President Joe Biden is scheduled to meet with Finnish President Sauli Ninisto and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Anderson at the White House on Thursday to discuss the Nordic NATO bid.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blocked the alliance from starting the process of joining countries, saying he was disappointed with the attitude of some bloc members towards the Kurdish group, which is considered a terrorist group.
The U.S. Senate has confirmed Bridget Brink as Ukraine’s next ambassador, a move that comes three months after the Kiev embassy reopened. The slow pace of Western sanctions is putting pressure on Russia’s economy.
Core development
- The age of scarcity begins with a 1.6 trillion injury to the world economy
- The sanctions give Putin more time to defend himself for the time being
- Yellen has confirmed that the extension of Russia’s lending license is unlikely
- NATO in Finland and Sweden have bid on limbo as Turkish goods
- Russia says about 1,000 Ukrainian troops have surrendered in Azovstal
- On the back street of Dublin, the hub of Russian finance fell silent
All time CET:
German finance chief optimistic about aid to Ukraine (8:40 am)
Finance Minister Christian Lindner said he was confident that the Group of Seven finance chiefs would reach an agreement on additional financial assistance for Ukraine.
“We are optimistic about a deal,” Lindner said at the start of a two-day meeting of finance ministers and central bank chiefs near the forest. The country will need support in “double digits”, he said.
Ukrainians return from Poland (7:41 am)
Ukrainians continue to return from Poland, Polish border authorities said on Twitter. On Wednesday, 28,000 people were cleared in Ukraine, compared to 21,500 who entered Poland.
Since the Russian invasion on 24 February, 3.46 million people have entered Poland from Ukraine, and the number of those who have gone astray has risen to 1.39 million. A total of 1.85 million Ukrainians have returned to the country, according to the latest UN figures. The United Nations says it is too early to say for sure.
Ukraine said on Wednesday that a number of men of military age were trying to leave the country illegally.
Russia says one killed in attack near Ukraine border (7:01 am)
At least one person was killed and several others were injured in an attack on a Russian village on the Ukrainian border, the local governor said in a telegram.
The governor of Kursk, Roman Starovit, posted several pictures showing the damage caused by the attack, which he blamed on the “enemy.” Border areas have complained that Ukrainian forces have carried out numerous attacks on Russian territory. Ukrainian officials have not commented on the incident.
Sanctions give Slow Burn more time for Putin to argue (6:30 a.m.)
Thanks to rising prices for oil and gas exports, the Kremlin has been able to stabilize the ruble and limit the impact of Western sanctions on consumers and combat efforts.
Yet the signs of the strain are spreading, with those fleeing the closed shops of foreign brands drowning steeply in car sales, mortgage applications and many tax collections. Although they will not say so publicly, finance ministry officials have predicted the biggest economic contraction in a generation this year as sanctions have starved key companies, technology and capital companies.
Oil rebound after retreating for two sessions (5:23 am)
West Texas Intermediate has erased its initial loss to trade above 110 110 a barrel after sliding 4% in the previous two days.
Russia’s aggression in Ukraine in late February has gripped the global oil market in volatile trading of fuel. Despite recent weaknesses, prices in the commodity market are up more than 40% this year amid energy, low inventory and record petrol prices.
US confirms new ambassador to Ukraine (3:47 am)
The Senate vote to confirm Brink as the new top ambassador to Kiev comes three months after the United States reopened its embassy in the Ukrainian capital, Ukraine.
“Today we are officially resuming operations at the US Embassy in Kiev,” Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a statement. “The Ukrainian people, with our security assistance, have defended their homeland in the face of Russia’s unprovoked attack, and as a result, they and the stripes are flying over the embassy again.”
Turkey says NATO must address its “legitimate” concerns (10:15 pm)
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlুতt Cavusoglu said NATO members acknowledged that Turkey’s security concerns were “justified” and called on the alliance to do more to address them.
Cavusoglu said after meeting with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in New York:
Cavusoglu said Sweden was supplying weapons to the Kurdish militant group YPG in the name of supporting the fight against the Islamic State, but that the same weapons were being used to kill Turkish soldiers and civilians.
Guterres at UN says he is negotiating to release Russian grain, fertilizer (10:04 pm)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said he is in talks with Russian, US, Ukrainian and EU officials to give Russian food and fertilizer “uncontrolled access” to global markets because the Ukraine invasion has already exacerbated the global food crisis.
Guterres told a ministerial-level conference on food security at the United Nations in New York that the talks “have a long way to go” and that he would not go into details “because public statements could undermine the chances of success.”
Speaking at the same event, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said they were meeting at a time of “the greatest global food security crisis of our time” caused by a combination of the Covid-19 epidemic, a growing climate crisis and a deadly Russian invasion. . He pledged an additional $ 215 million in emergency food aid and called on Russia to create a safe corridor for Ukraine to export food by land and sea. “At the moment there are an estimated 22 million tons of grain sitting in the silos in Ukraine,” Blinken said.
Top US, Turkish diplomats discuss NATO expansion issue (8:15 pm)
US Secretary of State Blinken and Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu have begun a meeting in New York to discuss Turkey’s resistance to NATO expansion to include Finland and Sweden.
Turkey has always supported NATO’s open-door policy, Cavusoglu told reporters, but his country has “security concerns that must be met.” Blinken said the alliance would work through the concerns of the three countries as “allies and partners”.
Russians scale operation back in eastern Ukraine, US says (7:21 pm)
Russian forces are withdrawing their operations in eastern Ukraine, focusing on small targets such as towns, villages and crossroads, after failing to make significant progress in their offensive in the region, a senior U.S. defense official said.
Instead of larger battalion-sized units, the Russians are using company-sized units to capture objectives, officials told reporters, adding that the Russians continue to have problems communicating within the units.
Russia’s economy slows more than expected in first quarter (6:04 pm)
Russia’s economic growth slowed in the first quarter as sanctions began to take effect in Ukraine after President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
Gross domestic product grew 3.5% year-on-year, down from 4% in the previous three months, the Federal Statistics Service said Wednesday, citing preliminary figures.
Most recent results were recorded before Putin sent troops to Ukraine on February 24, which led to widespread sanctions from the United States and its allies. According to the central bank, the sanctions are expected to trigger a deep recession in Russia, with the economy shrinking by as much as 10% this year.
EU aims to use Russian central bank assets for Ukraine (4:56 pm)
The European Commission is investigating Russia’s use of frozen central bank assets, along with sanctions on Russian oligarchs, as compensation for the war to help rebuild Ukraine.
“We are conducting a legal assessment,” Valdis Dombrovskis, the commission’s vice president, told reporters. “But legally we must widen this net because there is a principle in international law that aggression pays, and we must harm Russia.”
© 2022 Bloomberg