(Bloomberg) —
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell led a delegation of Republicans to Kyiv. Finland’s president phoned Russia’s Vladimir Putin, telling him that the invasion of Ukraine had “altered the security environment” for the Nordic country. G-7 foreign ministers urged China “not to justify Russian action in Ukraine.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv’s forces are steadily pushing Russian troops from Kharkiv, the nation’s second largest city. India prohibited most wheat exports that the world was counting on to alleviate supply constraints sparked by the war in Ukraine, adding to a wave of food protectionism.
Sweden has received no indication that Turkey would oppose it joining NATO, and will raise the issue at a meeting this weekend in Germany, Foreign Minister Ann Linde said. On Friday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed concern about Sweden and Finland potentially becoming members of the military alliance. NATO foreign ministers are meeting, with the issue of enlargement is likely to dominate.
(See RSAN on the Bloomberg Terminal for the Russian Sanctions Dashboard.)
Key Developments
- NATO Expansion Could Finally Shore Up Alliance’s Weakest Flank
- India Bans Wheat Exports in Growing Wave of Food Protectionism
- US and Southeast Asian Nations Avoid Russia Condemnation
- Germany Girds for Day of Reckoning in Gas Showdown With Russia
- A Visual Guide to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
All times CET:
McConnell Leads GOP Senators in Surprise Kyiv Visit (2:41 p.m.)
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell lead a delegation of Republican senators to Kyiv and met there on Saturday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a previously unannounced visit.
Senators Susan Collins of Maine, John Barrasso of Wyoming and John Cornyn of Texas were with McConnell.
G-7 Agriculture Ministers ‘Greatly Troubled’ About Food Security (2 p.m.)
G-7 agriculture ministers meeting in Stuttgart, Germany, issued a joint statement saying they’re “greatly troubled by the expected serious consequences for global food security” of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The impact of the war puts food supplies “under severe strain and further intensifies worldwide humanitarian needs for which President Putin and his accomplices bear the full responsibility,” according to the statement.
German Agriculture Minister Cem Oezdemir said he and his G-7 counterparts had also discussed “with concern” moves toward food protectionism by some countries, including Indonesia limiting exports of palm oil and India mostly halting exports of wheat. “If we all start imposing these export limits, or even closed down markets, that just makes the crisis worse,” Oezdemir said. “It also hurts India itself and the farmers there because of course it means a rollercoaster ride for prices.
Finnish President Phones Putin Over NATO Plan (1:09 p.m.)
Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto phoned Russia’s Vladimir Putin to inform him that the Nordic country will decide in the next few days whether to seek NATO membership, the president’s office in Helsinki said.
“The conversation was direct and straight-forward and it was conducted without aggravations,” Niinisto said in a tweet.
Mariupol Defenders’ Relatives Turn to Xi for Help (12:53 p.m.)
Relatives of Ukrainian soldiers in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol have asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to act as an intermediary in talks with Russia to help evacuate the defenders and provide safe passage to a third country.
“There is only one person in the world” left to turn to, Natalka Zarytska, wife of one of the defenders, said in a televised briefing. Citing the close ties between Moscow and Beijing, she said it would “be difficult for Putin to refuse” a request from China’s leader.
Zarytska said that among the hundreds of wounded at Azovstal are men “without limbs and without pain relief.” The government in Kyiv has spoken to humanitarian groups and world leaders including the presidents of France and Turkey and Pope Francis about an evacuation. The defenders this week turned to billionaire Elon Musk for help.
Seizing Russian Assets ‘Matter of Justice,’ Germany Says (12:30 p.m.)
Russia is responsible for the devastation in Ukraine and it’s “a matter of justice” that it should be held accountable via the seizing of frozen assets, said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
Speaking after talks with G-7 counterparts in Germany, Baerbock called seizing assets “anything but easy” in legal terms, and noted there are few precedents. If EU countries were to do so, it would have to be legally watertight and stand up at the European Court of Justice, she said, adding that her Canadian counterpart had indicated it’s legally possible there.
“As Europeans we have a different legal framework, so that we always need more time for such a step,” Baerbock told reporters. “But there are indeed some good reasons why we too might choose this path.”
Germany Accuses Russia of Provoking Food Crisis (12:15 p.m.)
Baerbock also said Russia is provoking a global food crisis in a bid to weaken the international alliance against its war in Ukraine. She also condemned what she called Moscow’s “massive disinformation campaign” that she said sought to “portray the aggressor as the victim.”
Russia is destroying transport routes and storage facilities for Ukraine’s grain, which is pushing up global prices and threatening to unleash “brutal hunger” around the world, especially in Africa, Baerbock said.
“We must not be naïve about this,” Baerbock said. “It’s not collateral damage, it’s a perfectly deliberate instrument in a hybrid war that is currently being waged.” Russia has also been accused of stealing Ukrainian grain and offering it for export.
G-7 Urges China Not To Justify Russia’s War (12 p.m.)
Group of Seven foreign ministers issued a long list of demands on Beijing’s stance toward Ukraine following their meeting in Germany, including a request “not to justify Russian action” there.
The G-7 officials called on China to “resolutely urge Russia to stop its military aggression against Ukraine,” according to a joint statement. They also called on Beijing not to assist Russia, not to undermine sanctions, and “to desist from engaging in information manipulation, disinformation and other means to legitimize Russia’s war of aggression.”
The G-7 is committed to “both short-and-long term-support” for Ukraine, according to the statement. “We are determined to accelerate a coordinated multilateral response to preserve global food security and stand by our most vulnerable partners in this respect,” it added.
Scholz Doesn’t See Change in Putin Stance (11:30 a.m.)
Germany Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he detected no change of attitude in Vladimir Putin when he spoke by telephone with the Russian president for more than an hour on Friday.
“One thing is clear here: Russia has not achieved any of the war aims set out at the start,” Scholz said in an interview with the T-Online news portal. “Ukraine has not been conquered, but is defending itself with great skill, courage and self-sacrifice.”
“It should gradually be becoming clear to Putin that the only way out of this situation is to reach an agreement with Ukraine,” said Scholz. In tweet about the article, Scholz referred to Putin’s “insane idea” of expanding the Russian empire.
Finland Counts on US Support to Win Over Turkey (11:29 a.m.)
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto pushed back against suggestions Turkey would prevent his country and neighboring Sweden from joining NATO, given that the US supports the move.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday Turkey doesn’t favor Sweden and Finland becoming members of the defense alliance, citing concerns over Kurdish “terrorists.” NATO welcomes new members unanimously, and a decision to apply for entry is expected on Sunday from the two Nordic countries that are reacting to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Read more: Finland Counts on US Support to Win Over Turkey in NATO Bid
Germany Girds for Day of Reckoning in Gas Showdown (10:20 a.m.)
If the worst-case scenario for Germany hits, BMW AG, Mercedes-Benz AG and Volkswagen AG would struggle to paint their cars and the air across the country would get dirtier.
Europe’s largest economy is bracing for the prospect that Russian natural gas gets cut off suddenly, a shock that would trigger a form of martial law for energy and affect 80 million residents and businesses from bakers to chemical producers.
Ukraine Says It Destroyed Russian Pontoon Bridges (9:21 a.m.)
Ukraine’s army said it blew up pontoon bridges Russian forces were building near the village of Bilohorivka on the Siverskyi Donetsk River in the Luhansk region, although some Russian soldiers managed to cross.
Russians troops were pushed back after two days of heavy fighting, the Ukrainian paratrooper brigade that took part in the fight said late Friday, adding that the US and UK anti-tank weapons helped them to repel the attack.
Regional governor Serhiy Haiday said almost 90 Russian heavy weapons, including a helicopter, was destroyed in the hostilities and that Ukraine’s army is completing the liberation of the other bank of the river.
NATO Expansion Could Shore Up Alliance’s Weak Flank (6 a.m.)
While much of the focus of deteriorating east-west relations has been on Germany’s new military plans, the expected accession of Finland and Sweden to the 30-member transatlantic alliance is part of the biggest shift in European foreign policy to emerge since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
After waging war in part to stop NATO’s expansion, Putin is now confronted with the opposite.
Zelenskiy Says Gradually Pushing Russia From Kharkiv Region (8:15 a.m.)
Ukraine has retaken a total of over 1,015 villages and towns, including six in the previous 24 hours, as its army is gradually pushes Russian soldiers out of the Kharkiv region, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Friday in his night video address. He urged businesses to re-open in safe territories to add jobs.
Talks on the evacuation of wounded Ukrainian wounded soldiers from Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant are “very complex,” Zelenskiy said, adding that Kyiv has involved all possible influential intermediaries in the effort.
Azovstal’s holdouts have criticized the government in Kyiv for failing to defend southern Ukraine, where Russia made much faster progress, and said it had abandoned Mariupol’s garrison. Russia continues airstrikes in the area.
Read more: Mariupol Steel Plant’s ‘Dead Men’ Defenders Call for Rescue Plan
Ukraine Appears to Have Won Battle for Kharkiv, U.S. Group Says (6 a.m.)
Ukraine “appears to have won the Battle of Kharkiv,” according to the Institute for the Study of War.
Russia has likely decided to withdraw fully from its positions around Kharkiv in the face of Ukrainian counteroffensives and the limited availability of reinforcements, the U.S.-based defence think tank said in a daily bulletin.
There’s evidence that “Moscow is focused on conducting an orderly withdrawal and prioritizing getting Russians back home before allowing proxy forces to enter Russia, rather than trying to hold its positions near the city,” ISW said.
India Stops Most Wheat Exports (5 a.m.)
India prohibited most wheat exports that the world was counting on to alleviate supply constraints sparked by the war in Ukraine, which has largely halted Kyiv’s ability to ship.
Bloomberg News reported earlier this month that a record-shattering heat wave has damaged wheat yields across the South Asian nation, prompting the government to consider export restrictions.
Exports will still be allowed to countries that require wheat for food security needs and will be based on the requests of their governments, India said.
US, Southeast Asian Nations Stop Short of Russia Condemnation (3:35 a.m.)
A summit with Southeast Asian leaders organized and hosted by Biden concluded with a group statement that omitted any condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. They called for the “immediate cessation of hostilities” in Ukraine and the countries said they “reaffirm our respect for sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity.”
But the statement did not use the words “Russia,” “war” or “invasion.” The Southeast Asian region includes nations that are wary of directly criticizing Russia. Indonesia, which will host the Group of 20 summit later this year, has refused to exclude Putin from the gathering and is instead extending invitations to both the Russian leader and Zelenskiy. Much of the summit was conducted behind closed doors, so it wasn’t clear to what extent the Ukraine portion of the joint statement was debated.
Adeyemo Warns Banks on Russia and Sanctions (2:40 a.m.)
Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Wally Adeyemo warned representatives from several foreign banks Friday about risks to their institutions should they assist Russia in evading sanctions imposed by the US and its allies after the invasion of Ukraine.
Adeyemo met with representatives from several foreign financial institutions and “conveyed the risks of facilitating sanctions evasions,” including the risk of falling under US sanctions if the banks provided material support to a person or entity that the US has already penalized, according to a Treasury Department press release about the meeting.
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