Price caps on Russian oil probably hit Moscow’s revenues from oil and gas exports by nearly 30% in January, or about $8bn, compared with a year before, the International Energy Agency (IEA) chief, Fatih Birol, said on Sunday.
He said the growth in global oil demand this year would come from China and that might need the Opec+ countries to look at their (output) policies.
“And now this year Chinese economy is rebounding … this is putting upward pressure on the demand,” he said, referring to “exploding” demand for jet fuel in China.
Ukraine exported 5.5m metric tonnes of grain in January, a significant drop in volume compared with the previous month, the country’s agriculture ministry said on Sunday.
The total grain export decreased by 1.3m tonnes due to holdup and obstruction of the passage of outbound vessels by Russia, the Kyiv Independent reports.
According to the ministry, Ukraine has exported 15.4m tonnes of corn and 9.7m tonnes of wheat from July to January.
For over five months following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea were blockaded by the Russian navy.
The UN-backed grain deal, in effect since 1 August, enabled 39.2m tonnes of agricultural products to be exported from Ukraine, much of which has been crucial for the food security of parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
EU ban on Russian refined oil products comes into effect
The European Union is taking another big step toward cutting its energy ties with Russia. The 27-nation bloc is banning Russian refined oil products such as diesel fuel and joining the US and other allies in imposing a price cap on sales to non-western countries.
Europe’s ban takes effect Sunday following its embargo on coal and most oil from Russia. The move is meant to further slash reliance on Russian energy and payments into the Kremlin’s war chest as the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine nears, the Associated Press reports.
European importers have had months since the ban was announced in June to line up new supplies. They have already cut Russia’s share of EU imports to 27% in December from more than half before the war began.
US suppliers have stepped up shipments to record levels, from 34,000 barrels a day at the start of 2022 to 237,000 barrels per day so far in January, according to S&P Global.
New refinery capacity coming on line this year in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and next year in Oman also could help. India is another potential source.
Russia, on the other hand, would have to find new customers.
Cult Austrian ska-punk band Russkaja has announced its break-up over safety fears due to the Ukraine war.
Russkaja includes six men and one woman and started in Vienna 18 years ago. The Soviet nostalgia band enjoyed great success in the US with its blend of “Russian turbo polka metal”.
“Presented as pro-Russian despite our condemnation” of the invasion of Ukraine, “our group Russkaja has become a daily target on the internet”, the band, which includes a Russian and a Ukrainian, said on Facebook on Saturday.
“The Soviet imagery is forever damaged … [and] the war in Ukraine that Russia started on 24 February 24 2022 no longer allows us to use it satirically,” Russkaja wrote.
“And then we fear for the safety of our team and we don’t want anything serious to happen during a show.”
At first, the band – with one of its tag lines being “peace, love and Russian roll” – had decided to continue performing while clearly showing its support for Kyiv.
The bassist Dimitrij Miller is Ukrainian.
But its logo is in the shape of a red star, its lead singer is from Moscow and some of its lyrics, such as “the Russians have landed”, had to be rewritten.
Signs of hostility have multiplied and “no one in this group wants to represent any more something which, in a time like ours, is exclusively associated with war, death, crime and bloodshed”, Russkaja added.
Members of Russkaja on stage in Austria in April 2022. Photograph: Alex Halada/AFP/Getty Images
Russian forces have reportedly seized Ukrainian books from libraries and schools in the occupied eastern Luhansk and burned them in heating plants, according to the National Resistance Center, an organisation run by Ukraine’s Special Forces.
In Russian-occupied Rovenky, Ukrainian books, especially literature, are burned en masse, according to the report, which the Guardian cannot immediately verify.
Earlier, Russian proxies in occupied Luhansk were reportedly ordered to confiscate 365 editions of Ukrainian books from schools and libraries in the region, the Kyiv Independent reports.
It has been claimed Russia has made a deliberate effort to impose propaganda narratives on Ukrainian children through education in the occupied territories since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russia is concentrating troops and military equipment to stage a decisive offensive around Bakhmut and the Luhansk region, the Institute for the Study of War think tank said, in a Feb 4 report.
ISW analysts said the sustained military effort to encircle Bakhmut has prevented Russia from assembling the troops needed to attack Zaporizhzhia from the east.
Ukrainian defence minister Oleksii Reznikov is likely to be dismissed from his ministerial post next week, Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported today citing government and military sources.
His likely replacement is understood to be Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency HUR, sources reportedly said.
“I have not had any conversations about my resignation from this position,” Reznikov reportedly told Ukrainska Pravda in a soon-to-be-published interview.
An unnamed source confirmed to the Kyiv Independent that Reznikov was very likely to be replaced in the very near future.
Reznikov could be appointed to a new post as justice minister, as “no one in the Presidential Office has any doubt” that Reznikov should stay in the government, according to the Ukrainska Pravda article.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov will likely be dismissed from his ministerial post next week, Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported on Feb. 5, citing government and military sources.https://t.co/B1n2aFvP57
According to the report, Denys Maliuska, the current justice minister, could be appointed as an ambassador to a Ukrainian diplomatic mission in Europe.
The report hasn’t provided information on who will head Ukraine’s military intelligence agency if Budanov is appointed as defence minister.
Reznikov, 56, has served as defence minister since Nov. 4, 2021, and has played an important role in the campaigning for and securing of Western military aid.
Arming Ukraine 'only path to peace', says UK foreign secretary
Helping to arm Ukraine so it can defend itself against Russia is the swiftest path to achieving peace, British foreign secretary James Cleverly said in an article published on Sunday.
Writing in the Times of Malta ahead of a visit on Tuesday to the Mediterranean island, which assumed the presidency of the U.N. Security Council at the start of February, Cleverly wrote:
Like all authoritarian rulers, Putin responds only to strength in his opponents. He rejected Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s 10-point plan for peace last December. That is why the UK and Ukraine’s friends are doing all they can to bring Ukraine success on the battlefield. And it’s why I’m delighted that Germany and the US are joining the UK in sending tanks to the Ukrainians. Giving the Ukrainians the tools they need to finish the job is the swiftest – indeed the only – path to peace.
The war in Ukraine is expected to dominate the talks between Britain and Malta, a European Union member.
Russian attacks were reported in seven out of Ukraine’s 25 regions over Feb. 4, hitting Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts with artillery and missiles.
According to the regional governors and officials, at least five civilians were killed and 12 injured, the Kyiv Independent reports.
