Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to inspect the Nord Stream 1 turbine and defends the delivery. He wants to “blow up Putin’s bluff”. The grain carrier has arrived in Turkey. All voices and developments on the Ukraine war in the ticker.
Wednesday, August 3, 6:50 a.m .: In the gas dispute with Russia, Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to visit the turbine for the Nord Stream 1 pipeline today, Wednesday, which is stored on the way from Canada to Russia in Mülheim an der Ruhr. This was announced by the energy technology group Siemens Energy. The turbine is ready for onward transport to Russia, it said.
In an interview with the Canadian newspaper “The Globe and Mail”, Scholz defended the delivery, which is controversial because of the circumvention of sanctions. “With the delivery of the turbine, we exposed Putin’s bluff,” said Scholz. “He can no longer use this pretext and no longer bring up technical reasons for the lack of gas deliveries.”
9:50 p.m .: As part of further punitive measures against Russian personalities, the US Treasury Department has also imposed sanctions on Vladimir Putin’s alleged partner Alina Kabaeva. The 39-year-old is on the sanctions list because she is the “CEO of the national media group,” a Kremlin-affiliated “empire of television, radio and print organizations.” In addition, the multiple Olympic champion in Russian gymnastics has a “close connection to Putin”. In addition to Kabaeva, who is said to have a relationship with the Russian president and to have children with him, oligarchs are also affected by the punitive measures.
9:14 p.m .: The first ship with grain from Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression has arrived in Turkey. The freighter has reached the entrance to the Bosphorus in the Black Sea, a team from the AFP news agency reported on Tuesday evening. The ship “Razoni” loaded with corn is to be inspected on Wednesday. Meanwhile, many voices called for more grain deliveries to follow quickly.
The Sierra Leone-registered, 186-meter-long ship left the Ukrainian port of Odessa on Monday morning with 26,000 tons of corn on board. The destination is the Lebanese port of Tripoli. Before it goes there, it is to be inspected by representatives of Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN. The inspection should take place on the open sea off Istanbul, so the ship should not enter the port.
This is the first approved export since Ukraine and Russia signed a grain agreement in Istanbul on June 22. The agreement to release grain exports from Ukrainian ports, which had previously been blocked by Russia, was mediated by Turkey and the United Nations. Kyiv and Moscow have pledged to respect safe corridors for cargo ships on the Black Sea and to refrain from military activities there.
6:17 p.m .: Ukraine, which is about to go bankrupt because of the war, has accused Germany of blocking the payment of financial aid from the EU. “We expect eight billion euros. Unfortunately, some EU countries, including Germany, are blocking the consideration of this question,” Deputy Presidential Office Ihor Zhovka said on Tuesday, according to local media. President Volodymyr Zelenskyj is therefore conducting “active talks”.
Zhovka explained that Kyiv has already received one billion euros of the nine billion euros in macro financial aid promised in May. According to information from the EU Commission, guarantees from member states may be necessary for the outstanding sum because a guarantee via the EU budget is not possible due to a lack of funds.
In July, several rating agencies downgraded Ukraine’s credit rating. The largest state-owned company, Naftogaz, also failed to service its foreign debt due Tuesday last week due to a government order. Ukraine’s additional financial needs for 2023 have been estimated at almost 50 billion euros. At the end of February, Russia invaded the neighboring country and occupied parts of eastern and southern Ukraine.
5:52 p.m .: The turbine for the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline is still in Germany. This is reported by “n-tv” with reference to the company Siemens Energy. Chancellor Olaf Scholz will travel to Mühlheim an der Ruhr on Wednesday and inspect the turbine, the company said.
The federal government accuses Russia of power games over the turbine. This is ready to be returned to Russia. In addition, there are no technical reasons for the throttling of gas deliveries through Nord Stream 1, it said in Berlin.
Last Wednesday, with reference to further repair work, the company once again throttled the gas supplies so that only 20 percent of the maximum possible amount is now flowing through the pipes.
3:18 p.m .: Shortly before leaving Germany, the former Ukrainian ambassador Andriy Melnyk offered Chancellor Scholz (SPD) an apology for abusive statements. Melnyk said on Tuesday on Bild TV that he had asked the Chancellery to speak to Scholz about his imminent departure from Germany. “If the chancellor were to receive me before leaving, I would apologize to him.”
He would apologize for calling the chancellor an “insulted liverwurst,” said Melnyk. The diplomat made this statement when Scholz initially refused to travel to Kyiv himself after Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier had been uninvited from Ukraine. The Ukraine update on August 2nd – Barbaric Russian attack on refugees – Germany supplies important weapons
Melnyk assessed the prospects of a personal meeting with the chancellor as uncertain: “Let’s see, I hope so.”
The Ukrainian admitted to being offended by his appearance in Germany. “My main wish remains and is to strengthen relations with Germany, even if it didn’t always appear that way,” he asserted. He and his family loved Germany and its culture: “It’s hard for us to say goodbye.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi recalled Melnyk from the post of ambassador in Berlin in early July. After his return to Kyiv, Melnyk will continue to work in his country’s diplomatic service. He did not want to comment on reports that he would become deputy foreign minister. The government must decide that.
2:25 p.m .: According to a study, the sanctions of western countries against Russia have massively damaged the country’s economy. The sanctions “not only worked,” but “thoroughly paralyzed the Russian economy at all levels,” according to the recently published report by the Yale School of Management. In addition, Russia’s income from oil and gas exports has recently fallen significantly.
The study, written by economists and management experts, also challenges the assumption that monthly revenues from oil and gas exports in the tens of billions of dollars kept the Russian economy afloat. Energy revenues have even fallen over the past three months.
The US researchers see Russia facing an “unsolvable” problem in the event that European states become independent of Russian natural gas, since 83 percent of Russian energy exports have so far gone to Europe. “Russia is much more dependent on Europe than Europe is on Russia,” the report said.
The punitive measures taken by Western countries and the exodus of international companies as a result of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine have brought a significant part of the country’s economic activity to a standstill. Domestic production in Russia has “come to a complete standstill” and there is “no capacity to replace the necessary companies, products and talent,” according to the 118-page study. Around 1,000 foreign companies have left the country, which means the loss of up to five million jobs. Industrial production collapsed.
According to their own statements, the researchers used data from companies, banks and trading partners of Russian companies as the basis of their analysis, since Moscow has not published important economic data for a long time. The study cites the car industry as a particularly drastic example: sales figures have fallen from 100,000 to 27,000 per month, and because parts from abroad are missing, cars are being manufactured without airbags, automatic transmissions and safety systems such as ABS. Retail sales and consumer spending have recently fallen by 15 to 20 percent compared to the previous year. Imports have collapsed, even from friendly China, Russia is importing half less.
Tuesday, August 2, 11:35 a.m.: The army inspector, Alfons Mais, does not believe that the war in Ukraine will end quickly. “Militarily, I fear the war will last a long time – if necessary, it may freeze in the meantime,” said Mais to Zeit Online, according to information from Tuesday. “Personally, I often ask myself how peace with the Putin system should look like,” said Mais. In any case, for him there could only be the perspective of a “completely restored territorial integrity of the UN member Ukraine”.
Mais assessed the possibilities of further deliveries of weapons from Bundeswehr stocks as limited. A limit is reached when areas are affected in which the Bundeswehr itself does not have a surplus of material. Wherever there is air, it would be given to the Ukraine. “When it comes to military support, I think it’s crucial that we keep a certain balance,” said the army inspector about possible arms deliveries. “I have to make sure that the army is able to fulfill our core mission – the defense of the country and the allies. And that is difficult enough under the current conditions.”
7:31 p.m .: Despite the war in Ukraine, Russia has confirmed that it does not want to start a nuclear war. “We assume that there can be no winners in a nuclear war and that it must never be started,” President Vladimir Putin wrote in a greeting to participants at the NPT conference in New York published on the Kremlin’s website on Monday. In doing so, he countered growing fears since the beginning of the war that Moscow might use nuclear weapons in Ukraine (see below).
The fears were based, among other things, on the fact that Putin had put the Russian nuclear forces on increased alert shortly after the attack on the neighboring country. Previously, Russia’s leadership had always ruled out a nuclear first strike and presented operational plans only for a so-called counter-strike, i.e. the military response to an attack.
Putin has now stressed that Russia is fulfilling and will continue to fulfill its obligations as a founding member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. At the same time, the head of the Kremlin called for “equal and indivisible security for all members of the world community.” In addition, all countries that fulfilled the provisions of the NPT should have access to the civilian use of nuclear power. Putin’s demand may have been aimed at Iran’s civilian nuclear program, which is supported by Russia.
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