[ad_1]
(Bloomberg) — The United States and the European Union have announced new donations of equipment to help keep power on in Ukraine as millions of residents face power and heating cuts. Ukraine could soon provide electricity to most users for as long as 16 to 18 hours from a system that has survived weeks of Russian missile and drone attacks.
But EU diplomats delayed until Monday further efforts to agree on a price cap for Russian oil exports — a ceiling that will almost certainly be above what the nation’s flagship grade currently trades for.
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with a select group of women whose sons are fighting in Ukraine in the now nine-month conflict.
(See RSAN on Bloomberg Terminal for the Russian Sanctions Dashboard.)
Key developments
- Team ’17 and a dog’ stands between Moldova and energy chaos
- Germany rejects Poland’s call to send Patriot missiles to Ukraine
- Putin ally Kudrin takes over Yandeka’s role after the president approves
- Tonight, the EU will continue talks on the price of Russian oil
- Russian oil is already trading well below Europe’s proposed upper limit
On the field
Seven people were killed and 21 injured in Russian shelling of the recently liberated southern city of Kherson on Thursday evening, regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevich said on Telegram. A barrage of missiles and “massive artillery fire” continued on Friday in an escalating attack. Russian forces also attacked the suburbs of Zaporozhye, according to local authorities. Over the past day, Ukrainian troops repelled attacks near 11 settlements in Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east, the Ukrainian General Staff reported in a regular update. Russian forces overran Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region and several settlements in the Kharkiv region on Friday afternoon, local authorities said. Several residences and hospitals were destroyed.
(All times CET)
Zelensky: EU promises 500 million euros more (21:35)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said in his nightly address that in a conversation with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, he agreed on an additional 500 million euros ($520 million) in EU aid for the remaining weeks of this year.
He said they also discussed the 2023 support package as well as more steps to support his country’s energy sector as it comes under attack from Russia. He said that the biggest energy problems at the moment are in the capital city of Kyiv and the surrounding region, as well as in the regions of Odessa, Lviv, Vinnytsia and Dnipropetrovsk.
“Please, it is necessary to use electricity sparingly in all regions,” he told his compatriots.
The President of Hungary will visit Zelenskiy, the website says (21:31)
Hungarian President Katalin Novak is on her way to visit Zelenskiy at the highest level meeting between the two nations since the invasion of Russia in February, the Indek website reported.
Novak, who has a largely ceremonial role, is flying to Poland and then taking a train to Ukraine, Index reported on Friday, without citing anyone. The office of the Hungarian president will neither confirm nor deny the visit, according to the website.
Zelensky lashed out at Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for his lukewarm support for Ukraine and support for some of Russia’s plans. This week, however, Orbán’s government withdrew its opposition to joint EU aid to Ukraine and approved a decree granting Hungary’s share of aid to its eastern neighbor.
EU postpones talks on oil price cap until Monday (18:20)
European Union diplomats will not meet on Friday or over the weekend to discuss an oil price ceiling as divisions within the bloc remain entrenched, people familiar with the matter said.
The bloc has been locked in a battle over how strict the Group of Seven-led price cap should be. Countries such as Poland opposed the EU executive’s proposal to set a cap of $65 a barrel, saying it was too generous to Russia. Other nations, including Greece, do not want to go below that level.
“If you put a price ceiling too high, it doesn’t really bite,” European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “Oil is the largest source of revenue for the Russian budget, so it is very important to get this right so that it really has an impact on Russia’s ability to finance this war.”
Read more: Russian oil is already trading well below Europe’s proposed limit
More electrical equipment promised for Ukraine, says Von Der Leyen (17:00)
The EU Emergency Coordination Center is preparing to help Ukraine “restore and maintain electricity and heating,” EC President von der Leyen said in a statement after talks with President Zelensky.
The latest pledges include 200 medium-sized transformers and a large autotransformer from Lithuania; medium-sized autotransformer from Latvia; and 40 heavy-duty generators — each capable of powering a small and medium-sized hospital — from the rescEU reserve in Romania. The US has also promised more generators.
Ukraine continues to suffer widespread power outages after more than a month of Russian missile attacks on critical civilian infrastructure.
Zelensky tweeted his response to the invitation.
Putin met with mothers of soldiers in the official residence (16:20)
For the first time in Russia’s now nine-month invasion, President Vladimir Putin met with the mothers of soldiers fighting in Ukraine.
A gathering with a select group of women was held at Putin’s official residence on the outskirts of Moscow ahead of Mother’s Day in Russia.
“We share this pain with you and of course we will do everything we can so that you don’t feel forgotten,” Putin said in a video released by state news agencies. He told the women that Russia “must achieve” and “will achieve” its goals in Ukraine.
Read more: Kremlin faces growing anger from women, mothers of mobilized troops
Ukrainian PM says millions suffer from intermittent power outages (16:00)
As many as 400,000 consumers in each region were disconnected from the electricity supply for at least part of the day, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmykhal said at a cabinet meeting. The regions of Khmelnytskyi, Odesa and Ternopil are experiencing some of the worst disruptions due to bad weather, while Kharkiv and Kherson are regularly shelled by Russian forces, he said.
“The high-voltage infrastructure is working, but there are problems with distribution networks across the country,” he said. Ukraine’s energy grid has been under persistent Russian missile and drone attacks for more than a month.
Ukraine will receive another $500 million loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Schmihal said, as part of a larger project to maintain public services. The funds will go to support the poor, internally displaced persons, as well as the salaries of teachers and doctors, he said.
US Increases Comprehensive Donations for Warming Centers (15:00)
The US has donated 22,500 blankets to warming centers run by Ukrainian railways, while millions of people still have only sporadic access to electricity and heating, US Ambassador Bridget Brink said on Twitter.
“Our 24/7 work to help Ukraine survive the cold this winter in every way possible is very important because of Russia’s brutal attacks on civilians,” Brink said.
SBU raids several Orthodox churches connected to Moscow (14:22)
The Ukrainian intelligence service SBU searched the territory of the Chernivtsi-Bukovyna diocese in the southwest of the country, which is controlled by the Moscow Patriarchate, the agency announced on its website.
“Law enforcement officials found warehouses with pro-Kremlin literature glorifying the country of the aggressor and calling for support for the occupiers, as well as confirmation that the leaders of the diocese have Russian citizenship,” the SBU said.
The raid followed a similar move at Kiev’s Pechersk Lavra, or Pechersk Monastery, and several others in the Rivne region this week, as part of efforts to prevent Kremlin agents from using the sites for sabotage.
Expert says that Ukraine’s energy system withstood the blackout well (13:10)
Ukraine could soon provide power to most customers between 4 and 6 p.m., as systems are repaired after the latest Russian missile attacks, Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Energy Industry Research Center in Kyiv, said during an online briefing.
Automated protection systems worked well during the blackout, protecting the grid from major damage, and most production facilities can be restarted soon, Kharchenko said.
Still, full recovery from repeated bombing could take years, he said.
More talks about helping Ukraine on the margins of NATO, Germany says (13:10)
G-7 foreign ministers will gather with a number of other allies on the sidelines of a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Bucharest next week to discuss energy and food aid to Ukraine, a German foreign ministry spokesman said.
The emergency meeting comes as Russian missile attacks hit critical infrastructure in Ukraine, cutting off electricity, heat and water to millions of people. German Foreign Minister Analena Berbock recently warned that the bombings could lead to “hundreds or thousands of deaths” this winter.
Power generation equipment, other aid coming in (12:56 p.m.)
France is sending 100 high-power generators to Ukraine, its minister for Europe and foreign affairs announced. The Czech Republic has also pledged a new aid package that will include 626 heaters, 18 power generators and medical equipment worth 22 million crowns ($939,000), said Zdenek Hrib, the mayor of Prague.
Germany’s Technische Hilfsverk, a government body staffed mostly by volunteers, plans to send 150 generators to Ukraine in the coming weeks, the agency said in a statement, ranging from small portable units to those that could be used to power a hospital or sewage treatment plant. water. .
US Ambassador Bridget Brink attended the handover of 50 generators to Ukraine, the US embassy announced on its Facebook page. USAID delivered “more than 1,000 generators to help hospitals, schools, emergency services, government agencies and other public service providers continue to operate in the midst of war.”
Stoltenberg says reliance on Russian gas offers tough lesson (11:55)
NATO Allies must learn from the way Russia has used allies’ reliance on Russian gas and avoid similar dependencies on other authoritarian regimes such as China’s, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told reporters.
The foreign ministers of the military alliance will discuss China and NATO’s dependence on the country for rare earth minerals, supply chains and other potential vulnerabilities when they gather in Bucharest next week. China is not an adversary, but it is rapidly modernizing its army and cooperating more closely with Russia, said the NATO Secretary General.
At the meeting in Bucharest, allies are expected to step up non-lethal support to Ukraine, such as fuel, medical supplies and drone jammers, Stoltenberg said, adding that NATO would also help Ukraine’s military transition to NATO standards.
©2022 Bloomberg LP
[ad_2]
Source link
