DIRECT. War in Ukraine: Russia shuns the G20 but claims not to be isolated

Inflation, which soared in Russia to a 20-year high, continued to decline in June, still reaching 15.9% year on year, according to data from the Rosstat statistics agency. . Food prices were still the most affected by the acceleration in prices, increasing by 19.1% year on year in June, in particular basic products such as sugar (+48%), cereals (+35% ), pasta (+28%) and butter (+26%).

“Uniper suffers outflows of the order of several tens of millions of euros per day. This situation is no longer tenable for long,” laments the CEO of the German energy giant, Klaus-Dieter Maubach. The energy company, which was Russian Gazprom’s largest customer in Ukraine before the war, has been hit hard by the reduction in Russian deliveries since mid-June.

If nothing is done Uniper “could lose up to ten billion euros” by “the end of the year”, fears Dieter Maubach.

The Russian assets frozen in Switzerland amounted to 6.7 billion Swiss francs (an equivalent amount in euros), reports the Swiss Ministry of the Economy in a tweet, specifying that there are also fifteen real estate properties which have been blocked.

French exports to Russia fell from 500 million euros in April 2021 to 100 million in April 2022, illustrating the consequences of the war in Ukraine, according to a study published by Customs. Before the war, France mainly exported “medium-high technology” products in aeronautics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, information or automobiles. In 2021, these sales reached 6.3 billion euros.

“Further use of the sanctions policy can lead to even more serious, not to exaggerate, even catastrophic consequences for the global energy market,” warned the Russian president. “Sanctions against Russia cause much more damage precisely to the countries that impose them,” he said again, a phrase he repeats at will, noting the surge in energy prices in the Western countries.

The British competition watchdog (CMA) has opened an in-depth investigation into the fuel market, the prices of which are soaring, worried about a growing gap between the price of crude oil and those of petrol or diesel at the exit of refineries.

The reasons behind these exploding costs are due to the increase in demand after the end of health restrictions, when certain refining capacities had been shut down during the pandemic, but also the consequences of the war in Ukraine and the sanctions on Russia, a major exporter of refined products, according to the CMA.

“Russia was so isolated that Lavrov left the conference at midday, after speaking,” said French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna. “We were anticipating a meeting with different dividing lines, but […] Russia found itself isolated, its responsibility was pointed out, even by certain countries which one would have thought could qualify things and give it support. »

“The G7 plan to boycott Russia at the G20 has failed. No one supported Western regimes,” spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy Maria Zakharova said on Telegram, further denying that the head of Russian diplomacy Sergey Lavrov shunned meetings, and rejecting the minister’s accusations. German Foreign Office that Moscow has no “desire for dialogue”.

‘Vkusno i Totchka’, the chain that took over McDonald’s restaurants in Russia in June, is facing a growing shortage of fries due to Western sanctions against Moscow, the business news site reports. RBK. According to the group, the 2021 harvest in Russia of potatoes intended for the manufacture of French fries has been poor, leading to a shortage and “the importation from foreign markets (…) has become impossible” due to Western sanctions put in place against Moscow as a result of the Russian offensive against Ukraine.

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

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

The transit of Russian gas via Ukraine fell in June to its historic low, ie 334 million cubic meters per day, according to the operator of the Ukrainian gas pipelines OGTSOU which denounces the “gas blackmail” of Moscow.

He criticizes the Russian group Gazprom “for only exploiting one seventh of the capacities of the Ukrainian gas pipelines, and for not even using the quotas reserved and paid under its contract with OGTSOU”.

The transit of Russian gas via Ukraine fell in June to its lowest historical level, or 334 million cubic meters per day, announces the operator of Ukrainian gas pipelines OGTSOU, denouncing the “gas blackmail” of Russia. He criticizes the Russian group Gazprom “for only exploiting one seventh of the capacities of the Ukrainian gas pipelines and for not even using the quotas reserved and paid under its contract with OGTSOU”. However, underlines the operator, “alternative routes” would make it possible to send much larger volumes to Western Europe and to completely replace transit by the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, currently used at 40% of its capacity by Russia. .

At the same time as the announcement of the destruction of a stockpile of Russian ammunition, the Russian army announced that it had destroyed British Harpoon anti-ship missiles. According to the spokesman of the Russian presidency, it is the result of a strike carried out from the sea.

In the Donetsk region, the Russian army advances towards the city of Siversk. A Ukrainian soldier evokes “partial successes” for the occupier.

The Ukrainian army reportedly destroyed a Russian ammunition depot in Nova Kakhovka, in the Kherson region, near the Black Sea. Local authorities add that “several dozen” Russian soldiers are said to have died in the operation carried out in this occupied city.

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

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

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

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said the country would reopen its embassy in Kyiv on July 11 and send a new ambassador, Peter Van De Velde, to represent Belgium in Ukraine.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Russia of playing “hunger games” with the world in a speech at a G20 meeting in Bali.

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

The European Investment Bank, the lending arm of the EU, offered this loan of 1.5 billion euros to Kyiv. The commission guarantees EIB loans for operations outside the EU, with provisions generally amounting to 9% of the total financing. But in this case, the commission wants provisions at 70% of the total, as it had done with a previous operation of 1 billion euros for Ukraine.

The situation in occupied Severodonetsk “is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe” and the city is largely looted by Russian troops, according to the Ukrainian governor of Lugansk, Serhai Haidai. He claims that 80% of housing in the city has been destroyed or damaged. Now, some people try to come back to get things, but more and more often… they find an empty apartment, even if it survived.

Furthermore, there is no centralized water, gas or electricity supply. Ditto for wastewater treatment plants and pumping stations. According to estimates, 15,000 civilians could still be in this city.

An elected municipal official in Moscow, Alexei Gorinov, is sentenced to 7 years in prison for having denounced the Russian assault on Ukraine. Judge Olessia Mendeleeva found the 60-year-old man guilty of “disseminating clearly false information” about the Russian army using “his official duties” and of having done so as part of an organized group motivated by “political hatred”.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock criticizes Russia, which is “not interested”, according to her, in a dialogue with the G20 after the departure of the head of Russian diplomacy during a meeting. The departure of Sergei Lavrov at a time when she criticized Russia for the war it started “underlines all the more clearly that he is not interested in international cooperation or in exchanges with other partners” within of the G20.

In an interview with the American channel CNN, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says that “the Ukrainians are not ready to give up their land. But he acknowledges that currently Russia occupies “virtually the entire Luhansk region”. He also asks the West to continue to arm his country, for American President Joe Biden to go there to send a message to Russia, and deplores the fact that his country cannot join NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.