May 31, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

EU's decision on the sixth package of sanctions will affect Russian economic development and prosperity, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said during a press conference Tuesday following an extraordinary European Council meeting.

"The sanctions have a clear objective, to get Russia to end this war and withdraw its troops and come to an agreement with Ukraine on a reasonable and fair peace,“ Scholz said in Brussels.

About 90 percent of oil imports to Europe is covered by the embargo. An exception for pipeline oil being delivered to some countries in Europe enabled a joint agreement, Scholz explained. "This was important because the transitional measures that these countries have to take have not been able to be finalized so quickly,“ he said. 

Germany and Poland are continuing their efforts to become independent of Russian oil by the end of the year, the German chancellor said.

A Europe-wide gas embargo is not yet within reach as many countries will remain dependent on Russian gas much longer than Germany, Scholz said. "Germany is rapidly becoming independent of gas imports by constructing infrastructure to enable gas imports from other countries with ships,“ he said. "Some investments will be made very quickly, so we hope that there will already be significant changes at the turn of the year, but some things will take longer. But one thing is pretty clear from my point of view: Many countries will need longer than Germany." 

The German chancellor blamed Russia for the looming food crisis. "The responsibility clearly lies with Russia and its president,“ Scholz said. 

Germany is working on a weapons exchange with Greece so that the country can send its tanks from former Warsaw treaty to Ukraine which will be replaced German infantry fighting vehicles, Scholz announced.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday said nothing could be ruled out about a possible next round of sanctions against Russia.

“I think we should not rule anything out for the coming weeks. Everything depends on the evolution of the situation on the ground,” Macron told reporters after a special European Union summit in Brussels. 

His remarks come after the EU leaders agreed on Monday to ban most Russian oil imports as part of a new sanctions package against Moscow. 

“[It] is a very strong package, which again, a few weeks ago nobody thought possible,” Macron said.   

Macron also announced that France has launched an investigation into the killing of French journalist Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff in Ukraine. The 32-year-old worked for CNN affiliate BFM TV, which said that he was shot and killed on Monday on the road to Lysychansk in the Severodonetsk area of Ukraine. 

The Ukrainian parliament voted to dismiss the country's human rights ombudsman, Liudmila Denisova, saying she failed in her main roles.

The parliament overwhelmingly passed a vote of no confidence in Denisova, with 234 in favor and 9 against, plus 28 abstentions. 

Frolov said Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk "was forced to do all this work."

Vereshchuk led the organization of evacuation corridors for Ukrainian civilians trying to escape the fighting and negotiated several exchanges of prisoners.

He added that the decision to seek Denisova's dismissal followed a meeting of the governing party in the Ukrainian parliament led by presidential adviser David Arakhamia.

CNN has reached out to Denisova for comment. 

In a brief statement on her Telegram channel, Denisova described her dismissal as unconstitutional.

"Today is the last day of my work as the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights," she said "I was fired in violation of the Constitution, laws of Ukraine and international standards. I will appeal this decision in court," she added.

"The law is the same for everyone!" she continued.

Ukraine has identified more than 600 Russian war crime suspects and has started prosecuting around 80 of them, Ukraine's Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said at a presser Tuesday. 

Venediktova spoke alongside International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan and other counterparts following a meeting in The Hague to discuss investigations into alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

She said high level military officials, politicians and "propaganda agents of the Russian Federation" are among the more than 600 Russian suspects. 

Venediktova said the investigations have been complicated by the fact that fighting is still ongoing. 

Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia have joined the international team investigating suspected war crimes in Ukraine, which was originally formed by Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland on March 21 to enable the exchange of information and resources, Venediktova said. 

Speaking at the same presser, Khan said ICC "will be working towards opening an office in Kyiv" in the next few weeks. 

Ukraine is in a state of fuel “price shock” and is now “completely dependent” on fuel imports after the country’s biggest oil refinery in Kremenchuk was destroyed by Russian missiles last month, Andrii Zakrevskyi, chair of Ukraine’s Oil and Gas Association, said at a press briefing on Tuesday.

“We are now completely dependent on fuel imports. Railway supply chains have also come under pressure. There are queues at the borders, and if you add 3,000 fuel trucks, the burden on the logistics routes will increase,” Zakrevskyi said.

He said the war has reduced national consumption by 30-40%, but it still lacks four to five million tons of fuel a year. He said before the war, 75% of all fuel came from Belarus. 

Zakrevskyi said the country needs to “build pipelines from the Baltic Sea ports to Ukraine," but “there are many difficulties.”

India’s appetite for cheap Russian oil is swelling, even as the West continues to hit Moscow with unprecedented sanctions.

Russian crude flows to India are expected to reach 3.36 million metric tonnes in May, according to estimates from financial market data provider Refinitiv. This is nearly nine times higher than the 2021 monthly average of 382,500 metric tonnes.

Overall, the country has received 4.8 million metric tonnes of discounted Russian oil since the Ukraine war started, Refinitiv added. Urals oil from Russia currently trades at about $95 a barrel, while the global benchmark Brent crude is above $119 a barrel.

Part of the reason for the price disparity: The West has shunned Russian oil. On Monday, the EU agreed to ban 90% of Russian oil imports by the end of the year. Europe is the biggest buyer of Russian energy.

The United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia have already banned imports.

The embargo from a huge importer like Europe would pile pressure on the Russian economy, but Moscow has found other buyers in Asia.

According to Refinitiv, Russia crude flows to India soared to 1.01 million metric tonnes in April from 430,000 metric tonnes in March.

India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas did not immediately respond to a query on the impact EU’s partial ban will have on the South Asian economy’s oil ties with Moscow.

Earlier in May, India played down the import spike. In a statement, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said the country imports oil from all over the world, including a significant volume from the United States.

The world’s biggest democracy has refrained from taking a tough stance against Moscow over the war in Ukraine. Russia and India have a long history of friendly relations, which stretch back to the Soviet era when the USSR helped India win its 1971 war with Pakistan.

India isn’t the only Asian giant buying Russian oil. China, historically the single biggest buyer of Russian oil, is expected to go on a shopping spree, too.

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India shows no sign of slowing its purchase of Russian oil

Taiwan announced Tuesday it will donate $6 million to five Ukrainian cities affected by Russia’s invasion – including Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city – as a token of support and to help rebuild schools and civilian infrastructure, according to a statement from its foreign ministry.

In a phone call with Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said Taipei will donate $2 million to Kharkiv and an additional $500,000 each to Chernihiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia.    

According to the statement, Terekhov expressed his gratitude and said he looks forward to inviting Wu to Kharkiv after the war.

The phone call with Kharkiv’s mayor follows a call with Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko in April, where Taipei announced a donation of $8.8 million to Ukraine.  

Taiwan does not have official diplomatic relations with Ukraine.  

Last Friday, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said it had finished transporting 582 tons of aid and supplies to the Ukrainian people.  

A “complete information blockade” is being imposed in several Russian-held cities of southern Ukraine, and Russian troops are now selling SIM cards to residents, Ukrainian officials said Tuesday.

“There is no internet and no mobile connection in Kherson region for almost 24 hours,” according to Hennadii Lahuta, the head of Kherson's regional military administration. “The occupiers are selling Russian SIM cards in the city. You need to provide your passport data in order to purchase a SIM card. I urge you not to do so and not to provide your personal data to the occupiers.”

Lahuta said loudspeakers in Kherson are telling residents that the Ukrainian authorities are to blame for the lack of communication, but he denied that, saying, “Ukraine is doing everything possible to bring mobile communication and the internet back to the Kherson region.”

Separately, the Ukrainian press center Ukrinform said that Ihor Kolykhaiev, the mayor of Kherson, didn't get in touch today despite a planned online briefing at 1 p.m. local time. The press center said it will try to reconnect with him on Wednesday.

The Ukrainian military’s Operational Command South said fighting and shelling continue in the entire Kherson region.

Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported Tuesday that the Kherson region will become part of the Russian Federation in the near future, according to the Russian-appointed local official Kirill Stremousov.

RIA-Melitopol, a Ukrainian news website, also reported that Stremousov said the Russian ruble has been put into full circulation as currency in Kherson as of Monday, along with the Ukrainian hryvnia.

To the east of Kherson in the Russian-held city of Melitopol, Russia has “made another complete information blockade,” said Ivan Fedorov, the exiled mayor of Melitopol.

In the Zaporizhzhia region, which includes Melitopol, three out of the five districts are without communications, according to Oleksandr Staruh, head of the regional military administration.

Two Russian soldiers were sentenced at a Ukrainian court to 11.5 years in jail on Tuesday for "violating the laws of war."

Oleksandr Bobykin and Oleksandr Ivanov pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.

"The court found no evidence of coercion. The defendants pleaded guilty. The court ruled that their guilt has been fully proven," said the court in an online livestream of the hearing at the Kotelevsky district court in the Poltava region Tuesday.

The soldiers were accused of firing Grad rockets from Russia’s Belgorod region towards Ukraine’s Kharkiv region on February 24.

They fired artillery and damaged "objects of civil and critical infrastructure, including private homes" in Kazacha Lopan and Veterynrne in the Kharkiv region, according to case details published on the court website.

The soldiers were captured by Ukrainian forces in the Kharkiv region, according to the court memos.

Last Monday, 21-year-old Russian soldier Vadim Shishimarin was sentenced to life in prison for killing an unarmed man in Ukraine's first war crimes trial since Russia's invasion.

Shishimarin pleaded guilty to shooting a 62-year-old civilian to death on the fourth day of the conflict in late February.