According to media reports, the Russian economy is preparing for a longer war. Frank-Walter Steinmeier calls the war a “murderous crime”. Vladimir Putin announced the victory of Ukrainian troops in Luhansk in a televised speech. All voices and developments on the Ukraine war in the ticker.
06:29: A terminal in the Black Sea intended for the export of Kazakh oil has to stop operating for 30 days by order of a court in southern Russia. The stop was justified with possible environmental damage, as the Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday night. Most recently, there had been disagreements between Russia and the neighboring Central Asian ex-Soviet republic Kazakhstan over the Ukraine war.
The operating company Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) is “forced to implement the court decision” but will appeal against it, according to a statement from the company. According to official information, the documentation for the emergency plan for the elimination of any oil spills is incomplete. The authorities had originally given CPC until November 30 to eliminate the violations, but in a court hearing on Tuesday, the regional transport supervisory authority surprisingly called for the terminal to be closed – and was right.
80 percent of the oil exported from Kazakhstan flows through the terminal in the southern Russian port city of Novorossiysk – Kazakhstan does not have its own access to the world’s oceans. The handling capacity is 67 million tons of oil per year. Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev recently offered the EU to deliver more oil and gas to Europe to ensure the continent’s energy security despite the Ukraine war and the associated sanctions against Russia. Kazakhstan has not recognized the independence of Moscow-protected separatist republics in eastern Ukraine.
9:37 p.m .: After severe criticism of the reporting requirements for conscripts in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has reprimanded the military leadership. At the next meeting of the general staff, the 44-year-old demanded in a video message on Tuesday that the defense minister, chief of staff and army commander-in-chief should report to him in detail. “I promise the people to clarify the matter and ask the general staff not to make such decisions without me.” There is “misunderstanding” and “indignation” in society.
Army Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zalushnyi and the General Staff had previously announced that conscripted Ukrainians would need permission to leave the reporting point. After criticism on social networks, it was added that this was only necessary for leaving the government district. The basis is a legal standard from 1992.
7.43 p.m .: The head of the Chechen parliament, Magomed Daudov, has threatened in a video that the pro-Russian fighters will move to Germany. In a video he celebrated the Russian conquest of the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk: “If Putin doesn’t stop us, we will reach Berlin undefeated. We will win, without a doubt.” Lukansk is now liberated from the fascists, Daudov said in the clip, which was distributed via the Telegram channel of Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov. The Chechens deployed in Ukraine would “defend Islam” there.
7:09 p.m .: Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) sees Germany facing major challenges in the coming months in view of the impending energy crisis. “The present is not all that bad, but the fear of recession, of the future, even of the immediate future, is overwhelming.” Unfortunately, we cannot rule out the situation.”
In the event of a gas emergency, struggling energy companies can therefore be rescued more easily by the state in the future – but the energy suppliers can also pass on their high prices. On Tuesday, the Federal Cabinet decided on changes to the Energy Security Act, which are now to be quickly approved by Parliament. The aim of the measures is to continue to ensure the gas supply in Germany and to prevent energy companies from stumbling.
It is now a matter of doing everything possible to “maintain the basic supply in winter and to keep the energy markets running as long as possible,” said Habeck. On the one hand, a protective shield is planned for energy companies that are assigned to the critical infrastructure – stabilization measures are to be simplified up to and including the state. The model for this is the help for companies like Lufthansa in the middle of the corona pandemic. The background is likely to be the situation of the ailing Uniper group, which has already asked the state for help and is currently talking to the government about stabilization measures.
Secondly, it should be possible for energy suppliers along the supply chain who are affected by high prices to pass on the high prices. There is already such a price mechanism in the Energy Security Act, now there should also be a levy mechanism in which the additional costs for the replacement procurement of gas are distributed to all gas customers via a levy. Both price adjustment mechanisms are “sharp swords” and instruments “that we don’t want to use yet,” said Habeck. However, the amendment to the law creates the conditions for using them.
6:10 p.m .: According to a report by the British “Daily Mail”, another Russian oligarch worth millions was surprisingly found dead. The 61-year-old Yuri Voronov, managing director of a logistics company that works with the Russian energy giant Gazprom, was shot dead in his villa in a St. Petersburg suburb.
It is the sixth mysterious death of a Russian businessman in recent months. Many of them had ties to Gazprom. Two died in the same suburb as Voronov. Voronov was found floating in his pool with a gunshot wound to the head. A handgun was found nearby and several spent cartridges were found at the bottom of the pool. The Russian investigative committee is investigating Voronov’s death, which it currently attributes to a “quarrel with business partners”.
4.40 p.m .: The Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk has rejected the accusation that he downplayed the Holocaust with his statements about the Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera. “Anyone who knows me knows: I have always condemned the Holocaust in the strongest possible terms,” Melnyk wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. The allegations against him are “absurd”.
Bandera was the leader of the radical wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) during World War II. Nationalist partisans from western Ukraine were responsible for ethnically motivated expulsions in 1943, in which tens of thousands of Polish and Jewish civilians were murdered. Bandera fled to Germany after World War II, where he was murdered in 1959 by an agent of the Soviet secret service, the KGB.
Melnyk defended Bandera in an interview with journalist Tilo Jung, saying: “Bandera was not a mass murderer of Jews and Poles.” According to Melnyk, the character of Bandera was deliberately demonized by the Soviet Union. The Israeli embassy then accused the ambassador of “distorting historical facts, playing down the Holocaust and insulting those who were murdered by Bandera and his people”.
Melnyk responded to this with a tweet that he expressly addressed to “dear fellow Jewish citizens”. The Nazi crimes of the Holocaust are a common tragedy of Ukraine and Israel, he wrote.
4:08 p.m .: In view of the impending gas shortage in Germany, the FDP in the Bundestag has called for the use of all alternatives – including nuclear energy. “We must not walk into an energy gap with our eyes open,” said parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr on Tuesday in Berlin. “We must use all resources.”
This applies to energy production from coal as well as from nuclear power. “We shouldn’t make the mistake of taking options off the table and then possibly even in winter having to generate electricity from gas.” That shouldn’t happen. “In my view, no cubic meter of gas should be used to generate electricity in winter.”
With a view to the high prices for energy, but also for food, for example, the FDP politician warned: “The state itself must not become a driver of inflation.” This would come about, for example, through further subsidies for energy. It is therefore also important that the debt brake will be observed again from next year. Instead of distributing more money in the case of relief, it would be better for the state to take less money from people. To do this, the cold progression must be fought, said Dürr.
3:11 p.m .: Economics Minister Robert Habeck has warned of domino effects on energy markets if the gas crisis worsens. The Green politician spoke of a tense situation in Berlin on Tuesday. “We will not allow ourselves to have a systemic effect on the German and European gas market, because then domino effects will occur and other sectors or even the security of supply as a whole will be affected by a company bankruptcy.”
The cabinet introduced legal changes to support struggling energy companies like Uniper. The background to the problems is that Russia has severely throttled gas supplies via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
Habeck said: “The quantities of gas that were ordered from Russia under comparatively cheap contracts sometimes do not come.” The contracts that energy suppliers have with public utilities or industry would have to be served. The energy companies would now have to buy gas on the spot market at immensely high prices and would therefore end up in the red. “That’s the problem. Companies can withstand this drop for a while, but certainly not indefinitely.”
2:37 p.m .: The Russian economy should be geared towards the war in the long term. As the Reuters news agency and the British BBC report, the Russian lower house approved a corresponding bill on Tuesday. In the future, companies should be obliged to support the military with all urgently needed goods. Holiday waivers and overtime could also be ordered.
In the Duma, Vice Prime Minister Yuri Borissov once again blamed the West and the “enormous sanction pressure” for this step. The supply of weapons and ammunition must be guaranteed through better coordination, according to Borisov.
A draft law would allow the state to oblige companies to supply goods and services to the military. In particular, spare parts for weapon and vehicle repairs are urgently needed to continue the invasion of Ukraine. The drafts were tabled by the government in the Duma and still have to go through two more readings and be examined by the upper house. The final signature of President Putin is considered certain.
Tuesday, July 5, 12:37 p.m.: Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine a “murderous crime”. At a luncheon with the diplomatic corps in Nuremberg on Tuesday, Steinmeier said the international community must oppose this imperial warmongering. “We have to defend ourselves. We owe it to the many brave people of Ukraine who are resisting day after day,” he said, according to the speech transcript.
The Federal President invited the diplomats to an information and meeting trip to Nuremberg. This war brings terrible suffering to millions of people. “It is a murderous crime” for which Russia’s President Vladimir Putin alone is responsible, said Steinmeier. Germany stands firmly and resolutely on the side of Ukraine.
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