March 2022 - Page 21 of 25

The UK sanctions against Roman Abramovich have restricted rent payments to the Crown Estate, which manages properties owned by the Queen.

The UK government froze Mr Abramovich’s assets last week as part of its sanctions response to the Ukraine war.

He and other wealthy Russians have been targeted to put pressure on President Vladimir Putin.

The sanctions prevent them from making transactions related to their properties and businesses in the UK.

Mr Abramovich’s frozen assets include Chelsea FC, which was allowed to continue operating under a special licence granted by the UK government.

The 55-year-old Russian billionaire, who has denied close ties to President Putin, has also been linked to the ownership of properties in the UK.

They include a 15-bedroom mansion on Kensington Palace Gardens, an exclusive street known as “billionaires’ row” in west London.

Crown Estate lease

Land records show companies that manage assets for Mr Abramovich are registered as the lease owners of the property.

This means the companies own the home, but the land it was built on belongs to the Crown Estate – a business created by Parliament to oversee a portfolio of the British monarch’s properties.

The Queen is not involved in management decisions by the Crown Estate, which is tasked with generating profit for the government.

The terms of the lease require the companies to pay the Crown Estate “£10,000 rising to £160,000” over a 125-year term, a Land Registry document shows.

When asked about the impact of sanctions on Mr Abramovich, a spokesperson for the Crown Estate said they would not comment on the details of individual leases.

But condemning the invasion of Ukraine, the spokesperson said: “We are doing all we can to comply swiftly with the introduction of sanctions.”

The BBC has requested comment from a spokesperson for Mr Abramovich.

The restrictions on rent payments were first reported by the Wall Street Journal newspaper, which said Mr Abramovich bought the house for $140m (£107m) in 2011.

Built in the mid-1800s, the Grade II listed building hosted a Soviet diplomatic mission in 1972 and is across the road from Kensington Palace.

Licences needed

Last week the UK government imposed travel bans and full asset freezes on “seven of Russia’s wealthiest and most influential oligarchs”, including Mr Abramovich.

These measures prohibit anyone in the UK from dealing with frozen assets owned, held or controlled by a sanctioned person.

Legal experts said Mr Abramovich would have to apply for licences to make any transactions related to his properties – from security services and utility bills, to maintenance and gardeners.

A licence is a written permission from the Treasury allowing an act that would otherwise breach financial sanctions. The special licence granted to Chelsea FC is one example.

A Treasury spokesperson said the department cannot comment on specific properties.

In general, though, a sanctioned person who is subject to an asset freeze can still live in their house but cannot rent or sell it, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said they can “apply for a licence on the grounds of ‘basic needs’, which can cover things like payment of insurance, property management, rent or mortgage payments, utility charges”.

“The licence would enable their bank to release those specific payments without contravening the freeze.”

Joshua Ray, a lawyer for Rahman Ravelli, told the BBC that licence applications “can often take at least several weeks if not longer”.

“With respect to licences related to Chelsea, the government has signalled a willingness to put applications on a fast track, but that doesn’t appear to apply to his other UK assets,” said Mr Ray, who advises international companies on sanctions.

Treasury guidance says lawyers advising a sanctioned person “cannot receive any payment” for that service without a licence.

Mr Ray said Mr Abramovich “would likely need to engage a lawyer located in a jurisdiction where he is not yet sanctioned”.

On Sunday, Housing Secretary Michael Gove told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme the government was looking at using the properties of Russian oligarchs sanctioned by the UK for “humanitarian purposes”.

But he said there was “quite a high legal bar to cross and we’re not talking about permanent confiscation, adding “if we can use it in order to help others let’s do that”.

The government has launched its Homes for Ukraine site for those wanting to host a refugee, with 100,000 signing up within the first day.

Housing and Communities Secretary Michael Gove said the UK had a history of “supporting the most vulnerable during their darkest hours”.

He said there would be no limit to how many Ukrainians could enter the UK under the visa sponsorship scheme.

Each household housing a refugee will be offered £350 a month, tax-free.

They will not be expected to provide food and living expenses but can choose to offer this.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was “fantastic” that more than 100,000 people and organisations had expressed interest in supporting Ukrainians.

“Thank you to everyone across the country who has stepped up to offer their help so far,” he tweeted.

People who wish to offer a rent-free space in their home or a separate residence, for at least six months, can register their interest online.

They will be able to individually sponsor a Ukrainian national’s visa from Friday. Those initial applications will rely on the applicant knowing a named individual from Ukraine they want to help.

But Ukrainian refugees with no family or other links to the UK can and will be hosted as part of the scheme, Mr Gove said.

He said the sponsorship scheme was initially only between people who are already known to each other so it gets “up and running as soon as possible”.

The scheme will be expanded with the support of charities, community groups and churches who can help with matching refugees to hosts.

No timescale has been announced for when this will happen but Mr Gove said it would expand “rapidly”.

The government has faced criticism – including from its own MPs – over the speed and scale of its response to the refugee crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Almost three million people have fled Ukraine since Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian invasion nearly three weeks ago.

Mr Gove had said the scheme was open to nationals and residents of Ukraine, but his department later clarified that those eligible were Ukrainian nationals and immediate family members who had been resident prior to 1 January.

As part of the scheme, refugees will have access to the NHS and other public services. Their children will be able to attend local schools.

Local authorities will also receive £10,500 in extra funding per refugee for support services – with more for children of school age.

Mr Gove said everyone in the UK was “in awe of the bravery of the people of Ukraine”.

“The victims of savage, indiscriminate, unprovoked aggression, their courage under fire and their determination to resist inspires our total admiration,” he said.

Both hosts and refugees taking part in Homes for Ukraine will be vetted.

In addition, local councils will check that the accommodation offered is suitable, the government said.

A Department for Education source told the BBC the government was planning for a capacity of around 100,000 school-age Ukrainian children to be placed in UK schools and said they were confident the school system could cope.

Shadow housing and communities secretary Lisa Nandy said Labour was concerned about “the lack of urgency” and added that the visa application process could be simplified.

She said: “We could keep essential checks but drop the excessive bureaucracy.”

One person putting her name forward is Mandi Arnold, who lives in Shropshire with her partner and three children.

Mandi, 35, says life in her house is already hectic and so “it might as well be even busier” with an extra couple of people.

“I would love to welcome someone in my home to give them that security and love,” she says. “I’ve got a lot of love to give and it’s the perfect opportunity to give it to someone who’s in need.”

Mandi says her two sons are too young to understand what housing a refugee would involve but that she and her husband have chatted to her nine-year-old daughter, Amalia, about it.

Husband and wife team Mandy and Mark Durrell were also among the first to register to offer a room.

The Methodist ministers from Bangor said watching the news from Ukraine had been heartbreaking.

“We want to offer space, companionship, comfort and safety,” said Mark. “We have this home. There’s two of us and the dog – and there’s space here to give someone refuge and sanctuary.”

Refugees at Home, which finds host families for refugees and asylum seekers, said it wanted to see “as many refugees housed as soon as possible”.

Its executive director Lauren Scott stressed that home visits should take place before a placement is made and called for follow-up support to be offered to hosts and guests alike.

There should also be plans for what happens “for the rare situations in which a placement does not work out”, she added.

All that should be done quickly and also “in a thoughtful, sensitive and thought-through way”.

Iryna Terlecky, a board member of the Associations of Ukrainians in Great Britain and chair of the Association of Ukrainian Women, praised the British public’s response to the scheme but she told the Today programme £10,500 per refugee “may well not be enough” for local authorities.

“What we want to see is that local authorities have the right level of funding so that they can continue to support, not only the families coming over but also their sponsors.

“For a six-month commitment there will be times when for whatever reason it doesn’t work out and local authorities and the established charities and the Ukrainian community need to be there to help in those circumstances.”

Homes for Ukraine is the second visa scheme the government has set up since the war broke out.

The first has allowed Ukrainians with an immediate or extended family member in the UK to apply for a family visa to join them.

Ukrainian passport holders no longer have to attend in-person appointments at visa application centres to submit their fingerprints and facial recognition, the Home Office said, with applicants now able to fill out forms online before giving their biometrics on arrival in the UK.

Some 4,600 visas have so far been granted through that route, the latest Home Office figures show.

The Home Office has defended requiring security checks on Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion. It says it must ensure the UK helps those in genuine need as it has seen people falsely claim to be Ukrainian.

The UK has announced 370 more sanctions, with Russia’s former president one of those targeted, in its latest response to the war in Ukraine.

Dmitry Medvedev and President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman are among those to be hit with asset freezes and travel bans.

Earlier, the UK hit Russia with trade restrictions, including an additional 35% tariff on vodka.

The move comes after the passage of new legislation to speed up and harden UK sanctions.

The government fast-tracked the Economic Crime Act through Parliament after criticism that UK had been too slow to target Russians with links to President Putin.

The legislation allows the UK to sanction those who have had their assets frozen by the EU, US or Canada, and take action to stop wealthy Russians using London for money laundering.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu were among the other high-profile allies of President Putin to be sanctioned by the UK.

Others include Mr Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov and Russian Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who the UK government called “Russian propagandists”.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the UK was “going further and faster than ever in hitting those closest to Putin”.

“We are holding them to account for their complicity in Russia’s crimes in Ukraine,” she said. “Working closely with our allies, we will keep increasing the pressure on Putin and cut off funding for the Russian war machine.”

A growing number of Russians have been sanctioned by the UK and its western allies since President Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been issuing increasingly frank pleas for stronger sanctions and western military intervention as Russian shelling of Ukrainian cities exact an ever-higher death toll.

In a video call with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Mr Zelensky said “we can still stop the Russian war machine” and it was vital to do so because “else they will come for you”.

Last week, the UK imposed assets freezes and travel bans on Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich and 386 Russian MPs who voted to recognise two rebel-held areas of eastern Ukraine as independent.

A further wave of sanctions was announced on Tuesday morning in co-ordination with the European Union.

They related to trade with Russia and included a 35% import tariff hike Russian vodka and hundreds of other goods worth £900m.

The latest package of UK sanctions was targeted at individuals and organisations with links to President Putin’s administration.

Some of them had already been sanctioned by western allies, among them Mr Mishustin and Mr Peskov, described by the US as “a top purveyor of Putin’s propaganda”.

A prominent name on the UK’s latest list of sanctioned individuals was Mr Medvedev.

Currently deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia since 2020, Mr Medvedev served as president from 2008 to 2012 and as prime minister from 2012 to 2020.

Once regarded as more liberal than President Putin, Mr Medvedev warned western nations against sanctions in a tweet earlier this month.

Do not forget, he wrote, “that in human history, economic wars quite often turned into real ones”.

The UK government also said Russian oligarchs with a combined estimated worth of more than £100bn were added to its sanctions list.

On the list was billionaire Mikhail Fridman, founder of Alfa Bank, the largest private bank in Russia. He lives in London and has business interests in the UK.

At a London press conference on 1 March, he said while the Ukraine war was a “huge tragedy”, sanctioning oligarchs would not sway President Putin.

Some of the other oligarchs sanctioned by the UK included:

German Khan, a business partner of Mr Fridman in Alfa Bank, with an estimated net worth of £7.8bn
Petr Aven, a former president of Alfa Bank, with an estimated net worth of £4 billion
Alexey Mordaschov, a majority shareholder in steel company Severstal, with an estimated net worth of £22.4bn
Andrey Melnichenko, the founder of EuroChem Group, with an estimated net worth of £13.7bn

For Labour, shadow international trade secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said: “Urgent sanctions have been needed so that Putin and his inner circle cannot live a Mayfair lifestyle in Moscow while committing atrocities in Ukraine.

“The government now needs to ensure that the export ban has no loopholes so it has maximum impact.”

British-Iranian detainee Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has had her UK passport returned, her MP has said.

She has been detained in Iran for more than five years on spying charges after being arrested there in 2016 while taking her daughter to see her family.

Tulip Siddiq said Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was still at her family home in Tehran.

Boris Johnson said it would not be sensible to comment “until we’ve got a final result” but said “delicate discussions are going on”.

Ms Siddiq, the Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, said she understood British negotiators were in the Iranian capital.

Mr Johnson said he did not want to “tempt fate” and said that negotiations about “all our difficult consular cases have been going on for a long time”.

The prime minister added: “Everybody wants Nazanin home, we’ve been working on that for a long, long time, I do not want to do anything to interrupt conversations right now.”

According to Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s employer, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, her lawyer Hojjat Kermani, when asked whether she would be released, said: “I am hopeful that we will have good news soon.”

A £400m debt relating to a cancelled order for 1,500 Chieftain tanks dating back to the 1970s had been linked to the continued detention of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and other UK-Iranian dual nationals held in the country – although the government has said the two issues should not be linked.

Downing Street said it was committed to paying the debt and was “exploring options to resolve it”, but said it had not been resolved.

A Foreign Office spokesman said it continued to “explore options” to resolve the debt but would not comment further as discussions were ongoing.

He added the Foreign Office would not comment on speculation about Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe but had long called for the release of “unfairly detained British nationals in Iran”.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 43, who has always denied the charges against her, was first jailed for five years in 2016 after being accused of plotting against the regime – spending the last year of her sentence under house arrest at her parents’ home.

After that sentence expired she was then sentenced to another year’s confinement in April 2021 on charges of “spreading propaganda”, which has been served at her parents’ house in Tehran.

Her husband Richard Ratcliffe, who lives with their daughter Gabriella in Hampstead, London, has campaigned for her release including by going on hunger strike in October last year.

Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s sister-in-law Rebecca Ratcliffe told BBC Radio 5 Live the media reports seemed “like a good positive sign” but said there had been “so many false hopes” over the last five or six years so it was hard to tell “if this is a really positive sign or just the Iranian government playing games again”.

She said her sister-in-law was on edge when things like this happened because she does not want to get her hopes up.

“We have everything crossed but remain sceptical,” she said.

Her mother-in-law Barbara Ratcliffe told the BBC Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe “seemed really quite upbeat when I last spoke to her”, but added that the family was “all a bit battle-scarred” having had disappointments in the past.

Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s chief executive, warned the latest reports should be treated with caution as there had been “false dawn after false dawn” in the long-running process.

Rupert Skilbeck, director of the Redress human rights organisation, also echoed the words of caution. “So we remain cautious and continue to encourage the UK government to do the right thing and ensure the debt it owes to Iran is paid, and that it does everything in its power to secure Nazanin’s release,” he said.

Ned Price says US has nothing to say beyond India’s explanation on launching projectile into Pakistan.

The United States Department of State has declared the recent incident of Indian violation of Pakistani airspace by launching a projectile into Pakistan “nothing but an accident.”

An Indian projectile had entered the Pakistani airspace on March 9, which fell near Mian Channu in Khanewal district within a few minutes, causing some damage to the surrounding areas, Director-General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Babar Iftikhar had said Thursday.

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that India has declared the landing of Indian-origin missile into Pakistani territory an “accident” and the US has nothing to say beyond the explanation given by India.

“We have no indication, as you also heard from our Indian partners, that this incident was anything other than an accident. We refer you, of course, to the Indian Ministry of Defence for any follow-up. They issued a statement on March 9th to explain precisely what had happened. We don’t have a comment beyond that,” Prince said during a briefing with reporters on Monday.

When asked if Price on behalf of the State Department has raised concerns on reports of Uranium theft and arrest of Indian citizens over smuggling Uranium, he said that he “is not familiar with that particular incident.”

However, he said that “nuclear safety around the world is a conversation that is always ongoing” in diplomatic talks with nuclear armed countries.

Speaking about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Price said that the US is in contact with its South Asian allies on the matter.

Accidentally fired missile into Pakistan: India

Later, India accepted it “accidentally” fired a missile into Pakistan because of a “technical malfunction” during routine maintenance.

“On 9 March 2022, in the course of a routine maintenance, a technical malfunction led to the accidental firing of a missile,” the Indian government said in a statement.

“It is learnt that the missile landed in an area of Pakistan. While the incident is deeply regrettable, it is also a matter of relief that there has been no loss of life due to the accident.”

“The Government of India has taken a serious view and ordered a high-level Court of Enquiry,” the statement added.

The development comes a day after Director-General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Babar Iftikhar revealed that an Indian projectile had entered the Pakistani airspace and fell near Mian Channu in Khanewal district, causing some damage to the surrounding areas.

In response, the Foreign Office said Friday morning Pakistan strongly condemned the unprovoked violation of its airspace by a “super-sonic flying object” of Indian origin.

Pakistan demands ‘joint probe’ into Indian missile incident

After the clarification by India, Pakistan regretted the transgression of the Indian-origin missile into its territory and demanded a “joint probe to accurately establish the facts surrounding the incident.”

In a statement issued today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the grave nature of the incident raised several fundamental questions regarding security protocols and technical safeguards against the “accidental or unauthorised launch of missiles in a nuclearised environment.”

“Such a serious matter cannot be addressed with the simplistic explanation proffered by the Indian authorities,” the FO statement read.

The ministry said some of the questions that need to be answered include:

India must explain the measures and procedures in place to prevent accidental missile launches and the particular circumstances of this incident.
India needs to clearly explain the type and specifications of the missile that fell in Pakistani territory.
India also needs to explain the flight path/ trajectory of the accidentally launched missile and how it ultimately turned and entered Pakistan?
Was the missile equipped with self-destruct mechanism? Why did it fail to actualise?
Are Indian missiles kept primed for launch even under routine maintenance?
Why did India fail to immediately inform Pakistan about the accidental launch of the missile and waited to acknowledge it till after Pakistan announced the incident and sought clarification?
Given the profound level of incompetence, India needs to explain if the missile was indeed handled by its armed forces or some rogue elements?

“The whole incident indicates many loopholes and technical lapses of serious nature in Indian handling of strategic weapons,” it said, adding that the Indian decision to hold an internal court of inquiry is “not sufficient since the missile ended up in Pakistani territory.”

The ministry further said that given the short distances and response times, any misinterpretation by the other side could lead to countermeasures in self-defence with grave consequences.

“Pakistan, therefore, calls upon the international community to take serious notice of this incident of grave nature in a nuclearised environment and play its due role in promoting strategic stability in the region,” the statement read.

US police search for ‘cold-blooded’ killer of homeless men

NEW YORK: Police were conducting a sprawling manhunt on Monday for a gunman suspected of carrying out a series of “cold-blooded” shootings of homeless men on the streets of Washington and New York.

The string of attacks, which took place in the middle of the night over a period of 10 days this month, have left two men dead and three wounded.

“The work to get this individual off our streets before he hurts or murders another individual is urgent,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser and New York Mayor Eric Adams said in a joint statement.

“It is heartbreaking and tragic to know that in addition to all the dangers that unsheltered residents face, we now have a cold-blooded killer on the loose, but we are certain that we will get the suspect off the street and into police custody,” they said.

Police in Washington and New York released pictures and surveillance video of the suspect — a shaven-headed and bearded man dressed all in black.

Police said the first shooting took place around 4:00 am on March 3 in northeast Washington. The victim was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

A second homeless man was shot and wounded five days later, also in northeast Washington, police said. He also suffered non-life threatening wounds.

The next day, a homeless man was found dead in northeast Washington with stab and gunshot wounds, police said. His tent had been set on fire.

On Saturday, a 38-year-old man was shot in the arm in Lower Manhattan at around 4:30 am, police said.

“He’s alive today because he woke up after he heard the first gunshot and started yelling,” Adams told reporters.

Then, shortly before 5:00 pm, police in the same neighborhood found the lifeless body of another man in a yellow sleeping bag. He had been shot in the head and neck.

Video surveillance footage captured that attack, showing the shooter, who was wearing blue surgical gloves and a black balaclava, kicking the sleeping man around 6:00 am and then opening fire with a pistol.

‘Heinous crime’

“Our homeless population is one of our most vulnerable and an individual praying on them as they sleep is an exceptionally heinous crime,” New York police commissioner Keechant Sewell said.

“We will use every tool, every technique and every partner to bring the killer to justice.”

Washington police offered a reward of $25,000 for information that leads to an arrest.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) offered an additional $20,000 reward while New York put up $10,000.

Adams, the New York mayor, urged the city’s thousands of homeless people to contact municipal agencies that can help them find sleeping accommodation.

New York’s homeless population has grown in recent years, and Adams announced a plan just weeks after taking office in January to move them out of the city’s vast system of subway tunnels, where many sleep on frigid nights.

His proposal drew sharp criticism from some non-governmental organizations.

“People only stay in the subway,” said the Coalition for the Homeless, “because they have no better place to go.”

“Many unsheltered New Yorkers choose to bed down in the subways because that is where they feel the most safe in the absence of housing,” said Jacquelyn Simone, policy director for the Coalition for the Homeless.

“Instead of subway sweeps, the City and State must immediately open the promised housing and Safe Haven beds so that unsheltered New Yorkers have a safer place to stay inside,” Simone said.

In October 2019, a homeless man wielding a metal pipe beat four other homeless people to death in New York and left a fifth man in critical condition.

Russia’s defence ministry said the air strike had destroyed a large amount of weapons supplied by foreign nations.

LVIV: A barrage of Russian missiles hit a large Ukrainian base near the border with NATO member Poland on Sunday, killing 35 people and wounding 134, a local official said, in an escalation of the war to the west of the country as fighting raged elsewhere.

Russia’s defence ministry said the air strike had destroyed a large amount of weapons supplied by foreign nations that were being stored at the sprawling training facility, and that it had killed “up to 180 foreign mercenaries”.

Reuters could not independently verify the casualties reported by either side.

The attack on the Yavoriv International Centre for Peacekeeping and Security, a base just 15 miles (25 km) from the Polish border that has previously hosted NATO military instructors, brought the conflict to the doorstep of the Western defence alliance.

Russia had warned on Saturday that convoys of Western arms shipments to Ukraine could be considered legitimate targets.

Britain called the attack as a “significant escalation,” and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken responded with a post on Twitter saying “the brutality must stop.”

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation”, warned that any attack on NATO territory would trigger a full response by the alliance.

Regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy said Russian planes fired around 30 rockets at the Yavoriv facility and that some were intercepted. At least 35 people were killed and 134 wounded, he said.

Russian defence ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said Russia had used high-precision, long-range weapons to strike Yavoriv and a separate facility in the village of Starichi.

“As a result of the strike, up to 180 foreign mercenaries and a large amount of foreign weapons were destroyed,” he said.

The 360-square km (140-square mile) facility is one of Ukraine’s biggest and is the largest in the western part of the country, which has so far been spared the worst of the fighting.

Ukraine, whose aspirations to join NATO are a major irritant to Russian President Vladimir Putin, held most of its drills with Western countries at the base before the invasion. The last major exercises were in September.

In the weeks before Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, the Ukrainian military trained there, but according to Ukrainian media all foreign instructors left in mid-February, leaving behind equipment.

“The dining room and dormitory were destroyed. So were the barracks,” said Colonel Leonid Benzalo, an officer in the Ukrainian medical reserve who was thrown across the room by one of the blasts. “The most important thing is we’re still alive,” he told Reuters after treating the wounded there.

While Western nations have sought to isolate Putin by imposing harsh economic sanctions and have been supplying Ukraine with weapons, the United States and its allies are concerned to avoid NATO being drawn into the conflict.

“There are no NATO personnel in Ukraine,” the NATO official said, when asked if anyone from the alliance was at the base.

Air raid sirens wailed across the capital Kyiv and authorities said they were stockpiling two weeks worth of food items for the 2 million people who have not yet fled from Russian forces attempting to encircle the city.

Ukraine reported renewed air strikes on an airport in the west and heavy shelling on Chernihiv northeast of the capital.

Interior Ministry official Vadym Denyenko said Ukrainian forces were counterattacking in the eastern Kharkiv region and around the southern town of Mykolayiv. Reuters was not able to verify those statements.

An American journalist was shot and killed by Russian forces in the town of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, and another journalist was wounded, the regional police chief said.

Britain’s defence ministry said Russian naval forces had established a distant blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, isolating the country from international maritime trade.

Despite the violence, both sides gave their most upbeat assessment yet of prospects for progress at talks held periodically.

“Russia is already beginning to talk constructively,” Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said in a video online. “I think that we will achieve some results literally in a matter of days.”

A Russian delegate to talks, Leonid Slutsky, was quoted by RIA news agency as saying they had made significant progress and it was possible the delegations could soon reach draft agreements.

Neither side said what these would cover. Three rounds of talks between the two sides in Belarus, most recently last Monday, had focused mainly on humanitarian issues.

But there were contradictory statements on the timing of new discussions. Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych told national television “talks are continuing right now.” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied this, saying talks were planned for Monday via video link.

In the weeks since the invasion began, Russia has asked China – which has not condemned the assault on Ukraine – for military equipment, the Financial Times and Washington Post cited unnamed US officials as saying.

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington said he had not heard of such a request and that the priority was to prevent the situation “from escalating or even getting out of control.”

Russia’s invasion has sent more than 2.5 million people fleeing across Ukraine’s borders and trapped hundreds of thousands in besieged cities.

“It is terrifying how violent and inhuman it is,” Olga, a refugee from Kyiv, told Reuters after crossing into Romania.

Ukraine’s human rights monitor said Russia used phosphorous bombs in an overnight attack on the town of Popasna in the eastern Luhansk region, calling it a “war crime”. She shared a photograph purporting to show the alleged attack. Reuters could not immediately verify any of the reports.

Phosphorus munitions can be used legally in war to provide light, create smokescreens or burn buildings. But its use in populated areas has been a persistent source of controversy.

In eastern Ukraine, Russian troops were trying to surround Ukrainian forces as they advance from the port of Mariupol in the south and the second city Kharkiv in the north, the British Defence Ministry said.

The city council in Mariupol said in a statement that 2,187 residents had been killed since the start of the invasion. Reuters was not able to verify that toll.

Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, has suffered some of the heaviest bombardment. Videos from one resident, Teimur Aliev, showed bombed buildings lining streets, burned-out cars riddled with shrapnel holes and debris strewn around.

“We will stitch up the wounds and the pain of our country and our city,” said Aliev, a 23-year-old musician. “We’re not going anywhere.”

In Chernihiv, northeast of Kyiv, firefighters rescued residents from a burning building after heavy shelling, video from emergency service – and verified by Reuters – showed.

Moscow denies targeting civilians. It blames Ukraine for failed attempts to evacuate civilians from encircled cities, an accusation Ukraine and its Western allies strongly reject.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on national television that more than 140,000 people had been evacuated from conflict zones, but that a humanitarian convoy had been unable to reach Mariupol due to shelling.

The Kremlin describes its actions as a “special operation” to demilitarise and “deNazify” Ukraine. Ukraine and Western allies call this a baseless pretext for a war of choice.

Asteroid 2022 AE1 was to hit earth by July 2023, as per calculations by space scientists.

Asteroid 2022 AE1, the “riskiest asteroid” discovered on January 7 by space scientists in Europe, predicted to hit Earth by July 4, 2023 has now changed its course and is expected to peacefully pass earth, ESA reported.

The 230-feet-wide asteroid was calculated to be the deadliest one in a decade as seen in the Palermo scale which determines threats posed by near-earth objects.

If it did strike Earth, it could potentially wipe out an entire city, similar to what happened in Hiroshima towards the end of World War II. Scientists had labelled it as an inevitable hit that could not be deflected due to lack of time.

European Space Agency’s (ESA) Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre (NEOCC) initially found increased collision risk and the estimations were confirmed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Later, due to a bright moon, the asteroid became unobservable.

A week later, when it showed up again, fresh observations showed different results. The recalculations affirmed that the AE1 will pass earth by a secure distance of 10 kilometres, ESA announced.

Earth is not new to such threats. The 66 feet meteorite that hit Southern Russia in 2013 injuring 1,500 people is just one example.

Elon Musk says that his companies, Tesla and Space X, are facing significant inflation threats.

Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said on Sunday the US electric carmaker and his rocket company SpaceX are facing significant inflationary pressure in raw materials and logistics.

Musk in a tweet also asked about the inflation rate outlook and said his companies “are not alone”, retweeting an article saying the Ukraine-Russia conflict sent commodity prices to their highest levels since 2008.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been ramping up the prices of metals used in cars, from aluminium in the bodywork to palladium in catalytic converters to the high-grade nickel in electric vehicle batteries, and drivers are likely to foot the bill.

While metals have not been the target of Western sanctions as yet, some shippers and auto-parts suppliers are steering clear of Russian goods, putting more pressure on carmakers already reeling from a chip shortage and higher energy prices.

Escalated by housing, food, and gas prices, the US consumer inflation saw its steepest spike in the last four decades, likely cementing the case for an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve.

Tesla’s shares, which closed 5% lower at $795.35 on Friday, have lost about 25% year-to-date.

The electric-car maker last week raised prices of its U.S. Model Y SUVs and Model 3 Long Range sedans by $1,000 each and some China-made Model 3 and Model Y vehicles by 10,000 yuan ($1,582.40).

US electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive Inc said last week supply-chain issues could cut its planned production in half, citing soaring raw material prices and supply chain constraints. Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp said it would scale back domestic production by up to 20% for April-June to ease the strain on suppliers struggling with shortages of chips and other parts.

Tesla and SpaceX did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment late on Sunday.

World faces food crisis due to Ukraine war, Russian billionaire Melnichenko says

LONDON: A global food crisis looms unless the war in Ukraine is stopped because fertiliser prices are soaring so fast that many farmers can no longer afford soil nutrients, Russian fertiliser and coal billionaire Andrei Melnichenko said on Monday.

Several of Russia’s richest businessmen have publicly called for peace since President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion on February 24, including Mikhail Fridman, Pyotr Aven and Oleg Deripaska.

The United States and its European allies have cast Putin’s invasion as an imperial-style land grab that has so far been poorly executed because Moscow underestimated Ukrainian resistance and Western resolve to punish Russia.

The West has sanctioned Russian businessmen, including European Union sanctions on Melnichenko, frozen state assets and cut off much of the Russian corporate sector from the global economy in an attempt to force Putin to change course.

Putin refuses to. He has called the war a special military operation to rid Ukraine of dangerous nationalists and Nazis.

“The events in Ukraine are truly tragic. We urgently need peace,” Melnichenko, 50, who is Russian but was born in Belarus and has a Ukrainian mother, told Reuters in a statement emailed by his spokesman.

“One of the victims of this crisis will be agriculture and food,” said Melnichenko, who founded EuroChem, one of Russia’s biggest fertiliser producers, which moved to Zug, Switzerland, in 2015, and SUEK, Russia’s top coal producer.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands, displaced more than two million people, and raised fears of a wider confrontation between Russia and the United States, the world’s two biggest nuclear powers.

Food war?

Putin warned last Thursday that food prices would rise globally due to soaring fertiliser prices if the West created problems for Russia’s export of fertilisers — which account for 13% of world output.

Russia is a major producer of potash, phosphate and nitrogen-containing fertilisers — major crop and soil nutrients. EuroChem, which produces nitrogen, phosphates and potash, says it is one of the world’s top five fertiliser companies.

The war “has already led to soaring prices in fertilisers which are no longer affordable to farmers,” Melnichenko said.

He said food supply chains already disrupted by COVID-19 were now even more distressed.

“Now it will lead to even higher food inflation in Europe and likely food shortages in the world’s poorest countries,” he said.

Russia’s trade and industry ministry told the country’s fertiliser producers to temporarily halt exports earlier this month.

Physics student

Melnichenko, who was just 19 when the Soviet Union collapsed, started out trading foreign currency while a physics student at the prestigious Moscow State University.

A gifted mathematician who once dreamt of becoming a physicist, Melnichenko dropped out of university to dive into the chaotic — and sometimes deadly — world of post-Soviet business.

He founded MDM Bank but in the 1990s was still too minor to take part in the privatisations under President Boris Yeltsin which handed the choicest assets of a former superpower to a group of businessmen who would become known as the oligarchs due to their political and economic clout.

Melnichenko then began buying up often distressed coal and fertiliser assets. His fortune in 2021 was estimated by Forbes to be $18 billion, making him Russia’s eighth richest man.

The European Union on Wednesday sanctioned Melnichenko for Russia’s invasion. It said his attendance at a Kremlin meeting with Putin and 36 businessmen organised by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs showed he was “one of the leading businesspersons involved in economic sectors.”

Melnichenko “has no relation to the tragic events in Ukraine. He has no political affiliations,” his spokesman said.

“To draw a parallel between attending a meeting through membership in a business council, just as dozens of business people from both Russia and Europe have done in the past, and undermining or threatening a country is absurd and nonsensical,” the spokesman said, adding Melnichenko will dispute the sanctions.

On March 9, Melnichenko resigned as member of the board and non-executive director in both EuroChem and SUEK, and withdrew as their beneficiary, the spokesman said. EuroChem has production assets in Russia, Lithuania, Belgium, Brazil and Kazakhstan.

Italian police last week seized Melnichenko’s yacht — the 143-metre (470-foot) Sailing Yacht A — which has a price tag of 530 million euros ($578 million).

Month: March 2022