Norway has arrested the son of a Putin confidante. Federal President Steinmeier cancels his visit to Kyiv. Nothing else in the Kremlin indicates that Vladimir Putin could lose power. All voices and developments on the Ukraine war here in the ticker.
More on the course of the war in Ukraine
Friday, October 21, 7:54 a.m.: Russia intends to export a total of almost 1.8 million tons of grain from the occupied territories in Ukraine this year. Around a million tons of it have apparently already been shipped via seaports in the annexed Crimea. This emerges from Russian documents that the NDR was able to see, as well as from the evaluation of ship data and satellite images.
Since the beginning of the war, around 20 ships have left the port of Sevastopol in the annexed Crimea loaded with wheat and other grain. Most of the transports go to Syria, Russia or Turkey. Freight lists show that almost 40 more deliveries are planned from Sevastopol by the end of the year. The lists viewed by NDR show the loading dates and quantities for future trips for the first time. This suggests that the Russian occupiers have apparently already organized the logistics for future grain theft.
Should the planned exports come about, Russia could generate around 600 million US dollars with the illegal exports at this year’s world market prices.
According to the Ukrainian government, the amount stolen is equivalent to about a quarter of the total grain harvest in the Russian-occupied territories. In an interview with NDR, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Taras Visotzky, also warned of the social consequences for the farmers affected by the theft: “It’s unbelievable and an enormous problem, including a social one. It’s about thousands of farmers.”
Ukrainian agrarian entrepreneurs report that Russian occupiers confiscated grain left behind by peasants fleeing the occupied territories. Other farmers would be expropriated or would have to sell their grain at dumping prices.
The Russian transport ships park their tracking devices in Crimea before loading. Even before they call the ports, they have therefore disappeared from the maps of the location services. This makes it difficult to trace the destination ports of the ships. However, the movements of the grain fleet can be traced through the evaluation of satellite images, the images of ship observers and the fragmentary transponder data.
By expropriating the harvest, Russia may be breaking international law, experts say. According to international law expert Paulina Starski from the University of Freiburg, the illegal appropriation of grain on a large scale, which is arbitrary and not justified by military necessity, can be a war crime. David Crane of the American University in Washington told NDR that depriving civilians of their livelihood through theft is just as cruel as shooting at them with rockets or artillery.
When asked by NDR, the Russian embassy said that it was “undisputed that the Russian Federation not only covers its own grain needs, but also meets export requests from all parts of the world.” However, there is no need for Ukrainian wheat on the part of Russia, especially since this “is inferior to the Russian product in quality”. The embassies of Syria and Turkey left inquiries unanswered.
8:01 p.m .: According to the United States, Iranian military have supported Russia in drone operations against Ukraine from Crimea. “Our assessment is that Iranian military forces have been in Crimea and assisted Russia in these operations,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday, referring to the recent drone strikes against Ukraine. The Iranians would train and provide technical support to the Russians, while Russians piloted the drones.
“Tehran is now directly involved on the ground,” Kirby told reporters. Tehran also supplies Russia with weapons that “affect civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.” Kirby announced the US would continue to enforce all sanctions against Russia and Iran’s arms trade.
The European Union recently tightened its sanctions against Tehran because of the delivery of Iranian drones to Russia. Ukraine says it shot down more than 230 Iranian drones over the country last month. The Kremlin denies using Iranian drones in Ukraine. Russia illegally annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014.
2:24 p.m .: The Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Zelenskyj confirmed his invitation to visit the German colleague in Kyiv during a telephone call with Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. “We are preparing for the visit of the German President to Ukraine,” said Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Thursday after the talks. He also thanked Steinmeier for supplying the German Iris-T air defense system. Ukraine needs an air defense shield as soon as possible.
“Germany will help to overcome the consequences of Russian rocket terror,” Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter. Russia had recently increased the attacks with rockets and drones and is specifically destroying the country’s energy infrastructure.
Steinmeier had postponed a trip to Ukraine planned for Thursday at short notice. According to dpa information, security reasons were decisive for this. Russia has been bombarding Ukraine and the capital Kyiv with drones and rockets for days. According to the information, the officially unannounced trip should be made up for in the near future.
12:52 p.m .: The new EU sanctions against Iran for supporting the Russian war against Ukraine have been decided. As the current Czech EU Council Presidency announced on Thursday, the punitive measures are aimed at individuals and organizations involved in the delivery of drones for the attack on Ukraine. They are subject to entry bans and possible assets of them in the EU are frozen. For the sanctions to come into force, they still have to be published in the Official Journal of the EU. This should happen on Thursday.
According to the Council Presidency, three people and one organization will be subject to new sanctions. In addition, sanctions will be reinforced against two other companies and people who are already on an EU sanctions list for other reasons.
Russia had repeatedly attacked Ukraine in the past few days with the Shahed 136 single-use combat drones from Iran. According to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, there have been more than 100 attacks with so-called kamikaze drones since last week. The leadership in Tehran denies having supplied Russia with the disposable drones.
7:55 a.m .: The vodka birthday gift from Russian President Vladimir Putin to Italy’s ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi probably violates the European Union’s sanctions against Russia. As a spokeswoman for the EU Commission confirmed when asked by the German Press Agency, it was decided in April 2022 to extend the import ban on goods from Russia into the EU to include spirits, including vodka. The corresponding legal basis does not provide for an exception for gifts. The member states are responsible for the implementation of the EU sanctions.
Authorities in Italy must determine who is now responsible for the alleged breach of sanctions. Berlusconi said Putin sent him 20 bottles of vodka for his birthday. With his statements about Putin published on Tuesday evening, he again fueled doubts about the determination of the future government in taking action against Moscow. In a recording of a secretly taped speech by Berlusconi, the politician, who turned 86 on September 29, said that he was back in contact with the Kremlin boss and that he had described him as one of his five best friends.
6:26 a.m .: The Norwegian police arrested the son of the former Russian railway boss and Putin confidante Vladimir Yakunin for unauthorized drone flights over Spitsbergen. Andrej Jakunin was arrested on Monday in Hammerfest in northern Norway, police said on Wednesday. The Russian-British national admitted to illegally piloting a drone over the Norwegian Arctic archipelago of Spitsbergen, a police official said. Yakunin is in custody, drones and other electronic devices have been confiscated, it said.
It is the seventh arrest of Russian citizens within a few days. They are accused of illegally operating unmanned aerial vehicles or taking illicit photographs in Russia-bordering Norway, which is now Europe’s largest gas supplier.
In connection with further drone flights near Norwegian airports, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Störe told NRK on Wednesday: “It is unacceptable that foreign secret services fly drones over Norwegian airports.” The Russians do not have the right to fly drones over Norway leave, he added. A few hours earlier, a drone flight near Bergen Airport in the west of the country caused a brief disruption to air traffic.
In Norway, drones have repeatedly been sighted on energy infrastructure, including on offshore oil and gas platforms. These reports and the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea have prompted the country to step up its security measures.
5:41 a.m .: At a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Russia denied the use of Iranian drones in Ukraine. Russian diplomat Dmitry Polyansky said Russia only uses Russian-made drones in Ukraine. “I would advise you not to underestimate the technological capabilities of the Russian drone industry,” he said. Reports of the use of Iranian drones are “baseless allegations and conspiracy theories”.
Ukraine, meanwhile, released an undated photo that Ukrainian sources say shows the wreckage of an Iranian Shahed drone that was shot down near Kupiansk, Ukraine.
4:37 a.m .: Finland is to have a fence more than 130 kilometers long on the border with its large neighbor Russia. All parties represented in parliament have expressed their support for this, said Prime Minister Sanna Marin after a meeting of party leaders on Tuesday evening in Helsinki. “It’s about making sure the border is well controlled,” the prime minister told Yle. “And that we can preventively influence the situations that could arise at the border.”
According to a proposal by the Finnish border guard, the fence should have a length of 130 to 260 kilometers. The border between the two states is more than 1,300 kilometers long. The government will now work out proposals for a pilot project, Marin announced after the deliberations. Parliament is expected to vote on this later this year. The final decision is then planned for next year.
Border guards estimate the costs at “hundreds of millions of euros”. Construction is expected to take three to four years. The opposition has criticized the cost and duration of the construction. Like Sweden, Finland also wants to become a member of NATO after decades of rejection because of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The final decision on admission is still pending.
3:16 a.m .: The vodka birthday gift from Russian President Vladimir Putin to Italy’s ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi probably violates the European Union’s sanctions against Russia. As a spokeswoman for the EU Commission confirmed, in April 2022 it was decided to extend the import ban on goods from Russia to the EU to include spirits, including vodka. The corresponding legal basis does not provide for an exception for gifts. The member states are responsible for the implementation of the EU sanctions.
Authorities in Italy must determine who is now responsible for the alleged breach of sanctions. Berlusconi said Putin sent him 20 bottles of vodka for his birthday. With his statements about Putin published on Tuesday evening, he again fueled doubts about the determination of the future government in taking action against Moscow. In a recording of a secretly taped speech by Berlusconi, the politician, who turned 86 on September 29, said that he was back in contact with the Kremlin boss and that he had described him as one of his five best friends.
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