President Vladimir Putin ditched a planned visit to southern Russia as the Kremlin cited an “attack” on the border with Ukraine. The Federal Security Service said earlier its forces repelled what it called an attack by “armed Ukrainian nationalists” in a border area of the Bryansk Region. Putin called the incident “a terrorist act.”
(Bloomberg) — President Vladimir Putin ditched a planned visit to southern Russia as the Kremlin cited an “attack” on the border with Ukraine. The Federal Security Service said earlier its forces repelled what it called an attack by “armed Ukrainian nationalists” in a border area of the Bryansk Region. Putin called the incident “a terrorist act.”
Foreign ministers of the Group of 20 nations couldn’t reach agreement on the language to describe Russia’s war in Ukraine, an outcome similar to that of the group’s finance ministers last weekend. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken unexpectedly spoke briefly with his Russian counterpart in India.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned China not to arm Russia in its war on Ukraine and expressed disappointment that Beijing has rowed back on its condemnation of the Kremlin’s aggression.
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Key Developments
- Putin Denounces Attack Near Border That Ukraine Calls a Set-Up
- Scholz Warns China Not to Supply Russia With Weapons
- Blinken Pressed Lavrov in Rare But Brief Meeting at G-20 Summit
- G-20 Top Diplomats Fail to Agree on Language on Russia’s War
- China, Belarus Issue Vague Call for Bringing Peace to Ukraine
(All times CET)
Blinken, Lavrov Meet Briefly at G-20 (1:30 p.m.)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke briefly with his Russian counterpart at the G-20 summit in India, their first in-person meeting since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago.
The top US diplomat pressed Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to move toward a peace deal with Ukraine and advocated for US citizens detained by Moscow, a Biden administration official said.
Russia’s foreign ministry played down the encounter, saying the chat, which lasted less than 10 minutes, didn’t qualify as “talks or a meeting,” according to Interfax.
Read more: Blinken Pressed Lavrov in Rare But Brief Meeting at G-20 Summit
McDonald’s to Reopen in Odesa, Dnipro (1:11 p.m.)
The US fast-food giant said it plans to reopen stores in Odesa at the end of March and Dnipro at the end of April. Dnipro “needs a little more time to secure supply chains and logistics process,” McDonald’s Ukraine said on Twitter.
The chain has in recent months reopened dozens of restaurants in Kyiv and the surrounding area, including in Bucha, and in western Ukraine.
Russian Tank Exhibit Spurs Tension in the Baltics (12:29 p.m.)
A display of Russian tanks captured by Ukrainian forces and shipped to the Baltics backfired after supporters of Russian troops began laying flowers on the vehicles.
A fight broke out between two men after one laid a flower at one of the heavily damaged T-72 tanks and another tried to remove it.
Read more: Captured Russian Tank Exhibits Spur Tensions in the Baltics
G-20 Top Diplomats Fail to Agree on Language on Russia’s War (12:45 p.m.)
The foreign ministers of the G-20 could not reach agreement on the language to describe Russia’s war in Ukraine, India’s Jaishankar told reporters after a meeting of the grouping. The two-day gathering will issue an outcome document instead of a formal joint statement, Jaishankar added.
A similar meeting of G-20 finance ministers and central bank heads over the weekend failed to reach a consensus on the language to describe Russia’s aggressions in Ukraine, forcing host India to issue a chair’s summary instead of a traditional joint communiqué. Russia and China had deviated from the Bali formula, objecting to the use of the word “war.”
Putin’s Domestic Trip Canceled Amid Reports of Border Attack (12:10 p.m.)
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the president was receiving regular reports on the events from top security officials. Russian state news agencies offered conflicting accounts of the events in the border area near Ukraine on Thursday, with some reporting casualties among civilians blamed on unidentified attackers, who numbered in the dozens.
Ukraine dismissed the claims as a Russian “provocation” aimed at building public support for the invasion. Ukraine’s Northern Military Command warned Feb. 23 that intelligence reports showed sightings of troops without insignia and wearing uniforms similar to Ukrainian ones in Russia’s Bryansk region close to the border.
Poland’s Orlen Won’t End Russian Oil Contract, CEO Says (12:05 p.m.)
PKN Orlen SA, Poland’s largest oil company, won’t terminate a supply contract with a Russian exporter after shipments via the Druzhba pipeline were halted last week, Chief Executive Officer Daniel Obajtek told PAP newswire.
State-controlled Orlen has argued that it needed the European Union sanctions to be able to terminate the Russian contract, which accounts for 10% of the country’s oil usage, without being exposed to contractual penalties. The company is yet to comment whether it expects the oil flows to resume. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said earlier this week that Orlen wouldn’t get any Russian oil in February and March.
Russia May Run Out of Money in 2024, Deripaska Warns (10:55 a.m.)
Billionaire Oleg Deripaska said Russia could find its coffers empty already next year and needs investment from “friendly” countries to break the hold of sanctions on the economy. “There will be no money already next year,” Deripaska said at the Krasnoyarsk Economic Forum in Siberia. “We will need foreign investors.”
Funds are now running low and “that’s why they’ve already begun to shake us down,” said Deripaska, founder of United Co, Rusal International PJSC, the biggest aluminum producer outside China. His comments are among the most outspoken by a prominent business leader as the government looks to turn the screws on large companies after ending last year with a record fiscal deficit and the budget still deep in the red to start 2023.
Billionaire Deripaska Warns Russia May Run Out of Money in 2024
Zelenskiy Aide Says Ukraine Under no Pressure to Compromise: HVG (10:40 a.m.)
Ukraine’s partners understand that Russia will remain a threat unless it loses the war and all those responsible for it are prosecuted, Zelenskiy aide Mykhaylo Podolyak told news website hvg.hu. There is “wide international consensus” behind Zelenskiy’s point of view. “We know that if we don’t win the war then Ukraine will cease to exist,” Podolyak said.
Moldova’s New Premier Sees No Risk of Military Escalation From Russia (10:10 a.m.)
Moldova’s new Prime Minister Dorin Recean said Russia doesn’t have the necessary resources to escalate its military conflict and invade the tiny nation, because of the distances involved and Ukrainian forces separating it from Moscow’s armed units.
The nation bordering Ukraine has enough capacity to handle a potential escalation from the breakaway region of Transnistria, which hosts Russian military units, but which is now “very much aligned with” the Moldovan government’s peace and security goals, Recean told Romanian state television late Wednesday.
Moldova has come under rising pressure from Russia over the past year, with missiles aimed at Ukraine crossing its airspace, domestic protests, and accusations that Moscow seeks to overthrow its pro-European government.
Scholz Cautions China Against Giving Arms to Russia (9.35 a.m.)
Scholz told the lower house of parliament in Berlin he’s frustrated that China has dropped what he called “a clear condemnation of the Russian attack” agreed by leaders at a Group of 20 summit in Bali last year. “My message to Beijing is clear: Use your influence in Moscow to press for the withdrawal of Russian troops,” Scholz said. “And,” he added, “do not supply weapons to the aggressor Russia.”
The US has warned China not to help arm Russia and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said last week that any weapons support to Moscow would come with “real costs.”
Ukraine Repays One-Year War Bonds (9:30 a.m.)
The Finance Ministry repaid war bonds to over 27 billion hryvnia ($730 million) issued on March 1, 2022, as Ukraine was raising money for its armed forces and civilians soon after Russia invaded. The government raised over 200 billion hryvnia in war bonds last year and around 25 billion hryvnia in 2023, the Ministry said on its website.
Russia Hits Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia with Missiles (8:10 a.m.)
Russia launched missiles at the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, hitting a residential four-storey building in the city center at night, police said. Four people were killed and six wounded by a Russian S-300 missile, the prosecutor general’s office said, citing preliminary information. Five people, including a child, were still missing.
More than 10 apartments were destroyed, the police said. “The terrorist state wants to turn every day for our people into a day of terror,” Zelenskiy said in a statement on Telegram addressing the attack.
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