DM Monitoring
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin has met with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres in Moscow. In televised remarks, he told Guterres that he still hoped for negotiations to end the conflict.
“Despite the fact that the military operation is ongoing, we still hope that we will be able to reach agreements on the diplomatic track. We are negotiating, we do not reject [talks],” Putin told Guterres, who was visiting Moscow. He said talks with Ukraine had been derailed by claims of atrocities committed by Russian forces in the town of Bucha outside Kyiv. He claimed without evidence, that the massacres in Bucha were not carried out by Russians. “There was a provocation in the village of Bucha, which the Russian army had nothing to do with,” Putin said. “We know who prepared this provocation, by what means, and what kind of people worked on it.” Guterres reiterated his call for Ukraine and Russia to work together with the UN to set up aid and evacuation corridors to help civilians in Ukraine. The broadcast discussions showed Guterres and Putin sitting opposite each other at the large oval table in the hall of the Senate Palace, following an hour-long meeting in the Kremlin. Guterres earlier met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov where he called for a ceasefire.
Italy is reportedly considering temporarily nationalizing a refinery owned by Lukoil — a Russian multinational energy corporation — as a response to possible sanctions on Russian oil.
Lukoil, which is not the subject of sanctions, owns the ISAB refinery — Italy’s largest oil refinery by capacity. It used to buy 30%-40% of its crude oil from Russia, with the remainder coming from international markets. Since the Russian invasion, it has been unable to obtain international credit, and has been sourcing almost all its crude oil from Russia.
Agencies said Industry Minister Giancario Gieorgetti is planning to raise the prospect of nationalization when the Italian cabinet meets on Thursday. European leaders are debating whether to impose an embargo on Russian oil.
The German economy minister, Robert Habeck says the country is very close to completely halting imports of Russian oil. Habeck said Germany has cut oil import dependency from 35% to 12% in eight weeks.
“Today I can say that an embargo is now more in reach for Germany. In the coming days and weeks, we will continue to expand this independence and rapidly move away from fossil fuels. But as I said, what a few weeks ago seemed a very large problem for Germany has shrunk considerably, so that German independence from Russian oil is now very very close.”
Habeck was speaking in Warsaw after talks with Polish Climate Minister Anna Moskwa. The US has convened more than 20 nations at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany on behalf of Ukraine’s defense.
Speaking at the event, Lloyd Austin, the US Secretary of Defense, told reporters that “we have to move at the speed of war.”
Austin said the US was determined to make better use of the US European Command’s coordination mechanism and would extend the forum for Ukraine’s defense into a monthly contact group.
“We do want to make it harder for Russia to threaten its neighbors and make it less able to do that,” Austin said.
Austin went on to express sharp criticism of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who warned on Monday that World War III might be looming.
“You’ve heard us say a number of times that that kind of rhetoric is very dangerous and unhelpful,” Austin said. “Nobody wants to see a nuclear war happen. Dangerous rhetoric is clearly unhelpful. And something that we won’t engage in,” he added.
Ukraine says it is concerned by attempts to worsen the security situation in Moldova’s pro-Russian breakaway province of Trans-Dniester.
Mykhaylo Podolyak, a Ukraine presidential aide said in a post on Twitter: “Russia wants to destabilize the Transnistrian region and hints Moldova should wait for ‘guests,’” wrote on Twitter.
“Bad news: if Ukraine falls tomorrow Russian troops will be at Chisinau’s gates,” Podolyak said, referring Moldova’s capital. “Good news: Ukraine will definitely ensure strategic security of the region. But we need to work as a team,” Podolyak added.
It comes after several apparent attacks in the region. In the past day, attacks have reportedly targeted a military unit, the state security headquarters and an old Soviet-era radio antennae.
The head of the breakaway province, also known as Transnistria or Transdniestra in English, claimed that the apparent attacks could be traced back to Ukraine.
“I assume that those who organized this attack have the purpose of dragging Transdniestria into the conflict,” self-styled president, Vadim Krasnoselsky, was quoted as saying by Russian news agency TASS.
His office has established a “red” level of “terrorist threat” for the next 15 days and canceled public Victory Day events on May 9, citing safety concerns.
Moscow, which deploys troops in the region, also voiced serious concern and blamed Ukraine.
Moldovan President Maia Sandu has urged citizens to remain calm, saying she had stepped up security measures and convened the country’s Supreme Security Council.
She condemned the apparent attacks, in which no one was injured.
She blamed the attack on “internal differences between various groups in Trans-Dniester that have an interest in destabilising the situation.”
Last week, a senior Russian military officer said Russia aims to take control of Ukraine’s south and open a land corridor to the region.
Security and defense journalist Thomas Wiegold has said the Gepard vehicles that Berlin has approved for delivery could make a real difference to Ukraine’s fight in terms of anti-aircraft capability.
Although they are known as tanks, Wiegold said, the Gepard — also known as Cheetah — vehicles are more of an anti-aircraft cannon mounted on an armored chassis.
“They can make quite a difference. The German army has taken them out of use almost a decade ago, not because they were obsolete, but because at that time the Bundeswehr was scaling down and they had no use for it anymore.”
“I think they regretted it, meanwhile, because short-range air defense is much in demand everywhere now and especially in Ukraine. So, the Ukrainians can make use of it, of course.”
Wiegold said that technically, the German government was only approving the German industry selling equipment to Ukraine, rather than sending it directly.
He said that, although an apparent U-turn, the decision “allows the government to convey the idea it’s not that new, because it’s not German [military] stock.”
Wiegold said that much of the valuable heavy weaponry was coming from former Warsaw Pact countries that, like Ukraine, relied on Soviet-era equipment. However, he said that further down the line, the West would have to start sharing newer equipment, and train Ukrainians in how to use it.
“If the West wants to continue supporting Ukraine, they have to think about starting training Ukrainians on Western systems to deliver Western systems as well.”
The Kremlin says Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have discussed Moscow’s efforts to ensure the safety of civilians in Ukraine.
The Kremlin said in a statement that the two leaders spoke about “efforts made by Russia on a constant basis to ensure the safety of peaceful civilians, including the organisation of humanitarian corridors.”
In response to Erdogan’s questions on the besieged southeastern port city of Mariupol, Putin said “the city is liberated and combat operations are not going on there,” according to the Russian statement.
Hundreds of civilians are still sheltering in the city’s huge Azovstal industrial area while Ukrainian troops are still resisting Russia.
Putin told Erdogan that Kyiv should “take political responsibility and for humanitarian reasons, order them [the troops] to lay down arms,” the Kremlin said.
They also discussed the safety of Turkish ships sailing from Black Sea ports through a cooperation of defense ministries.
The Turkish side released a statement saying Erdogan urged Putin to agree to direct talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Erdogan proposed taking the “Istanbul process to the level of leaders, a crucial threshold in the Russia-Ukraine negotiations,” according to the statement. Talks have so far stalled over accusations of Russian war crimes. Putin later said peace efforts were at a dead end. Poland has announced it will impose sanctions on 50 Russian entities and invidiuals. The sanctions come in addition to current European Union measures, according to Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski.
The list includes Gas giant Gazprom and Moshe Kantor, who owns part of Poland’s state-owned chemicals group Azoty. Companies on the list will have their assets frozen and be excluded from public tenders, while Russian oligarchs on the list will be banned from entering Poland. UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres said during a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that the organization is ready to fully mobilize its resources to save lives in Mariupol.
“The United Nations is ready to fully mobilize its human and logistical resources to help save lives in Mariupol,” Guterres said.
Guterres also proposed coordinated work with the Red Cross to allow people to evacuate from the Azovstal steel plant in the city. Civilians and Ukrainian troops have been holed up in the plant for weeks.
“Thousands of civilians are in dire need of lifesaving humanitarian assistance, and many have evacuated,” Guterres said.
Guterres said that he was concerned about possible war crimes in Ukraine, adding that they require independent investigation.
Russia said it was expelling three Swedish diplomats in a retaliatory move against Stockholm.
In early April, Sweden said it was expelling three Russian diplomats who it accused of conducting “illegal operations” there.
Russia’s Foreign ministry said it summoned the Swedish ambassador to Russia and “strongly protested” the expulsion of Russian diplomats and Sweden’s “military support to the Kyiv regime.”
The ministry accused Sweden of “covering up the crimes of Ukrainian nationalists against the civilian population of Donbas and Ukraine.”
“In response to this, the Russian side decided to declare persona non grata three diplomats of the Swedish embassy in Russia,” the ministry said.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that conditions for a cease-fire should be created as soon as possible.
“We are extremely interested in finding ways in order to create the conditions for effective dialogue, create the conditions for a ceasefire as soon as possible, create the conditions for a peaceful solution,” Guterres said at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow. He added that the priority is to “minimize human suffering” in Ukraine.
