Jun 14 Buonasera Mag
Day 111 Ukraine, weapons for Ukraine, 15,000 Russian millionaires, Russian economy, grain, gas, Pope Francis, Sweeney Diary, Kissinger, WTF
Catching up…
EA Worldview’s Ukraine Up-date- hop over to Scott’s amazing hourly Ukraine up-date page. I’ll fill in with some bits and bobs.
Stories we’re following…
Russia says it will give Ukrainian fighters in a chemical plant in Severodonetsk a chance to surrender. They say they will open a humanitarian corridor on Wednesday to evacuate some of the 500 civilians and fighters trapped there.
Six people have been injured by shelling in Klintsky (50km) on the border with Ukraine, the Russian regional governor has said.
Ukraine used trucks, ships to export corn dodging Russian blockade. A ship carrying 18,000 tons of Ukrainian corn reached a Spanish port on June 13. Ukraine shipped corn to Poland using trucks and then loaded it onto a ship at Poland’s Baltic Sea port of Swinoujscie.
President Zelensky said Ukraine won't shell residential areas in Russia if the West provides it with long-range weapons. “We are not terrorists,” he said, adding that Ukraine needs the weapons to liberate its territory.
Ukraine to request 1,000 howitzers, 500 tanks from NATO. Ukraine is also planning to request 200-300 multiple rocket launchers, 2,000 armored vehicles, and 1,000 drones from NATO, according to Mykhailo Podoliak, advisor to President Zelensky’s chief of staff, and a Presidential Office document obtained by the Kyiv Independent.
Ukraine has so far received just 10% of weapons it asked for, deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar said. 'However hard we try, it will be impossible to win this war without the support of the West', she said.
Over 22,000 people killed in Mariupol. According to preliminary data, more than 50,000 people were forcibly deported from Mariupol to Russia and the Russian-occupied territories of Donetsk Oblast. The administration added that civilians who remain in occupied Mariupol are forced to go through so-called “filtration camps,” where residents are interrogated and tortured.
Putin likely still wants to capture much if not all of Ukraine but has had to narrow his tactical objectives in war, the US under-secretary of defense has said.
Police officers from Rostov are sent to guard the cities of the LPR and DPR. This is probably due to the fact that most of the police officers of the LPR and DPR are on a special operation and there is no one to protect the cities,” the Rostov security official noted.
There are claims that Russian soldiers are refusing to go back for a second deployment – or not going to fight in the first place. The Soldiers’ Mothers Committee, which works to “protect the rights of soldiers,” says it has been helping Russian families who are against the war.
Russia's Channel One reported last night, describing the verdict condemning Aslin, Pinner and Brahim as "likely to sober up anyone who thinks that colluding with the Ukrainian nationalists is worthwhile and lucrative".
Russia bans 29 British journalists. Some 29 journalists have been banned, including the BBC's Clive Myrie, Orla Guerin and Paul Adams, all of whom have reported from Ukraine since the war began.
More than 15,000 millionaires are expected to flee Russia this year, as wealthy citizens turn their back on Vladmir Putin’s regime after the invasion of Ukraine, according to an analysis of migration data. “Russia [is] haemorrhaging millionaires,” said Andrew Amoils, the head of research at New World Wealth, which compiled the data for Henley.
30 Private jets and helicopters of sanctioned Russian oligarchs continue flying through European airspace. According to German news Welt am Sonntag, avoiding sanctions is possible because the real ownership of planes is often hidden via offshore companies.
Ukraine's grain harvest is likely to drop to around 48.5 million tonnes this year from 86 million tonnes last year following Russia's invasion, a senior government official said.
Russia became India’s second biggest supplier of oil in May, outpacing Saudi Arabia (but not Iraq), reported Reuters. Supplies from Russia accounted for about 16.5 percent of India’s overall oil imports in May.
Gazprom has announced it will reduce daily supply of gas going to Germany by 40%.
European Commission to give green light on Ukraine’s EU candidacy. Politico, citing officials privy to the information, said the EU Commission will recommend granting Ukraine official EU candidate status following discussions on June 13.
The EU is disconnecting Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, as well as Rosselkhozbank and Moscow Credit Bank, from the SWIFT interbank system today as part of the 6th package of sanctions.
Italy Is Considering the Nationalization of Lukoil Refinery: Lukoil’s refinery in Sicily could be severely impacted by the EU’s oil ban. Italian Ecological Transition Minister Roberto Cingolani said that “there are several options under study, one is something like nationalisation…another one is that an external buyer intervenes.”
Pope Francis has said Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine was “perhaps somehow provoked” as he recalled a conversation in the run-up to the war in which he was warned that Nato was “barking at the gates of Russia”.
UN Human Rights chief Michele Bachelet speech at the UN’s human rights council said she regretted "the increasing censorship and restrictions on independent media” - and described "the arbitrary arrest of a large number of anti-war protesters" in Russia as "worrying".
More Russian sabre-rattling and but watch till the end.
Catherine Belton, Putin thinks West will blink first in war of attrition, Russian elites say
The Kremlin has seized on recent signs of hesitancy by some European governments as an indication the West could lose focus in seeking to counter Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, especially as global energy costs surge following the imposition of sanctions on Moscow.
John Sweeney: Happy Birthday
Novel Science, Pro-Kremlin outlets amplify content that casts doubt on Ukrainian rape victims
Pro-Kremlin media used the firing of an official to discredit Ukrainian rape victims, even though this official was not the only source of information. Two pieces of content that cited the same article were republished on many other websites. Russian intelligence controls at least one of the republishing websites.
Ivana Stradner, Henry Kissinger’s Long History of Appeasing Dictatorships
Speaking at the Davos, former U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger counseled Ukraine to cede Russia territory in order to end the war. “Ideally, the dividing line should be a return to the status quo ante,” he said last month. “Pursuing the war beyond that point would not be about the freedom of Ukraine, but a new war against Russia itself.” Make no mistake: Kissinger is wrong.
Programming note
TONIGHT at 9:30 pm (Rome) Livia & I will be joined by Scott Lucas on WTF! We’ll be discussing the J6 Hearing, the latest in Ukraine and the UK.
We’re signing off. Thanks for reading…
Mo & Scott