U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with NATO foreign ministers in Brussels just hours after Russia’s shelling of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from Washington.
The head of Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, is again threatening to end service to the International Space Station, saying Russia will stop supplying rocket engines to the United States and may curtail cooperation on the station in retaliation for Western sanctions against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. NASA says operations on the orbiting observatory are normal.
In an interview with Russian state television Thursday, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said, considering the situation, “We can’t supply the United States with our world’s best rocket engines. Let them fly on something else, their broomsticks, I don’t know what.”
Rogozin said Russia has delivered 122 RD-180 engines to the U.S. since the 1990s, of which 98 have been used to power Atlas launch vehicles. The Washington Post said the engines are also used by United Launch Alliance, the joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing to launch national security missions for the Pentagon.
Russia said it would cut off the supply of the RD-181 engines used in Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket, which is used to fly cargo and supplies to the International Space Station.
Projects with Germans scrapped
Rogozin tweeted Thursday that Russian cosmonauts would not cooperate with Germany on joint experiments on the Russian segment of the ISS. Roscosmos will conduct them independently. He went on to say the “Russian space program will be adjusted against the backdrop of sanctions; the priority will be the creation of satellites in the interests of defense.”
Earlier in the week, in another interview with state television, Rogozin noted Russia is responsible for space station navigation, as well as fuel deliveries to the orbiting lab. He said Roscosmos “will closely monitor the actions of our American partners and, if they continue to be hostile, we will return to the question of the existence of the International Space Station.”
Russia had announced earlier that it was suspending cooperation with Europe on space launches from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana in response to Western sanctions.
Cooperation in space has traditionally avoided politics, and when asked about the situation Tuesday during a meeting of the NASA Advisory Council, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said, “Despite the challenges here on Earth, and they are substantial …. NASA continues the working relationship with all our international partners to ensure their safety and the ongoing safe operations of the ISS.”
Some information for this report came from Reuters.
Acting VOA Director Yolanda López’ statement on Russian blocking of VOA Russian website
March 4, 2022
The recent threat by the Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor to block VOA and other independent media outlets now is a reality for many in our audience there.
Our viewers and listeners in Russia deserve access to our factual news content at this critical time, not only about the ongoing war in Ukraine but also about all vital global events that impact their lives and actions.
VOA will continue to promote and support tools and resources that will allow our audiences to bypass any blocking efforts imposed on our sites in Russia. Our journalists will continue their reporting, an example of free press in action.
About VOA
Voice of America reaches a global weekly audience of more than 311.8 million people in 47 languages. VOA programs are delivered on satellite, cable, shortwave, FM, medium wave, streaming audio and video and more than 2,350 media outlets worldwide. It is funded by the U.S. Congress through USAGM.
Ukrainian officials say Russian forces have taken control of Europe’s largest nuclear plant, Zaporizhzhia, near the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar, after shelling it and sparking a fire in a building in the plant compound.
Ukraine’s nuclear inspectorate said here has been no radiation leak at the plant and added that plant personnel are continuing to operate the facility safely. Ukrainian officials said firefighters were able to get the blaze at the facility under control.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said a Russian “projectile” hit a training center at the plant. Russia’s Defense Ministry Friday, without citing evidence, accused “Ukrainian saboteurs” of the attack, calling it a “monstrous provocation.”
Enerhodar is a crucial power-generating city on the Dnieper River nearly 700 kilometers southeast of Kyiv. The Zaporizhzhia facility produces about 25% of Ukraine’s power.
Enerhodar, Ukraine
Nuclear safety experts have expressed concern that fighting so close to the power station could cut off the plant’s power supply, which would adversely affect the ability to keep the nuclear fuel cool, and increase the possibility of a nuclear meltdown.
U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and received an update on the fire at the nuclear power plant, according to a White House statement released late Thursday.
The Biden administration has requested $10 billion in supplemental funding from Congress “to deliver additional humanitarian, security, and economic assistance in Ukraine and the neighboring region in the coming days and weeks,” said a statement from Shalanda Young, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget. That money, she said, will cover defense equipment, emergency food aid, U.S. troop deployments to neighboring countries and stronger sanctions enforcement.
More sanctions on oligarchs
Also Thursday, Washington heaped another round of sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.
“Today I’m announcing that we’re adding dozens of names to the list, including one of Russia’s wealthiest billionaires, and I’m banning travel to America by more than 50 Russian oligarchs, their families and their close associates,” Biden said Thursday before a Cabinet meeting. “And we’re going to continue to support the Ukrainian people with direct assistance.”
Among the newly sanctioned Putin allies is Alisher Usmanov, one of Russia’s wealthiest individuals. German authorities have seized his 512-foot yacht, estimated to be worth nearly $600 million. Under the directive, his private jet is also open to seizure. The directive also bans more than 50 wealthy Russians from traveling to the United States.
The sanctions list also includes some of Putin’s oldest friends, a former judo partner and others with connections to the mercenary Wagner Group, and Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov.
“One of the big factors is, of course, the proximity to President Putin,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. “We want him to feel the squeeze. We want the people around him to feel the squeeze. I don’t believe this is going to be the last set of oligarchs.”
She also, again, ruled out Zelenskyy’s request for a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
“A no-fly zone requires implementation,” she said. “It would require, essentially, the U.S. military shooting down Russian planes and causing — prompting — a potential direct war with Russia: the exact step that we want to avoid.”
On the ground
Moscow’s attempt to quickly take over the Ukrainian capital has apparently stalled, but the military has made significant gains in the south in an effort to sever the country’s connection to the Black Sea and Sea of Azov.
Local government officials and the Russian military confirmed the seizure of the strategic port of Kherson, the first city to fall in the invasion, following days of disputed claims over who was in control. A U.S. defense official said Washington was unable to confirm the development.
Despite Russian assaults on Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol, they all remained in Ukrainian hands, Britain’s Defense Ministry said Thursday.
“We are a people who in a week have destroyed the plans of the enemy,” Zelenskyy said in a video address early Thursday. “They will have no peace here. They will have no food. They will have here not one quiet moment.”
Russian troops were besieging the port city of Mariupol, east of Kherson, an attempt Mayor Vadym Boichenko said was aimed at isolating Ukraine.
“They are trying to create a blockade here,” Boichenko said Thursday in a broadcast video. He said that the Russians were attacking rail stations to prevent civilian evacuations and that the attacks have cut off water and power.
Giving peace a (second) chance
Also Thursday, the two sides held a second round of peace talks in Belarus and agreed to set up humanitarian corridors with cease-fire zones so that civilians could safely flee. Ukraine had pushed for a general cease-fire.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov — who is also under direct U.S. sanctions — told reporters Thursday that Russian forces would continue their effort to destroy Ukraine’s military infrastructure and would not allow its neighbor to represent a military threat to Russia.
In a 90-minute telephone conversation Thursday with French President Emmanuel Macron, Putin told Macron that Russia would achieve its goals, including the demilitarization and neutrality of Ukraine, by any means necessary, the Kremlin said in a statement.
Macron told his Russian counterpart that the war he started against Ukraine was a “major mistake,” according to a French official. “You are lying to yourself,” Macron told Putin regarding the feasibility of his goals, the official said.
Poland has taken in half of the more than 1 million refugees who have fled Ukraine in the past week, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The U.N. body says it expects 4 million people could leave Ukraine because of the conflict.
Ukraine’s emergency agency said Wednesday that Russia’s attacks have killed more than 2,000 people across the country.
Faithful gather to pray for peace in Ukraine, amid Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, March 2, 2022.
Russia’s Defense Ministry put out its first casualty report, saying 498 of its troops were killed in Ukraine, with more than 1,500 wounded.
Russians ‘stalled’ outside Kyiv
A senior U.S. defense official said Thursday the Russian forces in northern Ukraine and outside Kyiv remained “largely stalled,” despite U.S. assessments that 90% of the combat power that Russia prepared for the invasion had entered Ukraine.
The official said that the cities in northern and eastern Ukraine, including Kyiv, Chernihiv and Kharkiv, were subjected Thursday to “heavy bombardment” but that Russian forces in the north were still facing stiff resistance.
“We continue to see them resist and fight and defend their territory and their resources quite effectively,” said the official, who added that Russia has launched more than 480 missiles since the invasion began.
Putin offered a more optimistic assessment Thursday, telling members of his security council on a video call that Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine is progressing “according to plan.”
“All tasks are being successfully carried out,” he said.
VOA State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching, national security correspondent Jeff Seldin, Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb, Istanbul foreign correspondent Heather Murdock and White House correspondent Anita Powell contributed to this report.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
Russian and Belarusian athletes were barred on Thursday from the Winter Paralympics in Beijing on the eve of the Games following threats of boycotts by other teams over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said.
Belarus has been a key staging area for the invasion, which was launched a week ago.
The decision comes a day after the IPC gave athletes from the two countries the green light to participate as neutrals, saying that the governing body had followed its rules and that “athletes were not the aggressors.”
But that decision led to an outcry and threats from other countries’ National Paralympic Committees (NPC) to boycott the Games, IPC President Andrew Parsons told a news conference in Beijing.
“They told us that if we do not reconsider our decision, it is now likely to have grave consequences for the Winter Games,” Parsons said.
“Multiple NPCs, some of which have been contacted by their governments, teams and athletes, are threatening not to compete.”
Parsons said it was clear the situation put his organization in a “unique and impossible position” so close to the start of the Games, adding that an overwhelming number of members had been in touch and been forthright in their objections to Russia and Belarus taking part.
A 71-member Russian contingent and 12-member team from Belarus are already in Beijing for the Games, which begin on Friday.
Parsons said the Russian and Belarusian athletes were victims of the actions of their governments.
“Athlete welfare will always be a priority for us,” he said.
“If Russian and Belarusian athletes stayed in Beijing, nations were likely to withdraw, and a viable Games would not have been possible.
“The atmosphere in the Games village is not pleasant. The situation there is escalating and has now become untenable … The Games are not only about gold, silver and bronze, but also about sending a strong message of inclusion.”
Parsons said the IPC was likely to face legal consequences but was confident that the right decision had been made.
The IPC said earlier in a statement that following a specially convened meeting, its Governing Board has decided not to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part.
The United States on Wednesday announced a comprehensive effort to identify and seize the assets of wealthy Russians who have supported the regime of Russian President Vladmir Putin, as part of its response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The new initiative, led by the Justice Department, is called Operation KleptoCapture and was hinted at by President Joe Biden on Tuesday in his State of the Union address.
“Tonight, I say to the Russian oligarchs and the corrupt leaders who bilked billions of dollars off this violent regime: No more,” Biden said. “The United States Department of Justice is assembling a dedicated task force to go after the crimes of the Russian oligarchs. We are joining with our European allies to find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets. We are coming for your ill-begotten gains.”
On Wednesday morning, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland announced the formation of the new task force, noting that its aim would be to enforce the punishing array of economic sanctions that have been levied against Russia since its invasion of Ukraine last week.
“The Justice Department will use all of its authorities to seize the assets of individuals and entities who violate these sanctions,” Garland said. “We will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to investigate, arrest and prosecute those whose criminal acts enable the Russian government to continue this unjust war. Let me be clear: If you violate our laws, we will hold you accountable.”
Familiar tools
Experts say the work of tracking and seizing the assets will rely on a combination of intelligence-gathering, data analysis and cooperation with international partners, which is common in criminal investigations.
“We’ve seen asset seizures in the past. We have seen yachts and apartments and stuff taken,” said Daniel P. Ahn, a global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a former chief economist for the Department of State. “This is a difference of scale, rather than a difference of instrument.”
Ahn said that identifying the real owners of some assets will be a “sticky intelligence problem.” Assets owned by extremely wealthy individuals are often controlled by a complex web of shell companies and other entities that disguise what law enforcement officials refer to as the “beneficial owner.”
Yachts on the move
Since the countries of the European Union, the United Kingdom, the U.S. and other allies began leveling sanctions on Russian banks and wealthy supporters of Putin, mega yachts owned, or believed to be owned, by Russian oligarchs have been tracked leaving ports in countries that have joined in the sanctions.
Several have sailed to the Republic of Maldives, an island chain in the Indian Ocean that does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.
On Wednesday, the oligarch Roman Abramovich, who owns the highly successful London-based football club Chelsea, announced that he had put the club up for sale, in the process writing off some $2 billion in loans he has made to it. On Tuesday, a member of the British Parliament said in a speech to the House of Commons that Abramovich was also trying to sell off a number of luxury properties in London.
Unloading obvious assets
Experts say they believe the oligarchs may try to dispose of assets that can be most easily linked to them in the hope that their seizure will satisfy Western governments.
“If I’m a kleptocrat, and I don’t want them to get the bulk of my stuff, I’m going to throw away the stuff that everybody knows about, and then they’ll hopefully leave me alone,” Jim Richards, founder and principal of RegTech Consulting, told VOA.
Richards, who was the director of financial crimes risk management for Wells Fargo & Company for a dozen years, said Abramovich and other oligarchs will have been careful to have large amounts of wealth hidden in complex holdings that will be difficult or impossible for law enforcement agencies to detect.
“I mean, the last thing these guys want is for their girlfriends, their kids and themselves to all end up in some apartment in Moscow,” he said.
Aim of sanctions
As Western nations continue to pile sanctions on the Russian economy, their ultimate objective could be questioned.
Ahn said there are three aims when it comes to sanctions, which may or may not overlap. The first is to inflict economic damage on the target. The second is to deter or reverse specific behaviors. The third is to express disapproval of specific actions by the party being sanctioned and/or solidarity with a victim of those actions.
Ahn said that to the degree the sanctions imposed on Russia are aimed at doing economic damage, they have been a “qualified success” so far. Time will likely worsen the effects on the Russian economy. But when it comes to preventing or reversing Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the sanctions have plainly failed, at least so far.
The symbolic success of sanctions regimes is typically greater the more multilateral they are, Ahn said. On that score, the actions taken against Russia have been quite successful, doing significant reputational damage to Putin’s government.
VOA responds to Russian government plans to block VOA Russian website
March 2, 2022
Today the Russian government warned the Voice of America of its intention to block the VOA Russian language service’s news website, www.golosameriki.com, unless it removes coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Russian government’s media regulator, Roskomnadzor, claims the news site “contains false messages about terrorist attacks or other kind (sic) of information of public concern.”
The media regulator demands that the VOA Russian service remove a news story from its site that provided factual reporting on the second day of the Russian invasion. The article included widely reported facts regarding Russian bombardment of cities, a Russian claim to have captured an airport close to Kyiv, and statements from witnesses as well as reporters inside Ukraine.
“Any attempts to interfere with the free flow of news and information are deeply troubling. We find this order to be in direct opposition to the values of all democratic societies,” says Acting VOA Director Yolanda López.
The warning to VOA follows a broader crackdown on the press by the Russian government. The same regulators also moved to shut down two Russian news organizations that reach large audiences, Ekho Moskvy and Dozhd, as well as Current Time’s website, a joint production of Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
“The Russian people deserve unfettered access to a free press and, therefore, we cannot comply with the Roskomnadzor’s request,” said Acting Director López.
About VOA
Washington, D.C. — Voice of America reaches a global weekly audience of more than 311.8 million people in 47 languages. VOA programs are delivered on satellite, cable, shortwave, FM, medium wave, streaming audio and video and more than 2,350 media outlets worldwide. It is funded by the U.S. Congress through USAGM.
Republican Governor Kim Reynolds of the midwestern U.S. state of Iowa laid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine squarely at the feet of President Joe Biden and his approach to foreign policy.
In the official Republican response to the Democratic president’s State of the Union address, Governor Reynolds offered a list of what she described as the administration’s foreign policy failures, including last year’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, which she said not only “cost American lives,” but “betrayed our allies and emboldened our enemies.”
Reynolds suggested Biden allowed the Ukraine invasion to occur by waiving sanctions on Russian pipelines while eliminating domestic oil production. She concluded that Biden and congressional Democrats were too busy “focusing on political correctness rather than military readiness.”
“Weakness on the world stage has a cost,” Reynolds said. “And the president’s approach to foreign policy has consistently been too little, too late.”
Turning her attention to the U.S. economy, the first-term governor said Biden and congressional Democrats have spent the last year “either ignoring issues facing Americans or making them worse,” specifically inflation. Reynolds said the administration was warned that “spending trillions of dollars would lead to soaring inflation, and were told that anti-energy policies would send gas prices to new heights.”
She also boasted of the approach taken by her and other Republican governors in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. This included opposing coronavirus restrictions such as vaccine and mask mandates, especially those in public schools.
She said keeping schools open is just the start of a “pro-parent, pro-family revolution” that includes banning the teaching of so-called critical race theory, which conservatives contend could further divide Americans and worsen race relations.
“Americans are tired of a political class trying to remake this country into a place where an elite view tells everyone else what they can and cannot say, what they can and cannot believe,” Reynolds said. “They’re tired of people pretending the way to erase racism is by categorizing everybody by their race.”
The 62-year-old Reynolds began her political career as the elected treasurer of a rural county, serving four terms in that office before her election to the Iowa state Senate in 2008. She was elevated to the post of lieutenant governor two years later as the running mate of Governor Terry Branstad, succeeding him in 2017 when he was confirmed as then-President Donald Trump’s choice as ambassador to China.
Republican Governor Kim Reynolds of the midwestern U.S. state of Iowa laid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine squarely at the feet of President Joe Biden and his approach to foreign policy.
In the official Republican response to the Democratic president’s State of the Union address, Governor Reynolds offered a list of what she described as the administration’s foreign policy failures, including last year’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, which she said not only “cost American lives,” but “betrayed our allies and emboldened our enemies.”
Reynolds suggested Biden allowed the Ukraine invasion to occur by waiving sanctions on Russian pipelines while eliminating domestic oil production. She concluded that Biden and congressional Democrats were too busy “focusing on political correctness rather than military readiness.”
“Weakness on the world stage has a cost,” Reynolds said. “And the president’s approach to foreign policy has consistently been too little, too late.”
Turning her attention to the U.S. economy, the first-term governor said Biden and congressional Democrats have spent the last year “either ignoring issues facing Americans or making them worse,” specifically inflation. Reynolds said the administration was warned that “spending trillions of dollars would lead to soaring inflation, and were told that anti-energy policies would send gas prices to new heights.”
She also boasted of the approach taken by her and other Republican governors in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. This included opposing coronavirus restrictions such as vaccine and mask mandates, especially those in public schools.
She said keeping schools open is just the start of a “pro-parent, pro-family revolution” that includes banning the teaching of so-called critical race theory, which conservatives contend could further divide Americans and worsen race relations.
“Americans are tired of a political class trying to remake this country into a place where an elite view tells everyone else what they can and cannot say, what they can and cannot believe,” Reynolds said. “They’re tired of people pretending the way to erase racism is by categorizing everybody by their race.”
The 62-year-old Reynolds began her political career as the elected treasurer of a rural county, serving four terms in that office before her election to the Iowa state Senate in 2008. She was elevated to the post of lieutenant governor two years later as the running mate of Governor Terry Branstad, succeeding him in 2017 when he was confirmed as then-President Donald Trump’s choice as ambassador to China.
The United States said Monday that it was expelling 12 Russian diplomats based at Moscow’s U.N. mission in New York for engaging in espionage activities.
“The United States has informed the United Nations and the Russian Permanent Mission to the United Nations that we are beginning the process of expelling twelve intelligence operatives from the Russian Mission who have abused their privileges of residency in the United States by engaging in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security,” U.S. Mission to the United Nations spokesperson Olivia Dalton said in a statement. “We are taking this action in accordance with the U.N. Headquarters Agreement. This action has been in development for several months.”
FILE – Vassily Nebenzia, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations, addresses the United Nations Security Council at U.N. headquarters in New York, April 10, 2019.
Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters that the U.S. gave them until March 7 to leave the country. He said that it is a “hostile action” by the U.S. government and violates Washington’s obligations as the host country of the United Nations.
Nebenzia also called the order “sad news” and said the U.S., the host country, was showing “gross disrespect” to its commitments “both under U.N. Charter and the Host Country Agreement, and Vienna conventions.” The Vienna Convention also applies to the treatment of diplomats.
Nebenzia received the news in a phone call during a press conference about the Ukraine conflict. He said the U.S. had delivered a letter to Moscow’s New York mission with the decision.
It is not the first time the U.S. has declared Russian diplomats at the U.N. persona non grata. Most recently, in 2018, the Trump administration expelled a dozen Russian diplomats from the U.N. mission on similar charges as tensions rose over a poisoning attack on a former Russian spy in Britain.
Nebenzia also informed members of the U.N. Security Council of the development at the start of a meeting on the growing humanitarian crisis.
“We keep being told about the need for diplomacy, diplomatic solutions. And at the same time, our opportunities to conduct this kind of activity are being restricted,” he said. “We deeply regret this decision and will see how events develop within the context of this decision.”
U.S. envoy Richard Mills replied that the decision was taken in full accordance with the U.N. Headquarters Agreement.
BOGOTA COLOMBIA). Monday, February 28, 2022 (RPTV NEWS AGENCY). A hundred Ukrainians residing in Colombia protested at the Russian Embassy in Bogotá, demanding that Putin stop the attacks against their people. The demonstration was joined by Russian citizens who disagree with the Kremlin’s decision.
“We are going to stop this war ourselves, because the enemy has come to our land, is destroying our houses and killing our people,” said Valeriya Itchenko, a Ukrainian who has lived in Colombia for 15 years.
She, like dozens of her compatriots, came out to protest against Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.
“We ask that the whole world listen to us and we ask that the Russian authorities listen to us. What they do is illegal, they must condemn what Putin does,” said Rostyslav, a Ukrainian living in Colombia.
And it is not for less, they and the whole world condemn the Russian advance in Ukrainian territory that has caused the displacement of more than 400,000 Ukrainians.
“They are bombing us and we have tanks in the streets, so who can sleep with that situation like this,” says Elena Rockas, a Ukrainian in Colombia.
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BOGOTA COLOMBIA). Saturday, February 26, 2022 (RPTV NEWS AGENCY). Ukrainians and Colombians held a sit-in in front of the Russian embassy in Bogotá, against the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began at dawn on Thursday and has already left hundreds dead and hundreds displaced.
With a large Ukrainian flag, which was held by several people, the protesters stood in front of the headquarters of the Russian diplomatic delegation in Colombia. Likewise, the attendees also showed banners with messages such as “no to the war in Ukraine”, “stop the war in Ukraine” and “no to war, not to Putin”.
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The United States announced Friday that it would freeze the assets of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, following similar steps taken by the European Union and Britain, as nations around the world sought to tighten sanctions against Russia’s government over its invasion of Ukraine.
The U.S. Treasury Department announced the action after EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels unanimously agreed to freeze the property and bank accounts of the top Russian officials.
Britain’s government took the same action Friday, with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss writing on Twitter, “We will not stop inflicting economic pain on the Kremlin until Ukrainian sovereignty is restored.”
A Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said the sanctions against Putin and Lavrov reflected the West’s “absolute impotence” in foreign policy, according to the RIA news agency.
World leaders are rarely the target of direct sanctions. The only other leaders currently under EU sanctions are Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to Agence France-Presse.
FILE – Alexander Schallenberg addresses a press conference at the Federal Chancellery in Vienna, Oct. 11, 2021.
Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said the move was “a unique step in history” toward a country that has a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, but said it showed how united EU countries were in countering Russia’s actions.
The EU sanctions against Putin and Lavrov are part of a broader sanctions package that targets Russian banks, oil refineries and the Russian defense industry.
EU leaders agreed, however, it was premature to impose a travel ban on Putin and Lavrov because negotiating channels need to be kept open.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called Friday for nations to cut Russia off from the SWIFT international bank transfer system “to inflict maximum pain.”
Ukraine has lobbied for a SWIFT ban on Russia, urging Europe to act more forcefully in imposing sanctions against Moscow. However, some European nations, including Germany, are hesitant to take that step.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Friday that the package of banking sanctions the EU has passed would hit Putin’s government harder than excluding Russia from the SWIFT payments system.
“The sword that looks hardest isn’t always the cleverest one,” she said, adding, “the sharper sword at the moment is listing banks.”
FILE – Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn speaks with reporters during arrivals for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the Brdo Congress Center in Kranj, Slovenia, Sept. 2, 2021.
Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said, “The debate about SWIFT is not off the table. It will continue.”
In response to the sanctions, Russia has taken its own measures, including banning British flights over its territory, after Britain imposed a similar ban on Aeroflot flights.
The United States and several allies had imposed a first tranche of sanctions Tuesday, after Putin declared the disputed eastern Ukraine regions of Luhansk and Donetsk as independent states, much as he appropriated Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
Biden added another round of sanctions on Russia on Thursday, hours after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, declaring at the White House after meeting virtually with leaders of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations and NATO that “Putin chose this war, and now he and his country will bear the consequences.”
Biden said those U.S. sanctions, which target Russian banks, oligarchs and high-tech sectors and include export controls, would “squeeze Russia’s access to finance and technology for strategic sectors of its economy and degrade its industrial capacity for years to come.”
Effects on markets
NATO allies, including Britain and the European Union, also imposed more sanctions Thursday, and the effects were felt almost immediately when global security prices plunged and commodity prices surged. Biden acknowledged that Americans would see higher gasoline prices.
More than half of all Americans, 52%, viewed the Russia-Ukraine conflict before Russia’s invasion “as a critical threat to U.S. vital interests,” a significant increase from 2015, when 44% thought it was a threat after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, according to a poll released Friday by Gallup.
The poll was conducted from February 1-17 before the Russian government recognized the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk and deployed troops to those areas.
As in 2015, roughly half of Democrats and Republicans said they were likely to see the conflict as a critical threat to U.S. vital interests.
Also Friday, an International Criminal Court prosecutor warned that the court might investigate whether Russia has committed any war crimes in its invasion of Ukraine.
“I remind all sides conducting hostilities on the territory of Ukraine that my office may exercise its jurisdiction and investigate any act of genocide, crime against humanity or war crime committed within Ukraine,” ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said Friday in a statement.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
The sounds of the bombs woke up the inhabitants of Kiev (Ukraine) on Thursday morning. The fear of a war, which for the last few weeks had kept the Ukrainians in uncertainty, began to materialize in the last few hours after the Russian attacks and invasions of their territory.
Almost immediately, thousands of people, who already had their bags packed, decided to leave their homes and flee the war that, according to the latest reports, leaves 57 Ukrainians dead and 169 wounded. Kiev highways collapsed, as there is fear of a bombing in the country’s capital.
(Also: Russia – Ukraine: Officials estimate that Kiev will fall in a matter of hours)
But not everyone has been able to get out. They have no way to do it and they are also afraid to do it. “Everything is dangerous,” says Olia Kovtun, a Ukrainian citizen who is trapped with her Colombian daughter, a three-year-old girl.
(Due to the public interest that the events between Russia and Ukraine arouse, all our coverage of that invasion and related actions will have free access for all readers of EL TIEMPO)
Although the Colombian government has said that it will evacuate the 68 nationals who are in the territory at war, as well as the 28 foreigners who are part of their family nucleus, it has also said that this must be done by traveling to Poland, or other countries. , but for those who are in the crossfire, this is not easy.
(You may be interested: UN nuclear agency calls for “maximum moderation” at the Chernobyl plant)
I need to go with my daughter who is 3 years old. So that worries me, although I found some cars, it is dangerous
“It’s not easy to go. There are no cars, no buses, no trains, everything is busy,” says the woman, who adds that this is compounded by the difficulty and dangers involved in traveling with her baby, whose father is Colombian and currently It is in our country.
Among the communications he had with the Colombian authorities for his evacuation, they assured him that it was necessary to go to Poland because it was not yet known whether it was possible to organize transportation from the Ukrainian capital.
“But it is difficult to go from here to Lviv – a city 70 kilometers from the border with Poland – because I need to go with my daughter who is 3 years old. So that worries me, although I found some cars, it is dangerous.”
(Also read: Russian-Ukrainian war live: at least 57 Ukrainians killed and 169 wounded)
So for now, he will follow other recommendations, such as staying home while he finds a way to travel, despite the dangers that this also means.
Kovtun says that this Thursday there was a small food shortage and, in addition, the prices of what was left rose. “I think it was because everyone wanted to buy, just in case,” he says.
Rows in supermarkets and pharmacies in Kiev this Thursday.
Regarding what is happening in the city, the woman narrates that there are people who still do not believe what is happening, despite the bombings and the news, which show that there are other regions where this war is already being experienced with greater intensity.
“People are in shock. Older people don’t want to believe that something bad is going to happen. They all want to leave, some go to other towns, others to a different country. But there are also men who want to fight for their land, of these there are many young people. Some of my friends and their families received a call to go to the military isolation office”.
(In other news: Russia’s attack on Ukraine: traffic jams and panic on the outskirts of Kiev)
For now, Kovtun hopes to get some sleep at night and early morning so that he can leave his house on Friday and try to find a safe means of transportation. However, she calls on the Colombian authorities to help her, her daughter and the other Colombians who cannot travel to Poland.
U.S. lawmakers stepped up calls Tuesday for sanctions against Russia, urging the Biden administration to act swiftly to penalize Russian President Vladimir Putin for recognizing the occupied regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine as independent states.
Despite significant bipartisan unity for deterring Russian aggression in Ukraine, Democrats and Republicans have struggled to agree on how to sequence sanctions to discourage and penalize Putin for incursions into the independent eastern European nation.
But Putin’s televised national speech Monday characterizing Ukraine as historically part of Russia and “never a true nation” drew swift condemnation from top U.S. lawmakers.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, chairs a Security Council meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 21, 2022.
“Vladimir Putin’s illegal recognition of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics is an act of unprovoked aggression and a brazen violation of international law,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez said in a statement.
“This illegal recognition is an attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty. To be clear, if any additional Russian troops or proxy forces cross into Donbas, the Biden administration and our European allies must not hesitate in imposing crushing sanctions,” Menendez continued.
An estimated 150,000 Russian troops have massed at the border with Ukraine in recent weeks. Putin’s claim that the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk are no longer a part of Ukraine opens the door for so-called Russian “peacekeeping” troops to go into those areas. The U.S. and its allies say this mission is a false flag operation to allow further incursion into Ukraine.
Many Republicans have criticized the White House’s approach to the crisis, calling the Russian leader’s move an invasion and accusing the Biden administration of waiting until it is too late to deter Putin.
“Setting the trigger for meaningful sanctions to Russian tanks rolling across Ukraine’s border was a dangerous mistake,” Rep. Mike McCaul and Mike Rogers, the ranking Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs and House Armed Services Committees, said in a statement Monday. “Secretary Blinken committed to a “swift and firm response’ by the United States and its allies if Putin recognized Russian-backed separatist Republics in Donbas. Now that the Kremlin has done so, we must immediately impose real costs for this blatant act of aggression.”
Donetsk and Luhansk regions
The United States has already announced an executive order prohibiting new American investment and trade in those regions. The White House said additional “swift and severe” actions would follow Tuesday.
But some Republicans said these actions had come too late to be effective.
“Biden-Harris officials are to an enormous extent directly responsible for this crisis. He and his administration instead settled for an endlessly deferred and wholly uncredible strategy of responding to Putin’s aggression after an invasion. They have pursued bizarre tactics like declassifying American intelligence and trying to shame Putin. That approach has failed,” Republican Senator Ted Cruz said Monday.
Congressional Democrats praised Biden for preparing for this moment and said it marked a turning point in triggering sanctions on the Kremlin.
“The time for taking action to impose significant costs on President Putin and the Kremlin starts now,” Senator Chris Coons, a top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement Monday.
“President Biden has ably led months of preparation for this moment with our allies in NATO and Europe, and I’m encouraged by clear condemnations of Putin’s actions as well as statements of unity from our partners and allies. We must swiftly join our NATO allies and partners in the European Union to impose forceful new sanctions on Russia,” Coons continued.
Both Menendez and Risch have introduced sanctions legislation in the U.S. Senate that would end Russian access to international banking transactions, provide hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine as well as cutting off funding for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives are in recess this week and not set to be back in session until the end of the month.
China’s deepening ties with Russia will come with heavy geopolitical and economic consequences should the Ukraine crisis escalate, analysts say.
While the two powers have recently intensified their so-called comprehensive strategic partnership, Beijing has not offered its full support for Moscow’s military encirclement of its neighbor.
And there have been signs Beijing is worried that a Russia-Ukraine confrontation might not be in China’s national interest while its relationship with the West is deteriorating and its economy is slowing down.
The country called again Friday for a political resolution of the crisis. “Efforts should be made on the basis of the Minsk-2 agreement to properly treat the reasonable security concerns of all sides including Russia through dialogue and negotiation,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin.
Debate on response
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Beijing is weighing how much it will support Russian President Vladimir Putin on Ukraine. According to people with knowledge of the matter, the report said, China’s top leaders have debated how to respond to the crisis without hurting China’s own interests.
“I can’t see how China could support Russia in any sort of meaningful way and not do rather significant damage to the U.S.-China relationship,” said Michael Hunzeker, an assistant professor at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government. He spoke to VOA in a telephone interview.
FILE – White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan speaks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, Aug. 17, 2021.
The U.S. has recently strongly criticized China’s support for Russia.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan accused China of giving a “wink and a nod” to a Russian invasion of Ukraine and said, “I believe that China will ultimately come to suffer consequences as a result of that in the eyes of the rest of the world, most notably in the eyes of our European partners and allies.”
Dustin Walker, a nonresident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told VOA he believed that Europe would see China’s support for Putin’s brinksmanship on Ukraine as further evidence that China is a systemic rival, leading the region to “rethink its relationship with China.”
Testing ties
A possible Russian-Ukrainian confrontation would also test the relationship between Beijing and Moscow. If China, fearing repercussions for its own economy, were to comply with Western sanctions against Russia, Walker noted, it would be seen by Moscow as an unreliable partner.
Walker pointed out that in the joint statement issued after Xi and Putin met at the Beijing Olympics, China explicitly opposed NATO enlargement for the first time, but didn’t mention Ukraine.
That “has to raise the question whether Putin asked for something that he didn’t get from China,” Walker said.
Experts also note that China did not recognize the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, as it places fighting against separatism at the heart of its national security.
In Beijing’s diplomatic parlance, China and Russia maintain a “comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination.” Russia remains the first and only major country to establish this type of partnership with China, said Craig Singleton, a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
With China’s economy rapidly cooling, Xi will be focused, at least for the foreseeable future, on maintaining economic stability, which is something that Putin may or may not be inclined to respect as he pursues his interests in Ukraine, Singleton said in an email exchange with VOA. “China and Russia will find it incredibly difficult to synchronize their strategies,” he wrote.
War undermines stability
China also has important financial ties with Ukraine. It is Kyiv’s largest trading partner, and the two countries have had a strategic partnership since 2011. Ukraine joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a global infrastructure plan, even before Russia did.
FILE – The Lithuanian Embassy is seen in Beijing, Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021. Beijing on Monday, Jan. 10, 2022, accused Washington of inciting Lithuania to “contain China” in a feud over the status of self-ruled Taiwan after U.S. officials expressed support for the European Union-member country in the face of Chinese economic pressure.
While China is also the EU’s largest trading partner, the relationship is believed to be at its lowest point in decades. When Beijing began trying to sanction EU member state Lithuania over its policies toward Taiwan, the EU rallied to Vilnius’ defense, suing China for coercive trade practices at the World Trade Organization.
China exports almost 10 times as much to the European Union and Britain as it does to Russia, noted Singleton in a recent article published by Foreign Policy. He said Xi, in recent months, has personally stepped in to try to soothe relations with Europe because China needs enhanced ties to help it weather the current economic storm.
Some analysts believe that an extended showdown with Moscow over Ukraine could distract the United States from its vaunted “pivot to Asia,” leaving China more space to expand its influence in the region.
Hunzeker, the George Mason University professor, acknowledged that such a development would be advantageous to China. But, he said, “I don’t think we’re going to play into that sort of mistake.”
U.S. President Joe Biden is speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday as the United States says the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine looms as a “distinct possibility” in the coming days.
Biden is conferring by phone with the Ukrainian leader from the Camp David presidential retreat outside Washington, where the U.S. leader is spending the weekend as Western officials express increased fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin could attack the one-time Soviet republic in the next few days, possibly by Wednesday.
Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security official, told CNN’s “State of the Union” show that the U.S. cannot predict whether Russia might invade this week or after the Beijing Olympics end in a week, but that there is “a distinct possibility there will be a major military action.”
While the U.S. has warned for several months of the threat of a Russian attack, Sullivan said “in the last few days” Moscow has accelerated its military buildup.
Biden, in an hour-long call Saturday with Putin, warned the Russian leader that invading Ukraine would cause “widespread human suffering.” Biden said the United States and its allies remained committed to diplomacy to end the crisis but were “equally prepared for other scenarios.”
Russia said Biden continued to fail to address Moscow’s main security concerns, including ruling out Ukraine’s possible membership in the 30-country NATO military alliance led by the U.S. The Western allies have ruled out Russian veto power over NATO membership as a nonstarter but said they are willing to negotiate other security issues, such positioning of missiles in NATO counties closest to Russia and NATO troop training exercises.
Moscow’s troops have now surrounded much of Ukraine with more than 130,000 troops, to the north of Ukraine in Russian ally Belarus and along Ukraine’s eastern border with Russia, while positioning warships to the south in the Black Sea along the Crimean Peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
“I’m not handicapping what will happen,” Sullivan said, but added that the U.S. and its allies would impose a “significant strategic [economic] loss” on Russia if it attacks Ukraine.
Biden has ruled out sending the U.S. military to fight in Ukraine but sent 5,000 U.S. troops to NATO countries in eastern European countries closest to Russia to help bolster their fighting forces.
The U.S. has urged all Americans living in Ukraine to leave immediately, and the Defense Department has pulled out 160 military advisers who had been assisting the Kyiv government.
Travelers wait at the check-in counters ahead of their flights at the Boryspil airport some 30 kilometers outside Kyiv on Feb. 13, 2022.
Sullivan said the U.S. believes a Russian attack could start with a barrage of missiles and aerial bombings followed by a ground invasion.
“Civilians could be killed regardless of their nationality,” he said.
Numerous countries have ordered their diplomatic personnel to leave Kyiv, while some are keeping smaller contingents in consulates in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, near the Polish border.
Several international airlines have stopped flying into Ukraine because of the impending threat of warfare, although Ukraine said it has not closed its airspace.
Dutch airline KLM said Saturday that it has canceled flights to Ukraine until further notice.
Dutch worries about the potential danger in Ukrainian airspace is high in the wake of the 2014 shootdown of a Malaysian airliner over an area of eastern Ukraine held by Russia-backed rebels. All 298 people aboard were killed, including 198 Dutch citizens.
The Ukrainian charter airline SkyUp said Sunday that its flight from Madeira, Portugal, to Kyiv was diverted to the Moldovan capital, Chisinau, after the Irish leasing company that owns the plane said it was banning flights in Ukrainian airspace.
Some material in this report came from the Associated Press.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he will speak with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, later Saturday about what appears to be Russia’s imminent invasion of Ukraine.
Blinken, speaking at a press conference in Fiji, said if Russan President Vladimir Putin “decides to take military action [against Ukraine] we will swiftly impose severe economic sanctions in coordination with allies and partners around the globe, will bolster Ukraine’s ability to defend itself, we will reinforce our allies on the eastern flank. I’ll underscore this unity and result when I speak with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov later tonight.”
Unnamed U.S. intelligence officials told The Associated Press that Washington is ready to evacuate its embassy in Kyiv in anticipation of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The AP story says the State Department will announce plans early Saturday that would require all American embassy staff to leave Ukraine because of the anticipated invasion.
A few U.S. diplomats may be relocated to far western Ukraine, near Poland, a NATO ally, the anonymous government officials, who are not authorized to speak, told AP. That move would allow the U.S. to maintain a “diplomatic presence” in Ukraine.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said a Russian invasion of Ukraine could begin “during the Olympics.”
Sullivan, speaking at a White House briefing Friday, said “we are in the window when an invasion could begin at any time should [Russian President] Vladimir Putin decide to order it.”
Many analysts have said that Russia is unlikely to carry out any invasion before the Winter Olympics in China end Feb. 20.
Russia now has enough forces on Ukraine’s border to conduct a major military operation, Sullivan said, and Russia could seize “significant territory” in Ukraine, including the capital, Kyiv, in an attack.
He urged Americans in Ukraine to leave in the next 24-48 hours, saying a Russian invasion could begin with an air assault that would make departures difficult.
“The risk is high enough and the threat is now immediate enough that prudence demands that it is the time to leave now,” Sullivan said.
Also Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden took part in a secure video call with world leaders to discuss Ukraine.
“The leaders agreed on the importance of coordinated efforts to deter further Russian aggression against Ukraine, including their readiness to impose massive consequences and severe economic costs on Russia should it choose military escalation,” according to a White House statement. In addition to Biden, the call included the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Britain, NATO, the European Union and the European Council.
A senior U.S. defense official told reporters that Biden has ordered an additional 3,000 soldiers to Poland in addition to the 1,700 already headed there. The Pentagon said the troops are being deployed to reassure NATO allies and deter any potential aggression against NATO’s eastern flank.
The Pentagon announced last week the deployment of the previous 1,700 troops to Poland along with 300 troops who were to be moved from the United States to Germany. It also announced at that time that 1,000 troops already based in Germany were to be redeployed to Romania.
Speaking Friday with several of his counterparts in NATO countries, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the United States stands “united with our NATO Allies to deter and defend against any aggression,” according to a Pentagon statement.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba Friday “to reaffirm the United States’ robust support for Ukraine.”
Map: Russian troop locations near Ukraine
Blinken “underscored that any and all aggression against Ukraine by Russia will be met with swift, severe and united consequences,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said.
The comments by the U.S. led to the biggest drop in Russia’s ruble in nearly two years. The ruble was down 2.8% Friday, set for its largest daily percentage drop against the dollar since March 2020.
Earlier Friday, Blinken warned of a possible Russian attack on Ukraine at “any time” and urged U.S. citizens to leave the Eastern European country immediately.
He made his comments after meeting in Australia with leaders of the so-called Quad countries — the United States, Australia, Japan and India.
Blinken’s warning also came one day after Biden urged Americans to leave the country immediately and warned in an interview with NBC News of a potential major conflict with Russia should a clash erupt between U.S. and Russian troops.
On Thursday, Biden said, “We’re dealing with one of the largest armies in the world. This is a very different situation, and things could go crazy quickly.”
The U.S. president said he would not send troops to Ukraine, even to rescue Americans in case of a Russian invasion.
“That’s a world war. When Americans and Russians start shooting one another, we’re in a very different world,” he said.
Russia opened 10 days of massive military drills in Belarus on Thursday and docked six of its ships at a strategic Black Sea port, drawing a sharp rebuke from Ukrainian officials, who characterized Moscow’s actions as further escalating tensions in the region.
The Russian maneuvers in Belarus involved thousands of troops and sophisticated weapons systems, such as S-400 surface-to-air missiles, Pantsir air defense systems and Su-35 fighter jets, with some of the training just 210 kilometers north of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
Officials in Moscow and Minsk have said Russian troops will withdraw from Belarus sometime after the drills end Feb. 20. But Western officials remain fearful they could be deployed in a Russian invasion of Ukraine, a onetime Soviet republic, along with 100,000 troops Moscow has amassed along Ukraine’s eastern flank.
Ukrainian officials, who launched their own drills on Thursday, assailed the impending Black Sea naval drills, characterizing them as “destructive activity to destabilize the security situation.” Kyiv accused Russia of violating international law by restricting wide swaths of open water to conduct missile and artillery fire training.
Russian officials have denied they plan to invade Ukraine, but diplomatic talks with Western officials have led to a standoff. Russia has demanded that the United States and its allies reject Ukraine’s bid for membership in NATO.
The West has rejected that as a nonstarter but has said it is willing to negotiate with Moscow over missile deployment and troop exercises in Eastern European countries closest to Russia.
Western governments have been calling on Russia to take steps to de-escalate the crisis and have vowed to impose swift and severe economic sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine.
Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
At their first meeting in four years, officials of the U.S.-European Union Energy Council confronted an urgent, short-term priority – bolstering natural gas supplies amid a Russian threat to invade Ukraine – and a longer-term concern: mitigating climate change.
“We’re coordinating with our allies and partners, with the energy sector stakeholders, including on how best to share energy reserves in the event that Russia turns off the spigot or initiates a conflict that disrupts the flow of gas through Ukraine,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken following Monday’s meeting in Washington.
Moscow has threatened to halt the flow of gas to Europe if economic sanctions are imposed as a result of any further Russian aggression against Ukraine.
“This crisis has been pushing trans-Atlantic unity,” according to Josep Borrell, the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy.
“In the medium term, there is the climate neutrality,” explained Borrell, who is also the vice president of the European Commission. “In the short term, it’s security of supplies of gas. Both things go together.”
Europe is likely to rely more on the United States for its gas supplies as a result of the crisis. President Joe Biden has pledged to help Europe find additional liquified natural gas from sources in the United States and other countries if Russia-Ukraine tensions cause disruptions.
“We think we can make up a significant portion of it that would be lost,” Biden said at a White House news conference alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday afternoon.
That is seen by some environmentalists as counter-productive to achieving reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, something the United States and the European Union have pledged to work together to accomplish.
European officials “are not doing everything they need to be to get their addiction to gas ramped down as fast as possible. They’re really convinced that they need gas, and they see the U.S. as a supplier for that,” Aki Kachi, senior policy analyst at NewClimate Institute in Germany, told VOA News. “Generally, in both the EU and the U.S., there’s a lack of understanding about the climate impacts of gas.”
“Germany has decided to phase out the use of oil and gas very soon and by 2045 Germany will have a carbon-neutral economy as one of the strongest economies of the world,” Scholz told reporters at the White House. “It’ll probably be the biggest industrial modernization project in Germany in 100 years.”
The trans-Atlantic partnership has pledged to increase collaboration on reducing emissions from fossil fuels and expanding use of energy from the sun, wind, batteries and hydrogen.
“As we face geopolitical tensions and the challenge of climate change, we need more, not less, trans-Atlantic cooperation,” Kadri Simson, the European Commission’s energy commissioner, said at the meeting’s opening.
European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson speaks during a meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, and European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell Fontelles, at th
At the start of Monday’s discussion, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the goals set out in Washington and Brussels have significant geo-political ramifications at a time when energy prices have “gone through the roof” on both sides of the Atlantic amid the threats from Russia.
“This is not just an energy and climate issue,” Granholm told the meeting. “It also is potentially the greatest peace plan that ever existed, to be able to build out energy independence from clean energy.”
Together, the economies of the U.S. and the EU represent about 45% of the world’s economic output, and an even smaller percentage of global carbon dioxide emissions. That means for the world to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, the legally binding international treaty on climate change, other major emitters will need to make good on their ambitious pledges.
“If only the EU and the U.S. are taking action, it wouldn’t be enough,” Kachi noted. “But it’s not really the case because China and India and other countries are also major investors in renewables.”
The United States now believes a Russian invasion of Ukraine “could happen at any time,” White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Sunday, in what would be the biggest military operation in Europe since World War II.
“We believe that the Russians have put in place the capabilities to mount a significant military operation into Ukraine, and we have been working hard to prepare a response,” Sullivan told NBC’s “Meet the Press” show.
In a separate interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Sullivan said, “Any day Russia could take action against Ukraine, or it could be a couple weeks,” with U.S. intelligence officials assessing that Moscow has 70% of its strike force in place for an attack.
Local residents attend an all-Ukrainian training campaign “Don’t panic! Get ready!” close to Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 6, 2022.
He said a Russian invasion would come “at an enormous human cost to Ukraine but at a strategic cost to Russia,” with the U.S. prepared to impose swift and severe economic sanctions against Russia to hobble its economy.
“Whatever actions Russia takes next, America is ready,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan, however, said the U.S. is willing to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his professed security concerns about actions of the U.S. and its 29 NATO allies.
“That includes the placement of certain range systems of missiles,” Sullivan said. “It includes transparency around military exercises. It includes greater capacity to have a confidence building and to avoid incidents that could lead to escalation or miscalculation.”
“But what we’re not prepared to negotiate are the fundamental principles of security that include an open door to NATO for countries who can meet the requirements,” Sullivan said in rejecting Putin’s demand that NATO rule out the possibility of Ukrainian membership.
The Western allies say no outside nation has veto power over which countries join the Atlantic alliance.
U.S. President Joe Biden last week ordered that 3,000 American troops be sent to two eastern NATO countries, Poland and Romania. Reports say troops from the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division have landed in southeastern Poland near the border with Ukraine.
Military personnel from the 82nd Airborne Division and 18th Airborne Corps board a C-17 transport plane for deployment to Eastern Europe, amid escalating tensions between Ukraine and Russia, at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Feb. 3, 2022.
Washington has ruled out dispatching troops to fight alongside Ukrainian forces in the event of a Russian invasion. The U.S. has, however, sent $500 million worth of arms and defensive missiles to the Kyiv government.
If Russia invades Ukraine, then cuts off its natural gas supplies to European countries in retaliation to U.S. sanctions, Sullivan said the U.S. is moving to help redirect natural gas supplies from elsewhere to its European allies.
In any event, Sullivan said if Russia invades Ukraine, its Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline running under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany “will not move forward.” The pipeline is completed but not yet operational.
In the NBC interview, Sullivan said Biden “has rallied our allies. He’s reinforced and reassured our partners on the eastern flank. He’s provided material support to the Ukrainians, and he’s offered the Russians a diplomatic path if that’s what they choose instead, but either way, we are ready, our allies are ready and we’re trying to help the Ukrainian people get ready as well.”
