
As a result of growing unease over Russian tourism in the wake of the conflict in Ukraine, Finland will limit the number of visas granted to Russians to 10% of the existing amount beginning on September 1.
“Tourist visas will not stop completely, but their number will be significantly reduced, †Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said on Tuesday in Helsinki, amid a rush of Russian visitors bound for Europe.
Haavisto said the decision had come as an influx of Russian tourists began using Finland and its Helsinki-Vantaa airport as a gateway to European holiday destinations, after Russia lifted pandemic-related border restrictions a month ago.
Tourist visas from neighboring Russia will be limited by restricting the allotted opening hours for tourism visa applications, as an outright ban based on nationality is not possible, Haavisto said.
“This means that other types of visas visits relatives, family contacts, work, study will be given preference and more time,†the minister explained.
Currently, Finland processes approximately 1,000 Russian visa applications a day, Haavisto told public broadcaster Yle separately.
Finland will also look into establishing a specific humanitarian visa category, which the country lacks.
“This could make the situation in certain circumstances much easier for journalists or NGO workersâ€, Haavisto said.
Just days after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Finland joined a string of Western countries in closing their airspace to Russian planes in response, making it difficult for Russians to travel to Europe.
The foreign minister also announced that Finland and the Baltics would together propose that the European Union discontinue a visa facilitation agreement with Russia. This would increase the price of tourist visas from 35 euros to 80 (from $35 to $81).
Currently, Finland processes approximately 1,000 Russian visa applications a day, Haavisto told public broadcaster Yle separately.
Finland will also look into establishing a specific humanitarian visa category, which the country lacks.
“This could make the situation in certain circumstances much easier for journalists or NGO workersâ€, Haavisto said.
Just days after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Finland joined a string of Western countries in closing their airspace to Russian planes in response, making it difficult for Russians to travel to Europe.
The foreign minister also announced that Finland and the Baltics would together propose that the European Union discontinue a visa facilitation agreement with Russia. This would increase the price of tourist visas from 35 euros to 80 (from $35 to $81).
Russia had sealed off its markets in February to restrict money from leaving the country during the war.
In a statement, the Moscow Exchange said it would be reopening its bond market to “non-resident clients from countries that are not hostile, as well as non-residents whose ultimate beneficiaries are Russian legal entities or individuals”.
China and Turkey are likely to be among these nations, as they have not imposed sanctions against Russia.
Russia seized the plant in March and has been accused of turning it into a base from where it hits nearby towns.
Both countries have traded blame for shelling it in recent days, prompting UN warnings of a nuclear disaster.
Mr Zelensky says any Russian soldier who shoots at or under the cover of the plant will be a “special target”.
The six-nuclear reactor Zaporizhzhia station is located in the city of Enerhodar, on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River (Dnipro in Ukrainian) in southern Ukraine.
Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, seizing the plant within days. Moscow has kept Ukrainian personnel to operate the facility.
The UN has warned that continued hostilities around the station could lead to a nuclear disaster affecting much of Europe.
Russia has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing at the plant.
It says it seized control of the plant to prevent leaks of radioactive materials during fighting in the region.
During his video address late on Saturday, Mr Zelensky said Russia had engaged in “constant provocations” by firing on the plant and said forces stationed there had used it as a base to shell the cities of Nikopol and Marhanets – on the other bank of the river.
This was being done, the president said, to “blackmail our state and the entire free world”. But he stressed that “Russian blackmail only mobilises even more global efforts to confront terror”.
“Every Russian soldier who either shoots at the plant, or shoots under the cover of the plant, must understand that he is becoming a special target for our intelligence, for our special services, for our army,” the president said.
He added that “every day” of Russia’s occupation of the plant “increases the radiation threat to Europe”.
Ukraine’s defence intelligence agency also accused Russia of a provocation by parking a Pion self-propelled heavy artillery piece outside a nearby town and painting a Ukrainian flag on it, in an attempt to discredit Kyiv.
A BBC investigation revealed earlier this week that many of the Ukrainian workers at the site are being kept under armed guard amid harsh conditions.
On Thursday, foreign minsters from the G7 group of industrial democracies demanded that Russia withdraw from the site immediately.
Their warning echoed statements from the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which called for an end to “all military activities that endanger nuclear security”.
UN Secretary General António Guterres has warned that the situation at the plant could “lead to disaster”.
Shelling at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has violated virtually all seven nuclear safety and security pillars, the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, has said.
However, IAEA experts believe the shelling hasn’t caused an immediate nuclear safety threat, based on information provided by Ukraine, Grossi says.
For days, Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for attacks on the site, which is Europe’s largest nuclear plant and has raised concerns of a major accident.
The complex has been under Russian occupation since early March, although Ukrainian technicians still operate it.
“All military activities that endanger nuclear and security must be stopped,” Grossi has said.
G7 nations have condemned Russia’s occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and called on Moscow to “immediately hand back full control” to Ukraine.
Ukrainian staff operating the plant “must be able to carry out their duties without threats or pressure. It is Russia’s continued control of the plant that endangers the region,” the G7 foreign ministers said in a statement.
“The Russian Federation must immediately withdraw its troops from within Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders and respect Ukraine’s territory and sovereignty,” it said.
The G7 have said they remain “profoundly concerned by the serious threat” posed by Russia’s actions around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
They say the actions of Russia’s armed forces are significantly raising the risk of a nuclear accident or incident and endangering the population of Ukraine, neighbouring states and the international community.
The G7 reiterate their “strongest condemnation” of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which they call an “unprovoked and unjustifiable war of aggression”.
They say Russia’s actions also undermine the ability of the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor the safety of nuclear activities in Ukraine.
Former inmates have spoken to the BBC about being systematically raped and tortured in Russian prisons.
Leaked footage of such abuse was circulated by an insider last year, and now victims have told the BBC why it happens and how they are fighting for justice.
Warning: This article contains graphic images and descriptions of sexual abuse and violence
Saratov prison hospital, in south-west Russia, came to public attention last year when videos of horrifying prisoner abuse were leaked to a human rights organisation and reported on by the international media.
Alexei Makarov knew its reputation before he was transferred there in 2018 as part of a six-year sentence for assault. Prisoners who are sent to Saratov from other jails in the region have complained that medical grounds were fabricated so they could be tortured behind closed doors.
Russian prisons have almost no independent oversight, and prison hospitals – with their health quarantine rules – even less so.
Makarov was genuinely unwell – he had been diagnosed with TB – and hoped he would be spared. But he says he was raped twice during his time there.
Victims and experts say the abuse – which Makarov and others have been subjected to – is always sanctioned by the prison authorities, and is used to blackmail inmates, intimidate them, or to force confessions.
Image caption, Graphic footage from bodycam film was leaked from Saratov prison last year
High-profile leaks of damning footage have forced the Russian government to respond to the country’s torture scandal. Torture was reported in 90% of Russia’s regions between 2015 and 2019, according to independent Russian media project Proekt.
But action has been slow.
The BBC has analysed thousands of court documents dating from that period and found that 41 members of the prison service were convicted in the most serious prisoner abuse trials.
But almost half of them were only handed suspended sentences. The BBC has spoken to ex-prisoners, including Makarov, about the ordeals they suffered in the Russian prison system.
The first time Makarov was tortured was in February 2020, he says. He refused to confess to a supposed plot against the prison administration and three men subjected him to continuous violent sexual abuse, he says.
“For 10 minutes they beat me, ripped my clothes. And for, let’s say, the next two hours they raped me every other minute with mop handles.
“When I fainted, they would splash me with cold water and throw me back onto the table.”
Two months later it happened again. He had been coerced into paying 50,000 rubles (£735) to his attackers and says he was raped in an attempt to keep him quiet about this.
Makarov told the BBC his prison torture had been videoed. Prisoners know the humiliating footage can be shared with the entire prison if they do not comply with the demands.
The rapists were other inmates, who – Makarov and others are certain – acted on prison bosses’ instructions.
Music would be played at full blast during torture episodes, Makarov says, to disguise the screams.
Last year’s leak of footage from Saratov was published with the help of another former inmate at the prison. Sergey Savelyev managed to smuggle out footage showing humiliation and violence against dozens of inmates. He also believes the torture is sanctioned at the highest levels as part of an organised system.
Savelyev had access to the footage because he was asked to work in the short-staffed prison’s security department. He was required to monitor and catalogue the footage from the bodycams normally worn by prison officers.
But he told the BBC that when it came to torturing a prisoner at Saratov, the officers would get inmates to do their dirty work – and ask them to wear bodycams to film to the abuse.
“I would get orders [to issue bodycams] from the head of security,” he says.
He was told to then save the recorded footage of some of these assaults to show to the security department, and on occasions transfer it onto a drive so it could be shown to more senior personnel.
After he discovered the horrors taking place behind closed doors, he started copying the files and hiding them.
“To simply walk past and do nothing is to recognise it as normal.”
In some of the clips the men carrying out the torture are seen using handcuffs – equipment, like the body-cams, that are only issued to prison staff.
Savelyev says the prisoners carrying out the abuse are, as a rule, those who have been convicted of violent crimes and are therefore serving long sentences. As such, they are interested in currying favour with the authorities in order to be treated better, he says. Such prisoners are sometimes given the nickname “pressovschiki”.
Image caption, Former inmate Savelyev blew the lid off a torture scandal last year when he published shocking footage
“They should be interested in doing well during this period, wanting the administration to be loyal, so that they can eat well, sleep well and have some privileges,” Savelyev explains.
Activist Vladimir Osechkin whose organisation Gulagu.net published the leaked videos, notes the chilling protocol followed by the torturers, captured in one particular clip, which suggests they are well-practised.
“They are giving signs to each other, acting in silent concert, understanding each other even without words because they are following a well-established system. [The man in shot] gives signs on how to twist or spread the man’s legs so that they can rape him.”
Following Savelyev’s leak of the evidence, six pressovschiki were arrested, but they denied being involved. Two months later the director of Saratov prison hospital and his deputy were also arrested – both denied any connection with the abuse shown in the videos.
Russian President Vladimir Putin replaced the head of the national prison service and announced that “systematic measures” were needed to bring about change. The country’s law was amended last month to introduce severe punishments for using torture as a means of abusing power or extracting evidence.
But human rights activists stress that torture as an independent offence is still not criminalised.
It is not the first time President Putin has promised change. He made a similar pledge, following the first shocking leak of such footage, in 2018, which showed guards carrying out mass beatings in a prison in Yaroslavl, north of Moscow.
Eleven Yaroslavl prison employees were given minimal sentences in 2020 and their two bosses were acquitted.
Lawyer Yulia Chvanova, who specialises in representing victims of torture, says the primary motivation for the organised abuse of prisoners is the authorities’ focus on confessions, regardless of guilt. As a result, officials responsible for investigating crime are the primary instigators of torture in Russian jails, she says.
“Confessions [are put] first and foremost.”
She is trying to win compensation for 22-year-old Anton Romashov, who was tortured in 2017 after refusing to admit to crimes he didn’t commit.
Romashov had been arrested for the possession of marijuana but the police were pressuring him to admit to dealing drugs – a much more serious offence. When he refused to confess, he was taken to a pre-trial detention centre in Vladimir, western Russia, in late 2016.
Image caption, Vladimir detention centre where Anton was tortured in its notorious cell 26
“I was taken to [cell] number 26. I knew exactly what kind of cell it was… because I heard screams coming from there, screams for days on end.”
There, two men were waiting for him. He says he was thrown to the floor, his hands and feet tied together behind his body, before being beaten for an entire day. When they pulled his trousers down, he said he would sign whatever they wanted. He was sentenced to five years in jail, despite telling the court that he had been tortured into the confession.
An investigation into practices at the Vladimir detention centre eventually took place after another prisoner murdered one of the pressovschiki threatening to torture him. Prison staff, asked to give statements, revealed that most of them knew what was happening in the infamous cell 26. The prison employee who was running the torture cell was convicted at a trial in which Anton and two other prisoners gave evidence.
Image caption, Anton Romashov says his torturers wanted him to confess to drug dealing
But the biggest torture scandal in the country to date took place in the Siberian region of Irkutsk. In the wake of a protest in spring 2020 at Prison 15 in Angarsk, near the city of Irkutsk, the authorities sent in the riot squad. Hundreds of prisoners were rounded up and taken to two detention centres where prison officers were waiting with pressovschiki.
One of those who says he was tortured in the centre, Denis Pokusaev, who was serving a three-year sentence for fraud, says the prison staff were open about why they were being punished.
“[They] told me: ‘Do you think we care whether you are guilty or not? You came from a riot – so you are going to be held accountable for that.’”
Lawyer Yulia Chvanova explains the common pattern of events.
Image caption, Lawyer Yulia Chvanova is trying to get compensation for several of her clients
“[Investigators] decide who to interrogate, which witnesses and what investigations to conduct… They then contact the prison staff with instructions: ‘I need a confession from a particular individual.”
Pokusaev says the persecution was relentless.
“The abuse went on for almost three months every day, except weekends.”
He says staff were involved in the torture sessions.
“They laughed, ate fruit… A person is being raped with all sorts of objects… And they just laugh, they enjoy it.”
The BBC asked the Russian prison service to comment on the allegations about torture and rape in the country’s jails and detention centres. It did not respond.
Human rights activists estimate at least 350 prisoners were tortured after the riots.
Image caption, Denis Pokusaev is determined to get justice for what happened to him
Pokusaev is among around 30 men who have won the right to be legally recognised as victims in the incident and one of the few prepared to testify in court. Several trials are expected to result from the investigation. In Denis’s case, he and a handful of other inmates are soon set to give evidence against two prison employees – neither of whom have accepted the charges against them.
Yulia and all those giving testimony in the case have been made to sign a non-disclosure agreement. It is unclear whether any of the findings will lead to meaningful reform.
Pokusaev says he is still haunted by what happened to him.
“I come to a forest next to our house almost every day. And I scream obscenities, shout this all out to avoid keeping it inside me.”
But he is determined to try to get justice. He believes that is possible if people are courageous enough to speak up.
“Right now, people [in Russia] are afraid to come out and say anything… that’s why people don’t achieve anything.”
The United States has announced that it will provide Ukraine $89m (£73m) to enable the country remove land mines set up by forces of Russia.
According to the US State Department, approximately five million Ukrainians are still residing in areas threatened by bombs planted by the Russians.
In a statement, the US Department said “Russia’s unlawful and unprovoked further invasion of Ukraine has littered massive swaths of the country with landmines, unexploded ordnance, and improvised explosive devices.”
These explosive hazards are reportedly blocking access to fertile farmland, delay reconstruction efforts, prevent displaced communities from returning to their homes, as well as maiming innocent civilians in Ukraine.
Since March, about 160,000 mines have been defused in Ukraine due to the ongoing war.
An official says Ukraine’s challenge to attempt to disarm unexploded ordnance “may be on a par” with similar efforts in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos following the American war of the 1960s and 70s.
President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has said its war with Russia must end at where it all began, Crimea.
On Tuesday, he said Crimea must be liberated.
“This Russian war…began with Crimea and must end with Crimea – with its liberation. Crimea is Ukrainian and we will never give it up,” he is quoted to have said.
He made the comment following a string of explosions that hit a Russian airbase there, killing one person, leaving eight others injured.
On Tuesday, a series of explosions rocked the Saky military base near Novofedorivka, in the west of Crimea – which is near seaside resorts popular with Russian tourists.
Novofedorivka and Saky are about 50km (30 miles) north of the port of Sevastopol, home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which has been leading a blockade of the Ukrainian coastline. The airbase had been used by Russia to launch attacks on targets deep inside Ukraine.
Footage circulating on social media showed beachgoers running as the explosions hit, with witnesses saying they had heard at least 12 blasts.
Crimea is globally recognised as part of Ukraine, however, the Black Sea peninsula was annexed by Russia in 2014 after a referendum which the global community sees as illegitimate.
It is reported that this may have begun the war with Russia.
On the matter, Russia’s Defence Ministry has indicated that the blasts were due to ammunition that had exploded in a store and that there was no “fire impact” from outside – although this has not been independently verified.
Also, Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak has denied allegations that Ukraine was behind the blasts.
“Of course not. What do we have to do with this?” he is quoted to have said on Dozhd online television channel.
Per international reports, any attack on Crimea by Ukraine would be considered deeply serious by Moscow.
Russia sounded a warning last month when ex-President Dmitry Medvedev threatened last month that “Judgement Day will instantly await” if Ukraine targeted Crimea.
In other news, Ukrainian officials say 13 people were killed in overnight Russian strikes in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, and another one in the Zaporizhzhia region in the south.
When questioned about this possibility, Mr Kirby dismissed it, saying: “I don’t think we go so far as to even call it a counter-offer.”
Griner, 31, told the court she had made an “honest mistake” and had not intended to break the law.
Considered one of the best female players in the world, she was detained in February at an airport near Moscow when vape cartridges containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage. She had come to Russia to play club basketball during the US off-season.
Soon afterwards, Russia invaded Ukraine and her case has become subject to high-profile diplomacy between the US and Russia.
Her defence team said they would appeal against the verdict.
Griner’s Phoenix Mercury teammates staged a gesture of solidarity on Thursday, when they and their Connecticut Sun opponents observed 42 seconds of silence before their game, in honour of her number 42 jersey.
US President Joe Biden called her sentencing “unacceptable”, adding: “I call on Russia to release her immediately so she can be with her wife, loved ones, friends, and teammates.”
Meanwhile Secretary of State Antony Blinken added: “Russia, and any country engaging in wrongful detention, represents a threat to the safety of everyone travelling, working and living abroad.”
Mr Blinken raised the issue in a phone call with Mr Lavrov last week, in the first conversation between the two men since the start of the war in Ukraine.
A day after Griner’s sentencing, Mr Lavrov said that Moscow is ready to discuss the topic of prisoner exchanges with Washington, but within the framework of an existing diplomatic channel agreed upon by Presidents Putin and Biden, Reuters news agency quotes him as saying.
Both Mr Lavrov and Mr Blinken are now in Cambodia for a meeting of the Association of South-East Asian Nations. The US says Mr Blinken will try to speak with Mr Lavrov again while they are there.
A Russian court has sentenced US basketball star Brittney Griner to nine years in prison on drug charges.
Griner, 31, admitted possessing cannabis oil but told the court she made an “honest mistake”.
But the court convicted her of smuggling and possessing narcotics, and gave her close to the maximum sentence recommended by prosecutors.
Griner is a double Olympic gold medallist and is considered one of the best players in the world.
She was detained in February at an airport near Moscow when vape cartridges containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage. She had come to Russia to play club basketball during the US off-season.
Soon after, Russia invaded Ukraineand her case has become subject to high profile diplomacy between the US and Russia.
US President Joe Biden called the sentencing “unacceptable”.
It is unclear how long Griner will actually spend behind bars, as the US and Russia have been discussing a potential prisoner swap that could involve the basketball player.
Reports in US media suggest imprisoned Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout – known as the Merchant of Death – could be transferred by Washington to the Russian authorities as part of the deal.
Griner’s defence team said they would appeal against Thursday’s verdict by the court in Khimki, near Moscow.
Reading the verdict, the presiding judge in Khimki said she took into account the fact that the American had already spent a considerable time in detention.
Earlier, Griner told the court after both sides presented closing arguments: “I made an honest mistake, and I hope in your ruling it does not end my life.”
“I did not conspire or plan to commit this crime,” she added.
Griner also said she had received neither an explanation of her rights nor access to a lawyer in the initial hours of her detention, and that she had to use a translation app on her phone to communicate.
Nelson Mandelawas once asked why he still had relationships with, among others, Fidel Castro and Yasser Arafat, the Cuban and Palestinian leaders who had been branded terrorists by Western powers. The revered South African statesman replied that it was a mistake “to think that their enemies should be our enemies.”
This stance has largely typified some African nations’ response to the Russia-Ukraine war. Across the continent, many appear hesitant to risk their own security, foreign investment and trade by backing one side in this conflict.
While there has been widespread condemnation of the attacks on Ukrainian civilians and their own citizens fleeing the warzone — from countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya — there has been a much more muted response from some key African nations.
Countries on the continent find themselves in a delicate position and will not want to get drawn into proxy battles, says Remi Adekoya, associate lecturer at England’s University of York.
“There’s a strong strand of thought in African diplomacy that says African states should maintain the principle of non-interference and so they shouldn’t get caught up in proxy wars between the East and the West. As some states did get caught up in proxy wars during the Cold War, for instance,” Adekoya told CNN.
One influential voice that has made it clear he will not make an enemy out of Russian leader Vladimir Putin is South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
While addressing his country’s parliament Thursday, he said: “Our position is very clear … there are those who are insisting that we should take a very adversarial stance and position against, say Russia. And the approach that we have chosen to take … is we are insisting that there should be dialogue.”
After initially releasing a statement calling for Russia to immediately pull its forces out of Ukraine, South Africa has since laid the blame for the war directly at NATO’s doorstep for considering Ukraine’s membership into the military alliance, which Russia is against.
“The war could have been avoided if NATO had heeded the warnings from amongst its own leaders and officials over the years that its eastward expansion would lead to greater, not less instability in the region.” Ramaphosa said in parliament Thursday.
Former South African President Jacob Zuma also earlier issued a statement saying Russia “felt provoked.”
“Putin has been very patient with the western forces. He has been crystal clear about his opposition of the eastern expansion of … NATO into Ukraine … and is on the record about the military threat posed to Russia by the presence of the forces … it looks justifiable that Russia felt provoked,” Zuma said in a statement issued by his foundation on March 6.
South Africa has strong ties to Russia and Ramaphosa has written about being approached to be a mediator in the conflict given its membership of BRICS — a group of emerging economies comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The ties between the two countries also date back to apartheid times when the former Soviet Union supported South Africa and the African National Congress party in their liberation struggles. “Those favors have not been forgotten,” said Adekoya.
South Africa was one of 17 African nations to abstain on the UN resolution demanding that Russia immediately withdraw from Ukraine on March 2. It took a similar stance during Putin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Nigeria and Egypt were among the 28 African nations that voted to condemn Russia, while eight others didn’t submit a vote. Eritrea was the only African country that outrightly voted against the resolution.
Zimbabwe’s foreign ministry said in a statement it was unconvinced that the UN resolution was driven towards dialogue, rather “it poured more fuel to the fire, thus complicating the situation.”
‘Strongman leadership’
Many of the countries that abstained from the UN vote are authoritarian regimes. They see Putin’s unilateral decision to invade Ukraine as a show of power and ego that they can appreciate and align with, Yetunde Odugbesan-Omede, a political analyst and professor at New York’s Farmingdale State College, told CNN.
One of those who have spoken out prominently in support of the Russian leader is Lt. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the influential son of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.
His father has ruled Uganda with an iron fist for 36 years and there has been speculation that Kainerugaba is a would-be successor when the 78-year-old Museveni eventually stands down.
Kainerugaba tweeted that: “The majority of mankind (that are non-white) support Russia’s stand in Ukraine. Putin is absolutely right!”
Some African countries have also hesitated in speaking out against Russia because they want to “keep their options open if they face existential threats or some kind of revolution in their own country in the future,” said Adekoya.
“They saw Putin keep Assad in power in Syria because if not for Russia’s intervention, Assad’s regime would have fallen long ago,” he added.
Adekoya also pointed out that some of the muted response stems from what is perceived as Western hypocrisy.
Kenya’s UN Security Council representative Martin Kimani gave a powerful speech on the brink of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Kimani drew a parallel between Ukraine’s emergence as an independent state after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the experience of post-colonial states in Africa, criticizing Vladimir Putin’s buildup of forces and his support for redrawing Ukraine’s borders by recognizing the breakaway statelets of Donetsk and Luhansk.
“Kenya rejects such a yearning from being pursued by force,” he said, referring to Russia’s recognition of the two territories as independent states. “We must complete our recovery from the embers of dead empires in a way that does not plunge us back into new forms of domination and oppression.”
During the speech, he also mentioned other nations on the Security Council who had breached international law and faced no sanctions. He didn’t mention them by name, but he was talking about the US and UK who invaded Iraq in 2003 … and were never really held to account,” Adekoya said.
“There are many people in many parts of the world who would like to see other regions gaining strength and would like to see the end of Western domination of the world order, putting it simply … of course, no right-thinking person in Africa or anywhere in the world looks at what is going on in Ukraine now and thinks that it’s a good thing … but many people do see the hypocrisy,” he added.
Establishing stronger ties
In recent years, Russia has established itself as one of Africa’s most valuable trading partners — becoming a major supplier of military hardware with key alliances in Nigeria, Libya, Ethiopia and Mali.
Africa accounted for 18% of Russian arms exports between 2016 and 2020, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) think tank.
Some analysts say the support or non-censure of Russia speaks to a wider sentiment in parts of Africa that Western policy positions do not always work in their favor.
“The message that Moscow is pushing is that if you are tired of the paternalistic way the West approaches you, we are going to be your security partners. It will be a relationship of equals,” Aanu Adeoye, a Russia-Africa analyst at Chatham House, told CNN.
Unlike many of its European counterparts, Russia is not a former colonial power in Africa and so has a wider scope of opportunity in making soft power moves that aim to challenge Western dominance on the continent.
The Soviet Union also had client relationships with many African states during the Cold War, and Moscow has looked to revive some of those ties.
Before the invasion, Russian state media outlet RT announced plans to set up a new hub in Kenya with a job ad that said it wanted to “cover stories that have been overlooked by other organizations” and that “challenge conventional wisdom about Africa.
Yet Africa has often been at the heart of the tussle for influence in the great power competitions between key geopolitical players such as the US, China and Russia.
Some countries are trying to leverage this position in a variety of ways.
Odugbesan-Omede explained that Tanzania, for example, has identified the current situation as a chance for its energy industry to profit. “Tanzania’s President, Samia Suluhu Hassan, sees this an opportunity to look for markets to export gas,” she said.
“Tanzania has the sixth largest gas reserve in Africa. While some African countries will sustain some economic shock from the Russian-Ukraine fight, others are trying to weather the storm by looking for new avenues of profitability,” Odugbesan-Omede added.
The examination of the substance contained in vape cartridges that WNBA star Brittney Griner’s carried at a Moscow airportin February did not comply with Russian law, a defense expert testified Tuesday in her high-stakes drug-smuggling trial.
Among theviolations is that the results of the examination do not show the amount of THC in the substance, Griner’s lawyer, Maria Blagovolina, said after the hearing.
“The examination does not comply with the law in terms of the completeness of the study and does not comply with the norms of the Code of Criminal Procedure,” forensic chemist Dmitry Gladyshev testified for the defense during the roughly two-hour session.
The defense also interrogated prosecution expert Alexander Korablyov, who examined Griner’s cartridges taken from her luggage.
Griner’s appearance in the Khimki city courthouse marked her seventh hearing as Russian prosecutors accuse her of trying to smuggle less than 1 gram of cannabis oil into her luggage.Â
She has pleaded guilty to drug charges — a decision her lawyers hope will result in a less severe sentence — and faces up to 10 years in prison.
 Here’s what we’ve learned from the Brittney Griner trial in Russia after her latest testimony.
Despite the guilty plea, the US State Department maintains she is wrongfully detained. Supporters of Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist who plays in Russia during the WNBA offseason, have called for her release over fears she is being used as a political pawn amid Russia’s war on Ukraine.
US officials face immense pressure from Griner’s family, lawmakers, and the professional basketball community to bring her home, perhaps as part of a prisoner swap. Griner wrote to President Joe Biden pleading with him to do everything in his power to facilitate her release.
 The 31-year-old sat Tuesday inside the defendant’s cage in the courtroom.
 The charge d’affaires of the US embassy in Moscow, Elizabeth Rood, attended Tuesday’s hearing and afterward said the US would “continue to support Miss Griner through every step of this process and as long as it takes to bring her home to the United States safely.”
Griner’s next hearing is set for Thursday.
Outside the courthouse, Tuesday, one of her lawyers told CNN that Griner is focused yet nervous about the coming verdict.
“… She still knows that the end is near, and of course, she heard the news so she’s hoping that sometime she could be coming home, and we hope, too,” Blagovolina said.
Asked about their team’s strategy to challenge Russian prosecutors’ evidence,Â
Blagovolina said: “Well there are a lot of factors which should be taken by the court into account.Â
She admitted that she did bring something, but we need to know what did she bring.
At trial, Griner has testified she has a doctor’s prescription for medical cannabis and had no intention of bringing the drug into Russia. Following her detention in February, she was tested for drugs and was clean, her lawyers previously said.
Attorneys make the case for an ‘improper’ detention
 Griner’s attorneys have already laid out some arguments claiming the basketball player’s detention was not handled correctly after she was stopped on February 17 by personnel at the Sheremetyevo International Airport.
Her detention, search, and arrest were “improper,” Alexander Boykov, one of her lawyers, said last week, noting more details would be revealed during closing arguments.
After she was stopped at the airport, Griner was made to sign documents that she did not fully understand, she testified.Â
At first, she said, she was using Google translate on her phone but was later moved to another room where her phone was taken and she was made to sign more documents.
No lawyer was present, she testified, and her rights were not explained to her.Â
Those rights would include access to an attorney once she was detained and the right to know what she was suspected of.
 Under Russian law, she should have been informed of her rights within three hours of her arrest.
In her testimony, Griner “explained to the court that she knows and respects Russian laws and never intended to break them,” Blagovolina — a partner at Rybalkin, Gortsunyan, Dyakin & Partners — said after last week’s hearing.
The detained player testified she was aware of Russian laws and had no intention of bringing the cannabis oil into the country, noting she was in a rush and “stress packing.”
Griner confirmed she has a doctor’s prescription for medical cannabis, Blagovolina said, which she uses to treat knee pain and joint inflammation.
“We continue to insist that, by indiscretion, in a hurry, she packed her suitcase and did not pay attention to the fact that substances allowed for use in the United States ended up in this suitcase and arrived in the Russian Federation,” Boykov, of Moscow Legal Center, has said.
Kremlin decries ‘megaphone diplomacy
The Kremlin warned Tuesday that US “megaphone diplomacy” will not help negotiations for a prisoner exchange involving Griner.
Speaking on a call with journalists,Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Moscow believes these talks should be “discrete.”
“Megaphone diplomacy and public exchange of positions will not lead to results here,” Peskov added.
Russia has accused the US of direct involvement in the war in Ukraine for the first time.
A spokesperson for Moscow’s defense ministry alleged the US was approving targets for American-made Himars artillery used by Kyiv’s forces.
Lt Gen Igor Konashenkov said intercepted calls between Ukrainian officials revealed the link. The BBC could not independently verify this.
There was no immediate comment on the allegation from US officials.
Russia previously accused Washington of fighting a “proxy war” in Ukraine.
“It is the Biden administration that is directly responsible for all rocket attacks approved by Kyiv on residential areas and civilian infrastructure facilities in settlements of Donbass and other regions that caused mass deaths of civilians,” Mr. Konashenkov said.
Himars is a multiple rocket system that can launch precision-guided missiles at targets as far as 70km (45 miles) away – far further than the artillery that Ukraine previously had.
They are also believed to be more accurate than their Russian equivalents.
In April, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said US President Joe Biden’s decision to supply Ukraine with billions of dollars worth of arms meant “Nato, in essence, is engaged in a war with Russia through a proxy and is arming that proxy”.
“War means war,” the 72-year-old warned.
Throughout the conflict in Ukraine, Russia has been accused of numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity. Last week, Ukraine accused Moscow of bombing a prison in separatist-held Donetsk to cover up allegations of torture.
And the BBC has documented allegations of torture and beatings of Ukrainian prisoners by both the Russian military and security services.
The US accuses Russia of using a major power plant as a “nuclear shield,” and three more Britons are set to go on trial in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic for allegedly being “foreign mercenaries” in Ukraine.
Three Britons are being tried by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine on charges that they were foreign“mercenaries” fighting for the Ukrainian side.
John Harding, Cambridgeshire aid worker Dylan Healy, 22, and military volunteer Andrew Hill are set to be tried in the Moscow-backed Supreme Court of the Donetsk People’s Republic, according to Russian news agency Tass.
After their alleged involvement in combat with the Azov battalion and other military troops captured in Mariupol, all three men are apparently refusing to cooperate with investigators.
They will be tried alongside a man from Croatia and another from Sweden.
A video on Russian television in April featured a man speaking with an English accent who gave his name as Andrew Hill from Plymouth.
Last month, the Donetsk court sentenced British men Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner to death for the same charges. The European Court of Human Rights has been forced to intervene and demanded that Moscow ensure the punishment is not carried out.
Some worrying developments have been emerging in the Balkans over the weekend, with Kosovo’s government accusing neighboring Serbia of trying to destabilize the country as ethnic Serbs blocked roads and conducted other incidents in the north, ostensibly in a dispute over vehicle license plates and identity cards.
Officials in Kosovo had decided to resume the practice of requiring vehicles that enter from Serbia to replace Serbia license plates with Kosovo plates, with the reverse required by Serbia for vehicles from Kosovo that go to Serbia.
Kosovo also is planning to block its ethnic Serb minority from using only the Serbian identity cards when crossing the border.
And a Kosovo government statement said many “aggressive acts” occurred on Sunday, including the blocking of roads and shooting in the northern areas dominated by ethnic Serbs – and suggested they were incited by Serbia.
Kosovo was part of Serbia until an armed uprising in 1998-1999 by the territory’s ethnic Albanian majority triggered a bloody crackdown by Serbs. A NATO bombing campaign to force Serbia’s troops out of Kosovo ended the war.
But Serbia refuses to recognize Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence – a refusal shared by Vladimir Putin’s Russia, who has repeatedly expressed support for Serbia.
Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti and President Vjosa Osmani blamed Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic for the protests.
“Vucic and (Petar) Petkovic are the main responsible persons for the riots,” Kurti wrote on Facebook. Petkovic is Belgrade’s official in charge of Kosovo.
Osmani also wrote on Facebook that “Vucic’s efforts to destabilize Kosovo” would fail.
Indeed, an MP from Mr. Vucic’s ruling party said Serbia would need to begin the “denazification of the Balkans” – using near-identical language to that routinely employed by the Kremlin as a widely derided justification for its invasion of Ukraine.
In comments that echo the views of increasing numbers of geopolitical commentators, Ms. Osmani said just days ago that she believed Mr. Putin could be seeking to use her country as a means of widening his own conflict while destabilizing the continent.
“Putin’s aim is to expand the conflict in other parts of the world,” she said.
“Since his aim has constantly been to destabilize Europe, we can expect that one of his targets might be the Western Balkans.”
It comes amid increasing instability in another of Serbia’s neighboring countries, Bosnia.
There, the radical leaderof pro-Serbian factions, Milorad Dodik, triggered a political crisis by withdrawing his party from national institutions.
Experts have said Mr. Putin has also been working with Serbia there to exacerbate ethnic divisions between Croats, Bosniaks, and Serbs.
Ukraine war: UN and Red Cross invited to investigate deaths of prisoners of war, Russia says.
Russia has invited the United Nations and the Red Cross to investigate the deaths of dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
The prisoners were being held by Moscow-backed separatists at a jail in the town of Olenivka, in eastern Donetsk, when it was hit by rockets early on Friday.
Russia’s defense ministry said 50 prisoners were killed and another 73 were injured, adding that it wanted to act “in the interest of conducting an objective investigation” into the attack.
It claims Ukrainian soldiers had used a US-made high mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS) to target the prison.
Ministry spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov said “all political, criminal and moral responsibility” rested with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “his criminal regime and Washington who supports them”.
But Ukraine said Russian artillery had been behind the attack, using it to hide the mistreatment of prisoners.
Mr. Zelenskyy said: “It was a deliberate Russian war crime, a deliberate mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
The first ship carrying grain has left a Ukrainian port under a landmark deal with Russia.
Turkish and Ukrainian officials say the ship left the southern port of Odesa early on Monday morning.
Russia has been blockading Ukrainian ports since February, but the two sides agreed on a deal to resume shipments.
It is hoped the deal will ease the global food crisis and lower the price of grain.
In a statement issued ahead of the ship’s departure, Turkey said the Sierra Leone-flagged vessel would dock in Lebanon, adding that further shipments were planned over the coming weeks.
The Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) in Istanbul set up under the deal said the ship was carrying some 26,000 tonnes of corn and was expected to arrive in Turkish waters for inspection on Tuesday.
“Today Ukraine, together with partners, takes another step to prevent world hunger,” Ukraine’s Infrastructure Minister Alexander Kubrakov wrote on Facebook.
“Unlocking ports will provide at least $1 billion in foreign exchange revenue to the economy and an opportunity for the agricultural sector to plan for next year.”
Mr. Kubrakov added that 16 other ships were waiting to depart in the ports of the Odesa Region in the coming weeks.
Last month’s deal – brokered by the UN and Turkey – took two months to reach and is set to last for 120 days. It can be renewed if both parties agree.
The blockade of Ukraine’s grain has caused a global food crisis with wheat-based products like bread and pasta becoming more expensive and cooking oils and fertilizer also increasing in price.
Under the terms of the deal, Russia has agreed not to target ports while shipments are in transit and Ukraine has agreed that its naval vessels will guide cargo ships through waters that have been mined.
Turkey – supported by the United Nations – will inspect ships, to allay Russian fears of weapons smuggling.
Three ports in southern Ukraine – Odesa, Chornomorsk, and Pivdenny – are expected to be the focal point of the exports.
But the deal was thrown into chaos less than 24 hours after it was announced that Russia had launched two missiles at Odesa port.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strike showed that Moscow could not be trusted to stick to the deal.
One of Ukraine‘s richest businessmen has been killed with his wife in “massive” Russian shelling of the southern city of Mykolaiv.
Oleksiy Vadatursky, 74, and his wife Raisa died when a missile hit their home overnight, Ukrainian media said.
Mr Vadatursky owned Nibulon, a group involved in grain exports. He had also received the “Hero of Ukraine” award.
Mykolaiv mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said it was probably the heaviest Russian bombardment of the city so far.
There was damage to a hotel, a sports complex, two schools and a service station, as well as homes.
Mykolaiv is on the main route to Odesa, Ukraine’s main port, and has been hit repeatedly.
The region’s leader Vitaliy Kim said Mr Vadatursky “did a lot for the Mykolaiv region, a lot for Ukraine.
“His contribution to the development of the agricultural and shipbuilding industry, the development of the region is invaluable,” he said on Telegram.
Nibulon has built many storage facilities and other infrastructure for exporting grain.
Ukraine and Russia are major exporters of wheat and other grains, and the disruption of exports caused by the war has sent food prices soaring worldwide.
The two countries signed a UN-brokered agreement in Turkey last week, aimed at easing the food crisis. But Ukrainian shipments are expected to be slow amid heavy security checks.
Ukraine accuses Russian forces of stealing grain from farms on occupied land and exporting it via Crimea. Russia denies those claims.
Blow to Russian Navy Day
Meanwhile, Russia has cancelled Navy Day celebrations in occupied Crimea.
The reason given by Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev was an alleged Ukrainian drone strike on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters. The fleet has long been based in Sevastopol.
But a senior Ukrainian official, Serhiy Bratchuk, dismissed the Russian report as a “provocation”.
“The liberation of our Crimea will take place differently and much more efficiently,” he said.
Russian forces annexed Crimea in 2014. That was internationally condemned as illegal and triggered sanctions against Russia.
Navy Day is an annual Russian holiday, and celebrations are taking place across Russia on Sunday. President Vladimir Putin is overseeing events in St Petersburg, his home city.
In a Telegram post, the Sevastopol governor said “an unidentified object flew into the courtyard of the [Black Sea] Fleet headquarters” and “according to preliminary data, it was a drone”.
Blaming “Ukronazis”, he said six people – Fleet HQ staff – were wounded, and none were killed.
Russia has often accused Ukrainian authorities of being “Nazis”, as part of the Kremlin’s propaganda campaign to justify its invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.
A photo posted by Governor Razvozhayev showed him in a courtyard littered with leaves, but with no obvious structural damage. He said the Navy Day celebrations had been cancelled for security reasons.
In a previous blow to the Black Sea Fleet, in April, the fleet’s flagship Moskva sank after what Ukraine described as a strike with two Neptune missiles.
Russia admitted there was a big fire on board caused by exploding ammunition, without attributing it to a Ukrainian attack, and said the missile cruiser sank in a storm while being towed.
It remains unclear how many Russian sailors were killed or injured in the ship’s demise.
Meanwhile in the north, Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv was hit by Russian missiles again, mayor Igor Terekhov said on Telegram. Three Russian S-300 missiles struck a school there, destroying the main building, he said.
The BBC was unable to verify the latest reports independently.
In a late-night address on Saturday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky told all civilians still living in parts of eastern Donetsk region under Ukrainian control to evacuate.
The region has seen heavy clashes amid a slow advance by Russian forces, who already control large parts of it.
“The more people leave Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill,” Mr Zelensky said. “We will use all available opportunities to save as many lives as possible and to limit Russian terror as much as possible.”
The indictment says Mr Ionov worked under the direction of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and controlled certain unnamed political groups in Florida, Georgia and California.
One of the Russian goals, it alleges, was to “promote California’s secession from the United States”.
He could face a maximum of five years in jail if found guilty.
Denouncing the indictment on Facebook, Mr Ionov said: “I have never met such nonsense and deception.
“There are no specific names of officials, there is no evidence of funding and there are no intelligible arguments.”
He went on: “The Ukrainian crisis has driven American officials crazy! Comrades, now you see what kind of ‘democracy’ exists in the USA!”
Mr Ionov has told CNN he is currently in Russia. As with other Western indictments of senior Russian figures, he is likely to be tried in absentia.
Dozens of senior Russian officials and state-controlled bodies, including banks, are under Western sanctions for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and earlier annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.
‘Malign influence’
The US indictment says that from at least December 2014 until March 2022, Mr Ionov and at least three Russian officials “engaged in a years-long foreign malign influence campaign targeting the United States”.
Mr Ionov has denounced some independent Russian media organisations, including The Bell and Meduza, and got them labelled as “foreign agents” under Russian law. That label restricts their activities in Russia.
The US Treasury Department also announced sanctions against Mr Ionov, the AGMR and two other organisations allegedly controlled by him: the STOP-Imperialism website and Ionov Transcontinental, a company “which has a footprint in Iran, Venezuela and Lebanon”.
Sanctions were also imposed on Natalya Valeryevna Burlinova and her Center for Support and Development of Public Initiative Creative Diplomacy (PICREADI). The US statement alleges that PICREADI is funded by the Russian state, despite claiming to be independent.
The sanctions block those organisations’ assets in the US and prohibit transactions with them.
Mr Ionov is also alleged to be an associate of Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is under US sanctions for Kremlin interference in the 2016 presidential election won by Donald Trump.
The Treasury Department says Mr Ionov “sought to collaborate with Prigozhin’s Foundation for Battling Injustice (FBR) about the feasibility of directly supporting a specific candidate in a 2022 US gubernatorial election”.
It adds that in mid-2021 he “worked to disseminate and promulgate disinformation that would influence the US election process”.
Russia cut gas imports to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to just over 14-kilowatt hours (kWh) per hour on Wednesday, roughly 20% of the capacity of the pipeline.
While 27 million kWh of gas arrived at the German terminal in Lubmin between 6 am (0400 GMT) and 7 am, the volume had decreased to 17 million kWh between 8 am and 9 am and then sank to just over 14 million kWh from 9 am.
This is the level at which deliveries are expected to remain for the rest of the day, according to the Nord Stream 1 website.
The move had been announced by the Russian gas company Gazprom, which said it would cut down the volume of gas deliveries via Nord Stream 1 from 40% to 20% of capacity.
Russia is blaming the reduced volume of gas deliveries on technical issues resulting from the sanctions imposed on Moscow by the West.
However, the German government is among those who see the lower gas deliveries as Moscow exploiting its leverage against the heavily reliant German – and, indeed, European – energy market for political purposes.
The chief of the German Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, accused Russia of weaponizing its gas supply in an interview with German broadcaster Deutschlandfunk on Wednesday.
The dwindling gas supply from Russia is raising concerns that the German government may have to take control of the gas supply in the coming winter. As gas is also used for heating, demand is much higher in cold weather.
Experts, including German energy economist Claudia Kemfert, said that it is crucial for the country to start saving its gas now, in order to fill up its stocks before the winter.
Kemfert spoke out in favour of a scheme in which companies can apply for compensation for saving on gas, and for more help for households to save gas.
She warned that Germany was already running late with its efforts to save enough gas for the winter.
Households should also prepare for higher prices; according to the energy expert of the North-Rhine Westphalia consumer advice centre, Udo Sieverding, 1 kWh of gas could soon go up in price from around 5 cents to 25 cents.
German gas stocks are at 66.4% as of Tuesday. The government plans to reach 75% by September 1, 85% by October 1, and 95% by November 1, in order to avert a situation where households and industry would compete for the limited supply.
However, it is unclear how gas imports will continue. Russia has shown itself to be an unreliable source; “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin is playing a perfidious game,” said Economic Minister Robert Habeck.
Gas prices have soared after Russia cut gas supplies to Germany and other central European countries after threatening to earlier this week. Further
European gas prices rose 9%, trading close to their earlier all-time high after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Critics accuse the Russian government of using gas as a political weapon.
Russia has been cutting flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany, with it now operating at less than a fifth of its normal capacity.
Germany imports 55% of its gas from Russia and most of it comes through Nord Stream 1 – with the rest coming from land-based pipelines.
Russian energy firm Gazprom has sought to justify the latest cut by saying it was needed to allow maintenance work on a turbine.
The German government, however, said there was no technical reason for it to limit the supply.
Ukraine has accused Moscow of waging a “gas war” against Europe and cutting supplies to inflict “terror” on people.
The latest reduction in flows puts pressure on EU countries to reduce their dependence on Russian gaseven further, and will likely make it more difficult for them to replenish their gas supplies ahead of winter.
Since the invasion of Ukraine European leaders has held talks over how to reduce its dependence on Russian fossil fuels.
On Tuesday, theEuropean Unionagreed to cut gas use in case Russia halts supplies but some countries will have exemptions to avoid rationing.
EU members have now agreed to voluntarily reduce 15% of gas use between August and March.
However, the deal was watered down after previously not having exemptions.
The EU has said its aim of the deal is to make savings and store gas ahead of winter, warning that Russia is “continuously using energy supplies as a weapon”.
The voluntary agreement would become mandatory if supplies reach crisis levels.
The EU agreed in May to ban all Russian oil imports which come in by sea by the end of this year, but a deal over gas bans has taken longer.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February the price of wholesale gas has already soared, with a knock-on impact on consumer energy bills across the globe.
The Kremlin blames the price hike on Western sanctions, insisting it is a reliable energy partner and not responsible for the recent disruption to gas supplies.
While the UK would not be directly impacted by gas supply disruption, as it imports less than 5% of its gas from Russia, it would be affected by prices rising in the global markets as demand in Europe increases.
UK gas prices rose 7% on Wednesday, almost six times higher than a year ago, but still 20% below the peak seen in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
UK energy bills increased by an unprecedented £700 in April, and are expected to rise again to £3,244 a year for a typical household in October.
Gas prices have soared after Russia further cut gas supplies to Germany and other central European countries after threatening to earlier this week.
European gas prices rose 9%, trading close to their earlier all-time high after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Critics accuse the Russian government of using gas as a political weapon.
Russia has been cutting flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany, with it now operating at less than a fifth of its normal capacity.
Germany imports 55% of its gas from Russia and most of it comes through Nord Stream 1Â – with the rest coming from land-based pipelines.
Russian energy firm Gazprom has sought to justify the latest cut by saying it was needed to allow maintenance work on a turbine.
The German government, however, said there was no technical reason for it to limit the supply.
Ukraine has accused Moscow of waging a “gas war” against Europe and cutting supplies to inflict “terror” on people.
The latest reduction in flows puts pressure on EU countries to reduce their dependence on Russian gas even further, and will likely make it more difficult for them to replenish their gas supplies ahead of winter.
Since the invasion of Ukraine European leaders has held talks over how to reduce its dependence on Russian fossil fuels
On Tuesday, the European Union agreed to cut gas use in case Russia halts supplies but some countries will have exemptions to avoid rationing.
EU members have now agreed to voluntarily reduce 15% of gas use between August and March.
However, the deal was watered down after previously not having exemptions.
The EU has said its aim of the deal is to make savings and store gas ahead of winter, warning that Russia is “continuously using energy supplies as a weapon”.
The voluntary agreement would become mandatory if supplies reach crisis levels.
The EU agreed in May to ban all Russian oil imports which come in by sea by the end of this year, but a deal over gas bans has taken longer.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February the price of wholesale gas has already soared, with a knock-on impact on consumer energy bills across the globe.
The Kremlin blames the price hike on Western sanctions, insisting it is a reliable energy partner and not responsible for the recent disruption to gas supplies.
While the UK would not be directly impacted by gas supply disruption, as it imports less than 5% of its gas from Russia, it would be affected by prices rising in the global markets as demand in Europe increases.
UK gas prices rose 7% on Wednesday, almost six times higher than a year ago, but still 20% below the peak seen in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
UK energy bills increased by an unprecedented £700 in April, and are expected to rise again to £3,244 a year for a typical household in October.
It is likely to make it more difficult for EU countries to replenish their stores of gas before winter.
The Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which pumps gas from Russia to Germany, has been running well below capacity for weeks, and was completely shut down for a 10-day maintenance break earlier this month.
Russia supplied the EU with 40% of its gas last year, and the EU has accused Russia of using energy as a weapon.
The European Commission has urged countries to cut gas use by 15% over the next seven months after Russia warned it could curb or halt supplies altogether.
Under the proposals, the voluntary target could become mandatory in an emergency.
European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, has said the prospect of Russia cutting off all supplies to the EU is a “likely scenario”.
On Tuesday energy ministers will meet in Brussels in an attempt to sign off the plans.
But numerous opt-outs are expected amid resistance from some member states.
Wholesale gas prices have soared since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, with a knock-on impact on consumer energy bills.
Reacting to Gazprom’s announcement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this was “an overt gas war that Russia is waging against a united Europe – this is exactly how it should be perceived”.
Gazprom said the latest reduction in supply would begin at 04:00 GMT on Wednesday due to the “technical condition” of one of the last two operating turbines.
But a German economy ministry spokeswoman told AFP news agency: “According to the information we have there is no technical reason for a reduction of deliveries.”
The Kremlin maintains that it is a reliable energy partner, and blames Western sanctions for the recent disruption of gas supplies to the EU.
Gazprom says the delayed return – because of sanctions – of equipment serviced in Canada has forced it to keep the gas flow through Nord Stream 1 to just 40% of capacity.
“Our product, our rules. We don’t play by rules we didn’t create,” Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller has said.
The continued reduction in gas supply through Nord Stream 1 is likely to make it more difficult for countries to replenish their stores before winter, when gas usage is much higher.
Gazprom has cut gas supplies altogether to Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Poland, over their refusal to comply with a Kremlin order to pay their bills in roubles, instead of euros or dollars.
On a sweltering summer day in July, hundreds of Ukrainians try to rest on metal beds lined up in a basketball court-turned-shelter. Their tales of horror and hardship along with a few belongings are all they have left.
But with this safe haven being inside Russia, they are hesitant to share those stories.
Alexey Nechipurenko, 45, was maimed as Russian forces entered the southern port city of Mariupol. His foot was shot to pieces and his wife was killed before his eyes, he tells CNN.
But, as a Russian doctor tends his wounds, he insists Ukraine, not Russia, is to blame for his suffering.
“The Russians were just beginning to enter the city. Therefore, they just couldn’t actually have been on the side where we were,” he told CNN.
The basketball court shelter is in Taganrog, southern Russia, just 69 miles from Mariupol where Ukrainian soldiers and civilians held out for weeks in the Azovstal steel plant before Russia took full control of the city.
CNN was given exclusive access to the center set up to process some of the more than 2 million refugees estimated to have poured onto Russian soil since the invasion began on Feb. 24.
Human rights groups say Ukrainians are being “filtered” before being taken to the temporary shelters in Russia and any suspected of posing a threat are not allowed through.
And those who passed Russia’s first test and made it to Taganrog are reluctant to say too much.
“Now I’m here [in Russia] so please don’t press me, said a 30-year-old man from Mariupol who asked not to be identified and only wanted to be recorded talking to CNN with his back to the camera.
“I didn’t see who killed my relatives,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, they’re just a casualty of this conflict.”
Russia plans to annex more Ukrainian territory using a similar “playbook” to its takeover of Crimea, the US says.
Citing US intelligence, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Russia is already laying the groundwork for annexation.
Occupied regions of Ukraine could hold “sham” referenda on joining Russia as soon as September, he said.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 after a referendum which was widely viewed as illegitimate.
“We want to make it plain to the American people,” Mr Kirby told reporters. “Nobody is fooled by it. [Russian President Vladimir Putin] is dusting off the playbook from 2014.”
He accused Russia of installing illegitimate pro-Russian officials to run occupied regions of Ukraine, with the aim of organising referenda on becoming part of Russia.
The results of the votes would be used by Russia “to try to claim annexation of sovereign Ukrainian territory”, Mr Kirby said.
Russia has already installed its own regional and local officials in the parts of Ukraine it has occupied.
Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014 after a hastily-organised referendum – viewed as illegal by the international community, in which voters chose to join Russia.
Many supporters of Kyiv boycotted the vote and the campaign was neither free nor fair.
Similar votes held in other parts of Ukraine would almost certainly see a similar situation, with any opposition to joining Russia largely supressed.
Mr Kirby said he was “exposing” the Russian plans “so the world knows that any purported annexation is premeditated, illegal and illegitimate”, and promised there would be a quick response from the US and its allies.
The areas targeted for annexation include Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk, he said.
Russia plans to annex more Ukrainian territory using a similar “playbook” to its takeover of Crimea, the US says.
Citing US intelligence, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Russia is already laying the groundwork for annexation.
Occupied regions of Ukraine could hold “sham” referenda on joining Russia as soon as September, he said.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 after a referendum which was widely viewed as illegitimate.
“We want to make it plain to the American people,” Mr Kirby told reporters. “Nobody is fooled by it. [Russian President Vladimir Putin] is dusting off the playbook from 2014.”
He accused Russiaof installing illegitimate pro-Russian officials to run occupied regions of Ukraine, with the aim of organising referenda on becoming part of Russia.
The results of the votes would be used by Russia “to try to claim annexation of sovereign Ukrainian territory”, Mr Kirby said.
Russia has already installed its own regional and local officials in the parts of Ukraine it has occupied.
Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014 after a hastily-organised referendum – viewed as illegal by the international community, in which voters chose to join Russia.
Many supporters of Kyiv boycotted the vote and the campaign was neither free nor fair.
Similar votes held in other parts of Ukraine would almost certainly see a similar situation, with any opposition to joining Russia largely supressed.
Mr Kirby said he was “exposing” the Russian plans “so the world knows that any purported annexation is premeditated, illegal and illegitimate”, and promised there would be a quick response from the US and its allies.
The areas targeted for annexation include Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk, he said.
Ukraineplans a “million-strong army” equipped with Nato weapons to retake the south of the country from occupying Russians, the defence minister says.
Retaking the areas around the Black Sea coast was vital to the country’s economy, Oleksii Reznikov said.
However, the comments are more of a rallying cry than a concrete plan, says the BBC’s Joe Inwood in Kyiv.
The defence minister’s remarks come as Russia makes progress in taking territory in the eastern Donbas region.
An attack on a block of flats on Sunday killed at least 18 people – with more than 20 are feared buried under rubble.
Rescuers are still looking for survivors at the site of the five-storey building in Chasiv Yar, near the city of Kramatorsk, in Donetsk region which has been the focus of a Russian push.
In his interview with The Times newspaper, Mr Reznikov praised the UK for being “key” in the transition from providing Ukraine with Soviet-era weapons to Nato-standard air defence systems and ammunition.
He said weapons deliveries needed to be sped up.
“We need more, quickly, to save the lives of our soldiers. Each day we’re waiting for howitzers, we can lose a hundred soldiers,” he said.
“We have approximately 700,000 in the armed forces and when you add the national guard, police, border guard, we are around a million strong,” the defence minister said.
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS Image caption, Chasiv Yar: Bodies were recovered from the devastated apartment block
However, Dr Jack Watling, senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, cautioned against the figure.
“It’s not a million strong force that will be conducting a counter-attack,” Mr Watling told the BBC.
“Normally you would want operational surprise when you launch a counter-attack, so announcing it publicly is partly about forcing the Russians to have to commit resources more widely to guard against this threat.”
“This is pure terrorism!” Donetsk regional head Pavlo Kyrylenko said.
Mayor Vadym Lyakh said Slovyansk was being hit by Russian artillery salvoes from closer positions, as it became a frontline city.
He posted photos of Tuesday’s blaze on Facebook, describing massive shelling, and urging people to stay in shelters.
Russia is seeking to capture all of the eastern industrial Donbas area.
The area is made up of two regions, Luhansk and Donetsk. After recognising two rebel self-proclaimed statelets there, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.
Last week, Ukraine’s military said it had to pull out of Lysychansk, its last remaining stronghold in Luhansk, under intense Russian fire.
It said its troops were now strengthening fortifications to defend areas it holds in Donetsk, including Slovyansk.
Luhansk regional head Serhiy Haidai on Tuesday said that “heavy fighting is going at the edge of the Luhansk region near Lysychansk”.
“The enemy has deployed significant forces,” he said, adding that Russia was trying to send more of its forces across a river by building pontoon bridges.
Mr Haidai said the Russians were “sustaining heavy losses”.
The BBC has not been able to verify details of the latest attacks.
In other developments:
In Russian-occupied southern Ukraine grain is being sent for export to the Middle East from the Zaporizhzhia region, Russian media report. Yevgeny Balitsky, a Moscow-appointed official, told Tass news agency that agreements had been reached with buyers in Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia. He said a deal with Iran involved supplying 150,000 tonnes of Ukrainian grain
Turkish presidential adviser Ilnur Cevik told the BBC that Ankara may sell the grain carried in a Russian ship it detained over the weekend, and hand the proceeds to Kyiv, if proven to be Ukrainian. The Zhibek Zholy is carrying 7,000 tonnes of grain and had left Berdyansk, a Ukrainian port seized by Russia.
The foreign ministers of Finland and Sweden launched the process for their countries to join Nato at a ceremony in Brussels. But the parliaments of all 30 Nato members first have to ratify their accession, and Turkey is demanding the handover of more than 70 opposition exiles living in the Nordic countries. They are on a Turkish list of suspects with alleged “terrorist” links.
The Russian parliament’s lower house, the Duma, has backed a draft law allowing for “special measures” in industry to support the Russian military in Ukraine. The state would be able to enforce longer working hours and impose contracts on certain enterprises linked to what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
IMAGE SOURCE,AFP Image caption, The central market fire in Slovyansk on Tuesday
They were also seen carrying what looked like the body of one of the victims in a bag.
The DSNS says 38 people, including six children, were injured in the Russian strikes.
Maryna Martynenko, a DSNS spokeswoman in the Odesa region, told Ukrainian TV that the building’s external wall was damaged, and a nearby shop was set ablaze after the strike. Firefighters later put out the fire.
She said 60 rescuers were currently working at the site.
As many as 150 people are believed to have lived in the building.
The child killed at the holiday resort was a 12-year-old boy, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office.
Ukrainian officials said three missiles were launched from Russian warplanes over the Black Sea.
Odesa regional administration spokesman Serhiy Bratchuk said Soviet-era X-22 missiles were believed to have been used.
The city’s mayor, Gennadiy Trukhanov, told the BBC World Service’s Newshour there were no military installations or radar stations near Serhiyivka, despite the Russian defence ministry insisting there were.
The people of Odesa were “living their lives in fear” of further Russian attacks, he added.
Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, accused Russia of being a “terrorist country”.
“In response to defeats on the battlefields, they [Russians] are waging a war on civilians,” he said.
In March Moscow refocused its efforts on seizing Ukraine’s Donbas area after failing to take Kyiv and other cities.
Mr Putin still has the same goals as the ones he held at the start of the conflict, the US’s top intelligence officer Ms Haines said – to take most of Ukraine.
But, she says, Russia is unlikely to achieve that goal any time soon.
“We perceive a disconnect between Putin’s near-term military objectives in this area and his military’s capacity, a kind of mismatch between his ambitions and what the military is able to accomplish,” she told a US Commerce Department conference.
Since failing to achieve its initial goal of capturing Kyiv, Russia has focused on seizing territory in the eastern Donbas region – a large, industrial area where Mr Putin falsely claims Ukraine has carried out a genocide against Russian speakers.
Russian forces have made gains there, recently taking control of the city of Severodonetsk, but progress has been slow and Ukrainian forces have put up strong resistance.
Long-running war
In her first public comments since May on the US intelligence assessment of the war, Ms Haines suggested Russia’s invasion would grind on “for an extended period of time” and that “the picture remains pretty grim”.
She said intelligence agencies see three scenarios of how the war could play out, the most likely being a slow moving conflict with Russia making “incremental gains, with no breakthrough”.
The other, less likely possibilities include a major Russian breakthrough, or a stabilisation of the frontlines with Ukraine achieving small gains.
It may mean Moscow becomes more dependent on “asymmetric tools” to target its enemies; including cyber attacks, efforts to control energy resources and even nuclear weapons.
Ms Haines’ comments came on Wednesday after Nato leaders pledged to stand behind Ukraine for as long as it takes -Â boosting their troop presence across Europe and inviting Finland and Sweden to join the group.
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg called it the alliance’s biggest overhaul since the Cold War, with US President Joe Biden vowing that Nato would be “strengthened in all directions across every domain – land, air and sea”.
Responding to the possibility of the two Nordic countries becoming Nato members, Mr Putin accused the military alliance of deliberately escalating tension.
“If Nato troops and infrastructure are deployed, [Russia] will be compelled to respond,” Mr Putin said while on a trip to Turkmenistan.
Meanwhile, the UK government is to provide a further £1bn ($1.2bn) in military aid to Ukraine, a near-doubling of its support so far. Only the US has provided more military aid to Ukraine than the UK.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky says his country needs around $5bn (£4.12bn) a month to fund the war against Russia.
Russia has defaulted on its overseas debt for the first time in more than a century after missing a Sunday deadline, reports suggest.
Russia has the money to make a $100m (£81.4m) payment and is willing to pay, but sanctions made it impossible to get the sum to international creditors.
The Kremlin had been determined to avoid the default, which is a major blow to the nation’s prestige.
The $100m interest payment was due on 27 May. Russia says the money was sent to Euroclear, a bank which would then distribute the payment to investors.
But that payment has been stuck there, according to Bloomberg News, and creditors have not received it.
Meanwhile, some Taiwanese holders of Russian bonds denominated in euros have not received interest payments, according to the Reuters news agency, which cited two sources.
The money had not arrived within 30 days of the due date, that is, Sunday evening, and so is considered a default.
Euroclear would not say if the payment had been blocked, but said it adhered to all sanctions, introduced following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Although default is a symbolic blow, it will have few immediate practical consequences for Russia.
Defaulting nations usually find it impossible to borrow any more money, but Russia is already in effect barred from borrowing in Western markets by sanctions.
In any case, it is reportedly earning about $1bn a day from fossil fuel exports, and Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in April the country had no plans to borrow more.
‘Legacy’ problem
The default will trigger repayments on a large chunk of Russia’s debt, according to Chris Weafer, former chief strategist at Russia largest bank Sberbank-CIB and chief executive at Moscow-based consultancy Macro Advisory.
“Some parts of that debt will now become automatically due because there will be early repayment clauses in all debt instruments so if you default on one it usually triggers the immediate demand for payment on the other debts, so Russia could certainly face immediate debt repayment of about $20bn at this stage,” he told the BBC’s Today programme.
The last time Russia defaulted on its foreign debt was in 1918, during the Bolshevik Revolution when the new communist leader Vladimir Lenin refused to pay the debts of the Russian Empire.
Russia’s last debt default of any kind was in 1998 as the country was rocked by the rouble crisis during the chaotic end of Boris Yeltsin’s regime. At the time Moscow failed to keep up payments on its domestic bonds but managed not to default on its overseas debt.
Russia has seemed on an inevitable path to default since sanctions were first imposed by the US and European Union following the invasion of Ukraine.
These restricted the country’s access to the international banking networks which would process payments from Russia to investors around the world.
Mr Weafer said that while the default would have no short or medium-term impact on Russia, because it is reaping revenue from selling high-priced commodities such as oil, it would create a “legacy” problem if the situation with Ukraine and the resultant sanctions improves.
“This is the sort of action that will hang over the economy and make recovery much more difficult when we get to that stage,” he said.
Takahide Kiuchi, executive economist at the Nomura Research Institute, told the BBC he did not expect a default to have a major impact on the global markets because investors had been expecting it.
However, he believes the combination of a foreign debt default and international sanctions will have a severe effect on Russia’s economy.
“In the short-term the Russian economy is expected to go into recession, contracting by around 10% this year,” Mr Kiuchi said.
“Looking further forward, the country will struggle to grow its economy as it may not be able to borrow money from overseas for decades, possibly up to 30 years.”
The Russian government has said it wants to make all of its payments on time, and up until now it had succeeded.
About $40bn of Russia’s debts are denominated in dollars or euros, with around half held outside the country.
Default seemed inevitable when the US Treasury decided not to renew the special exemption in sanctions rules allowing investors to receive interest payments from Russia, which expired on 25 May.
The Kremlin now appears to have accepted this inevitability too, decreeing on 23 June stating that all future debt payments would be made in roubles through a Russian bank, the National Settlements Depository, even when contracts state they should be in dollars or other international currencies.
Mr Siluanov admitted foreign investors would “not be able to receive” the payments, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.
Because Russia wants to pay and has plenty of money to do it, he denied that this amounts to a genuine default, which usually occur when governments refuse to pay, or their economies are so weak that they cannot find the money.
“Everyone in the know understands that this is not a default at all,” RIA Novosti quoted him. “This whole situation looks like a farce.”
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Meanwhile, Mr Weafer, who is based in Moscow, said that life was more or less operating as normal despite sanctions and Western companies withdrawing from Russia.
“If you’re in Moscow right now frankly, if you weren’t reading the newspapers, you’d see there’s been a price increase but otherwise life is as it was before February 24.
“In March and April there was a lot of concern that products would disappear, that factories would not be able to get components or materials to continue operating and we could be looking therefore at a severe drop in employment or a rise in unemployment by the summer [or] early autumn. That situation has improved,” he added.
“We’ve seen alternative import routes opening via Kazakhstan and Turkey, the government has promoted what they call a parallel import scheme so effectively a lot of products that were blocked in March and April are now starting to reappear, albeit at a higher price.”
Ukrainian forces in Severodonetsk have been told to withdraw, according to the top regional official.
The city is the focus of Russia’s invasion as Moscow tries to take control of large parts of east Ukraine.
“Remaining in positions that have been relentlessly shelled for months just doesn’t make sense,” Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai said.
Russian forces have made advances in recent days and have nearly encircled the city, and its twin city Lysychansk.
“They have received orders to retreat to new positions… and from there continue their operations,” Mr Haidai told Ukrainian television.
“There is no point in staying in positions which have been destroyed over several months just for the sake of staying,” he said.
The city’s entire infrastructure has been completely destroyed, Mr Haidai added, with over 90% of houses shelled and 80% of them critically damaged.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began in February, has been focused on Severodonetsk and its twin city Lysychansk for several weeks.
They are the last remaining Ukrainian positions in the Luhansk region, one of two regions which make up the eastern Donbas.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has falsely claimed that Russian speakers in the Donbas have been the victims of genocide – one of the key justifications he uses for invading Ukraine.
On Thursday, Russian forces took control of more territory to the south of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, raising fears that Ukrainian forces will soon be encircled there.
“There were massive air and artillery strikes in Donbas. The occupier’s goal here is unchanged, they want to destroy the entire Donbas step-by-step,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly video address.
He also repeated his calls for Western leaders to speed up the delivery of heavy artillery to his troops.
“We again and again emphasize the acceleration of arms deliveries to Ukraine. What is quickly needed is parity on the battlefield in order to halt this diabolical armada and push it beyond Ukraine’s borders.” he said.
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS Image caption, Ukrainian troops have been trying to hold the twin cities against a relentless Russian assault
Russiahas directed much of its attention to Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, which are the final Ukrainian outposts in the Luhansk region, and in recent days Moscow’s forces appear to be making some progress in their attempt to encircle Ukrainian troops there.
Regional Governor Serhiy Haidai said on Thursday that two key settlements to the south of the cities had been captured and suggested that troops in the town of Zolote, which has been on the front line of fighting since 2014, may be forced to retreat.
In its daily update, the UK’s ministry of defence said that Russian forces have advanced over 5km (3 miles) towards the southern perimeter of Lysychansk this week.
“Some Ukrainian units have withdrawn, probably to avoid being encircled. Russia’s improved performance in this sector is likely a result of recent unit reinforcement and heavy concentration of fire,” UK officials said.
On Wednesday, Mr Haidai said Russian shelling has “significantly destroyed infrastructure and housing” in Lysychansk.
He added that Severodonetsk is also shelled “every day”, despite Moscow’s forces having seized much of the city. Hundreds of civilians remain trapped there, with many of them seeking shelter in the sprawling Azot chemical plant.
But Mr Arestovych said fighting in both cities had slowed significantly after Ukraine inflicted heavy losses on Russian forces, which he claimed are now made up of significant numbers of conscripted troops. The BBC cannot verify this claim and Russia denies using conscripts in the war.
“It’s like two boxers grappling with each other in the 18th round of a bout and barely able to move things forward. This operation started on 14 April and has been going on for nearly 80 days,” he said.
Elsewhere, Russia resumed its shelling of Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv on Wednesday morning.
Many civilians had started to return to the city after Russian forces were pushed back across the border, but fears have grown that Moscow could be planning a fresh assault in the region.
Meanwhile, Russia accused Ukraine of using drones to attack an oil refinery in the Rostov region, close to the Ukrainian border.
“As a result of terrorist actions from the western border of the Rostov region, two unmanned aerial vehicles struck at the technological facilities of Novoshakhtinsk,” representatives of the plant said in a statement.
Social media footage appeared to show the unmanned vehicles smashing into the refinery in a rare direct assault on Russian territory. Officials in Kyiv have yet to comment on the attack.
And near the occupied city of Kherson, the pro-Russian administration accused “Ukrainian saboteurs” of attempting to carry out the “failed assassination” of the Moscow appointed head of a town.
The Russian state news agency Tass claimed the head of Chernobaevka, Yuri Turulev, was injured in an attempted car bombing by Ukrainian partisan forces.
It is difficult to determine the extent of the pro-Kyiv insurgency in Kherson, but several attacks have been reported in the city and a dedicated government department, the Centre for National Resistance, has been set up to coordinate partisan activity.
The intense fighting comes as EU leaders are expected to approve Ukraine’s application for candidate status of the bloc.
