Updates: African leaders eye peace mission to Ukraine, Russia
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts are willing to welcome African leaders to discuss a potential peace plan.
This blog is now closed, thank you for joining us. These were the updates on the Russia-Ukraine war on Tuesday, May 16.
This blog is now closed, thank you for joining us. These were the updates on the Russia-Ukraine war on Tuesday, May 16.
- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy have agreed to welcome a group of African leaders to discuss a potential peace plan.
- Ukraine says its troops have retaken about 20 square kilometres (7.7 square miles) around Bakhmut but cautioned that Russian forces are continuing to advance inside the city.
- Russian shelling in a Kharkiv village has killed at least two people, according to the top Ukrainian official in the region.
- After the CIA published a video encouraging Russians to make contact via a secure internet channel, the Kremlin says its agencies are tracking Western spy activity.
Zelenskyy praises military’s claim to shooting down Russian Kinzhal missiles
Ukrainian President said Volodymyr Zelenskyy has praised the military’s claim to have shot down six Russian Kinzhal missiles in a single night, thwarting a weapon Moscow has touted as a next-generation hypersonic missile that was all but unstoppable.
“A year ago, we were not able to shoot down most of the terrorists’ missiles, especially ballistic ones,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in praising the military’s claim to the Council of Europe rights body in Iceland by video link.
“And I am asking one thing now. If we are able to do this, is there anything we can’t do?”
The meeting of European leaders over two days was to focus on ways to hold Russia to account for its war, officials said.
Ukraine, Russia face off on June 6 at World Court over downed flight MH17
Ukraine and Russia will face off before the United Nations’ top court on June 6, when judges will hear Ukraine’s claim that Moscow violated a UN treaty by supporting pro-Russian separatists who were identified by a Dutch court as being responsible for the 2014 downing of flight MH17.
In November last year, a Dutch court convicted two Russian men and a Ukrainian national in absentia of murder for their role in the shooting down of Flight MH17 with the loss of 298 passengers and crew, and handed them life sentences.
Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 departed from Amsterdam and was bound for Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, as fighting raged between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces, the precursor of this year’s conflict.
The Dutch ruling also found that Russia had “overall control” over the forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic in Eastern Ukraine from mid-May 2014.
The International Court of Justice, as the World Court is formally known, has set four days of hearings on June 6, 8, 12 and 14 to hear both sides in the case.
This case, filed in 2017, is one of two Ukraine brought against Russia at the court. The other case, filed just after the 2022 Russian invasion, centres on Moscow’s claim they invaded Ukraine to prevent genocide. It generally takes several years for a case at the ICJ to reach the stage of hearings on the merits of the case.
Hungary blocks tranche of EU off-budget military support for Ukraine
Hungary did not approve the disbursement of the next tranche of military support for Ukraine provided under the EU’s European Peace Facility (EPF).
The EPF, created in 2021, is an off-budget instrument aimed at enhancing the EU’s ability to prevent conflicts, build peace and strengthen international security.
“Hungary does not agree with the fact that the European Union, along with other existing tools, uses the European Peace Facility solely with regard to Ukraine as this does not allow sufficient funds to be channelled to promote the EU’s interests in other areas,” the government spokesman’s office said.
It said other areas where the funds could be used included the Balkans or North Africa.
The EU has provided a total of about 3.6 billion euros ($3.9bn) for military support for Ukraine so far under the EPF.
Hungary has been in a dispute with Brussels, as the bloc has suspended any payments of EU recovery funds until Budapest’s nationalist government implements reforms to improve judicial independence and tackle corruption.
Russia dismisses Ukraine claim it shot down Kinzhal hypersonic missiles
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has dismissed Ukraine’s claim that it shot down six Kinzhal hypersonic missiles overnight, saying Moscow had not launched that many, RIA news agency said.
RIA quoted Shoigu as saying Kyiv claimed to have shot down three times as many missiles as Russia had actually fired. His remarks, as cited by RIA, did not appear to refer specifically to the latest attack.
UK, Netherlands pledge fighter jet support for Ukraine
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte have pledged to build an “international coalition” to provide fighter jet support for Ukraine.
“The Prime Minister and Prime Minister Rutte agreed they would work to build [an] international coalition to provide Ukraine with combat air capabilities, supporting with everything from training to procuring F16 jets,” a spokesman for Sunak’s Downing Street office said in a statement.
US expresses cautious support for African peace mission to Ukraine, Russia
White House National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby has said the US would support any third-party proposal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine “as long as it can be seen as credible”.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had agreed to meet a group of African leaders to discuss a potential peace plan for the conflict.
“We would support any third-party peace proposal as long as it can be seen as credible, enforceable and sustainable. And for those three things to be the case, it’s got to be supported by President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people,” Kirby said, referring to the African proposal on Ukraine.
“That means that the Ukrainians have to be 100 percent behind it… It has to start with the UN Charter being a foundational element. And it has to start with President Zelenskyy’s support and his 10-point proposal [being] a part of that framework.”
Unexploded bombs risk making Ukraine farmland unusable: Red Cross
Unexploded bombs, shells and mines not only threaten human life in Ukraine but also risk rendering swaths of fertile farmland unusable for years, the Red Cross has said.
Remnants of the war that has been raging since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, as well as the drawn-out conflict that began eight years earlier with Russia’s annexation of Crimea, have left Ukraine among the most mine-littered countries in the world.
The International Committee of the Red Cross warned that mines and unexploded shells in the Ukrainian countryside could have serious long-term implications for agriculture, a vital part of the country’s economy.
The diminished production capacity would be a huge blow domestically but also at the global level, as Ukraine is one of the world’s main grain exporters.
Ukraine calls on figure skating body to impose Russian full ban
The athletes commission of the Ukrainian Figure Skating Federation has called on the sport’s international governing body to back a full ban against Russian figure skaters and officials until the end of the Ukraine invasion.
Figure skater Anna Khnychenkova, chair of the Ukrainian federation’s athletes commission, said Russians’ participation “in any status or form” in events sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU) was unacceptable.
In the wake of the invasion, most international sport federations – including ISU – adopted recommendations by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ban athletes from Russia and Belarus.
But in March, the IOC issued new guidelines for a gradual return to international competitions by Russian and Belarusian athletes as neutrals. IOC President Thomas Bach said their participation “works” despite the war in Ukraine.
US condemns arrest of former employee of its mission in Russia
The US Department of State has said it “strongly condemns” the reported arrest of Robert Shonov, a former employee of the United States’s mission in Russia, calling allegations he illegally collaborated with foreigners “wholly without merit”.
Russian state news agency TASS reported on Monday that Shonov had been detained in the far eastern city of Vladivostok but was being held in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, usually reserved for serious crimes, including espionage.
Shonov, a Russian national, was employed by the US Consulate General in Vladivostok for more than 25 years until Russia, in 2021, ordered the termination of the US mission’s local staff, Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement on Tuesday.
At the time of his arrest, Shonov was employed by a company contracted to provide services to the US embassy in Moscow and his role was to compile summaries of Russian media reports, Miller said, adding that this arrangement complied with Russia’s laws and regulations.
“His being targeted under the ‘confidential cooperation’ statute highlights the Russian Federation’s blatant use of increasingly repressive laws against its own citizens,” Miller said.
The US consulate in Vladivostok has been closed since December 2020, amid fraught relations between Washington and Moscow, which worsened further after Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
US bill to ban uranium imports from Russia passes House committee
A bill banning Russian uranium imports to the United States has gained momentum by passing a committee in the US House of Representatives.
After Russia invaded Ukraine last year, the United States banned imports of its oil and imposed a price cap with other Western countries on sea-borne exports of its crude and oil products, but it has not banned imports of its uranium.
The US imported about 14 percent of its uranium from Russia in 2021, compared with 35 percent from Kazakhstan and 15 percent from Canada, according to the US Energy Information Administration. The United States was the source of about 5 percent of uranium used domestically that year, the EIA said.
“The war in Ukraine has made it abundantly clear we cannot be at the whims of Russia for our fuel supply,” said Representative Jeff Duncan, the chair of the committee focusing on energy, climate and grid security. “It should be a bipartisan, national security objective to wean the United States industry off Russian uranium imports.
A similar bill has been referred to the energy committee in the US Senate. Before becoming law, the legislation would have to pass both chambers of Congress and be signed by President Joe Biden.
European leaders focus on cost of Russia’s war on Ukraine
Ways to hold Russia to account for its war against Ukraine, including keeping a tally of losses and damage inflicted by Moscow’s forces, are the focus of talks as European leaders meet in Iceland for a two-day summit.
“A big topic will be the accountability of Russia for the crime of aggression it is constantly committing by waging war in Ukraine,” President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen told reporters.
The leaders are expected to approve a new Register of Damages, a mechanism to record and document evidence and claims of damage, loss or injury incurred as a result of the Russian invasion.
Russia has denied deliberately targeting civilians in bombing Ukrainian cities, although dozens of town and cities have been laid to waste by its air raids and artillery since the invasion began in February last year.
Colombian man sentenced to prison for ‘fake news’ about Russian troops: Report
A Colombian man has been sentenced to five years and two months in prison for spreading “fake news” about the actions of Russian armed forces in Ukraine, independent Russian news outlet Mediazona reported on Tuesday.
In a rare case of Russia applying its war censorship laws against a foreigner, Alberto Enrique Giraldo Saray was found guilty of disseminating fake news about the Russian army.
This was a law passed last year that has been used to crack down on journalists, human rights advocates and others who voice opposition to what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
The charge carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison and up to $60,000 in fines.
Giraldo Saray’s trial at the Golovinsky District Court of Moscow was held behind closed doors, Mediazona reported. It did not say if the man arrested in April 2022 pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Russian business daily Kommersant reported last year that Giraldo Saray lived in Moscow for 20 years and holds a Russian passport.
US charges former Apple Inc employee with attempt to steal technology, flee to China
The US Department of Justice has said it charged a former Apple Inc engineer with attempting to steal the firm’s technology related to autonomous systems, including self-driving cars, and then fleeing to China.
The case was among five announced on Tuesday aimed at countering alleged efforts to illicitly acquire American technology by nations including Russia, Iran and China.
Two of the cases involved what Department of Justice officials called procurement networks created to help Russia’s military and intelligence services obtain sensitive technology.
The United States and a coalition of 37 other countries have imposed export controls on Russia over the past year in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
German exports to Russia’s neighbours rise, fuelling concerns about sanctions evasion
Exports from Germany to countries bordering Russia have risen again in the first quarter, fuelling concerns that re-exportation of goods from neighbouring states is helping Russians circumvent sanctions imposed over Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
The value of German exports to Russia itself slumped by more than 47 percent in January-March compared with the same period a year earlier, reflecting tough restrictions on trade imposed by the European Union and other Western powers.
But exports from Germany to Kyrgyzstan rose some 949 percent, to $187.14m, a Reuters analysis based on data from the German statistics office shows.
Although they remain relatively modest in value, German exports to Georgia rose by 92 percent, while those to Kazakhstan rose 136 percent, to Armenia 172 percent and to Tajikistan 154 percent.
The surge in trade, which also rose sharply last year following Russia’s February 24, 2002 invasion of Ukraine, will reinforce concerns that sanctioned goods are still ending up in Russia after being sold on by traders in next-door states.
IRC calls for grain deal to be renewed
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) calls for the Black Sea grain deal to be renewed as it risks further food market instability.
The grain from Ukraine and Russia represents as much as 90 percent of imports for countries in East Africa, which are currently experiencing a severe food security crisis.
Shashwat Saraf, East Africa emergency director at the IRC said, “Shortages of food in the system and lack of affordable fertiliser continues to push up prices, making it difficult for families in countries like Somalia to predict if they will be able to afford a meal the next day.
“Constructive extension of the grain deal means bringing in more food into the global system and as a result, helping to lower soaring costs and to maintain market stability.”
Kazakhstan and Russia establish gas pipeline route
Kazakhstan and Russia have established a route for a future gas pipeline to support shipments between the two countries and to China, Kazakhstan’s energy minister said.
The pipeline would help Russia boost sales in Asia while ensuring that Kazakhstan secures supplies for its central, northern and eastern regions.
“The issue of building a gas pipeline from Russia through the northern territories of Kazakhstan to China is being discussed, the route has been preliminarily determined, the conditions for the construction of this gas pipeline are being discussed,” Kazakhstan Energy Minister Almasadam Satkaliyev said.
Russia has been discussing a possible gas union with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to support shipments between the three countries and other energy buyers.
EU regrets Georgia’s decision to resume flights
The EU said it regretted that Georgia was resuming flights to Russia at a time when the bloc has closed its airspace to Russian planes in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
“This latest decision by Georgia’s authorities raises concerns in terms of Georgia’s EU path,” EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano said.
Ukraine reports gains around Bakhmut
Ukrainian forces have taken back about 20sq km (7.5sq miles) of territory from Russian forces around Bakhmut in recent days, Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said.
“In the last few days, our troops liberated around 20 square kilometers (7.7 square miles) in the north and south of the outskirts of Bakhmut. At the same time, the enemy is advancing in some measure inside Bakhmut itself and is completely destroying the town with artillery,” she wrote on Telegram.
“In the current situation, our troops are doing their best and even more. The fact that the defence of Bakhmut lasts for so many months and there are advances in certain areas is the strength of our fighters.”
Draft EU sanctions proposal cautious about hitting China
A draft proposal for a new package of EU sanctions on Russia says “alternative measures” should be considered before blocking trade with third countries, a document seen by the Reuters news agency read.
The proposal comes after Germany expressed concern last week about any possible future restrictions on trade with China.
The new draft would make sanctioning third countries more difficult after a new paragraph was added saying that before making a proposal to include any third country, alternative measures should also be considered, such as individual listing.
Ukrainian official condemns Georgian decision to resume flights to Moscow
Head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, slams Georgia’s decision to resume direct flights to Russia from May 20, after Russia lifted a flight ban last week.
On Twitter, Yermak wrote, “Georgia allowed one more airline to operate direct flights to Russia. Georgian Airways, and earlier “Azimuth”. Georgian people constantly show solidarity with Ukraine. We have a common enemy that has been killing Georgians since the ’90s and then in 2008, and since 2014 it has been killing Ukrainians.”
“But some seem to be trying to ignore the rocket attacks on Kyiv, the destroyed Maryinka, those killed in Buch, Irpen, Izyum, the abduction of children … Some seem to have forgotten the tragedy in Gori,” he said.
Грузія дозволила ще одній авіакомпанії виконувати прямі авіарейси до росії. Georgian Airways, а раніше і «Азимут».
🇬🇪 народ постійно демонструє солідарність з 🇺🇦. У нас спільний ворог, який з 90-х років, а потім 2008-го вбивав грузинів, а з 2014 він вбиває українців.
— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) May 16, 2023
Denmark to strengthen ties with Nordic neighbours amid Russia threat
Denmark says it aims to strengthen ties with other Nordic countries to protect infrastructure and counter Russia’s threat in the Arctic and Baltic Sea region.
Copenhagen called for increased joint military exercises and coordination of defence plans with its Nordic neighbours.
“With Finland’s accession to NATO and Sweden on the way, there is a historic opportunity for us to move closer together in a situation where all the Baltic Sea countries, except Russia, are members of the same defence alliance,” Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in a speech.
The strategy also calls for closer diplomatic ties in Moldova, West Balkans and Georgia to counter Russian influence.
Russia undecided on renewing grain deal: Kremlin
Russia says it is still undecided on renewing the Black Sea grain export deal, which is set to expire on May 18.
“There are a lot of unanswered questions regarding our part of the deal. … Now we have to make a decision,” Peskov told reporters.
Russia has repeatedly threatened to withdraw from the deal, saying obstacles remain on its exports of food and fertiliser.
Russia has laid out a list of conditions for it to agree to an extension, including allowing the Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank) to reconnect to Swift, the international electronic payment system.
Turkey, a mediator in the grain export talks, expressed optimism that a deal could be reached. During recent talks in Istanbul, its defence minister, Hulusi Akar, said: “We are heading towards an agreement on the extension of the grain deal.”
Putin gives 15th-century icon to Russian Orthodox Church
Putin has decided to hand over The Trinity, a 15th-century painting considered one of the holiest and most artistically important Russian icons, from a museum to the Russian Orthodox Church because of its importance to believers, the Kremlin’s spokesman says.
Andrei Rublyov’s artwork, displayed for nearly a century in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, is thought to have been painted to honour St Sergius of Radonezh in Sergiyev Posad near Moscow.
The Moscow Patriarchate said in a statement that it would be displayed for a year at Christ the Saviour Cathedral in central Moscow before returning to Sergiyev Posad.
Peskov told reporters: “This concerns a large number of believers in our country, for whom this is a very sacred object. For these, our believers, of course, hiding it in a museum doesn’t fulfil their desire.”
Two people killed in shelling in Kharkiv: Governor
Two people have been killed in Russian shelling in the village of Dvorichna in Kharkiv, the top Ukrainian official in the region says.
“Unfortunately, two civilians – a man and a woman – were killed as a result of artillery shelling in the village of Dvorichna in the Kupyan district,” Governor Oleg Synegubov said on Telegram. “Another man received shrapnel wounds and was hospitalised. Yesterday evening, the enemy massively shelled the city of Vovchansk, Chuguyiv District.
“At least three residential buildings, farm buildings, a local hospital building were damaged, [and] several shells hit an open area. In the village of Tyshchenkovka, Kupyan district, as a result of shelling from multiple rocket launchers, at least four residential buildings and commercial buildings were damaged, and fires broke out.”
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 447
Click here for a roundup of the key events from day 447 of the war.
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