Tag: News

As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 196th day, we take a look at the main developments.

Here is the situation as it stands on Wednesday, September 7.

Energy

• United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has urged Russia and Ukraine to agree to a demilitarised perimeter around the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

• Russia’s Gazprom says it has signed an agreement to start switching payments for gas supplies to China to yuan and roubles instead of dollars.

• Myanmar has started buying Russian oil products and is ready to pay for deliveries in roubles; the RIA news agency cited military ruler Senior General Min Aung Hlaing as saying.

Fighting

• The Russian-installed commandant of a southern Ukrainian city was seriously wounded in a blast, an official said, the latest in a series of apparent assassination attempts in occupied areas.

• Ukrainian forces attacked the Russian-held eastern town of Balakliia in the Kharkiv region, according to a senior pro-Moscow separatist official, as Ukrainian officials were coy about how a counteroffensive was faring.

• Speaking to Ukrainian television, the governor of the Luhansk region said, without giving locations, that a “counterattack is under way and … our forces are enjoying some success. Let’s leave it at that.”

Diplomacy and politics

• Russia could be about to buy “literally millions” of artillery shells and rockets from old Cold War ally North Korea, the White House has said.

• Russia questioned a UN-brokered deal with Ukraine to boost grain and fertiliser exports by both countries, accusing Western states of failing to honour pledges to help facilitate Russia’s shipments.

• The United Kindgom’s new prime minister, Liz Truss, spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in her first call with a foreign leader and accepted an invitation for her to visit Ukraine.

• Russia has not taken any steps to change an UN-brokered deal to facilitate grain exports, Ukraine’s agriculture minister said after Russian President Putin suggested routes should be changed.

Economy/Markets

• The head of Russia’s VTB Bank has said the banking sector had largely overcome the most serious effects of Western sanctions and that systemic capitalisation of Russian banks was likely not needed.

• The United States Treasury is seeking to design a simple compliance regime for enforcing a price cap on Russian oil exports and hopes that China and India join the coalition or at least take advantage of it, Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo said.

As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its 192nd day, we take a look at the main developments.

Here is the situation as it stands on Friday, September 3.

Get the latest updates here.

Energy

• Russia scrapped the planned restart of Nord Stream 1, deepening Europe’s difficulties in securing winter fuel, after saying it had found faults in the pipeline during maintenance.
• G7 finance ministers agreed to impose a price cap on Russian oil aimed at slashing revenues for Moscow’s war in Ukraine while keeping crude flowing to avoid price spikes, but their statement left out key details.
• Ukraine has sharply increased fuel imports in recent months to overcome shortages which hit the country after the Russian invasion, the economy ministry said.

Nuclear plant

• Ukraine and Russia traded accusations over each others’ actions around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as a team of inspectors from the United Nations nuclear watchdog tried to check the safety of the facility.
• Ukraine’s state nuclear company, Energoatom, said it would be “difficult” for the International Atomic Energy Agency to make an impartial assessment of the situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant due to Russian interference.
• The fifth reactor at Zaporizhzhia was reconnected to Ukraine’s grid on Friday, a day after it shut down due to shelling near the site, Energoatom said.
• Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said Ukraine’s shelling of the Zaporizhzhia plant was raising the risk of a nuclear catastrophe in Europe.
• Ukraine’s military said it had carried out strikes against Russian positions in Enerhodar, a town near the Zaporizhzhia plant. The announcement was unusual since the military rarely gives details of specific targets.