Russia to extend critical grain agreement for 60 days
Russian has suggested renewing a crucial deal to allow the safe export of gain from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports for half the term of the previous agreement, Reuters reports.
The proposal was first brokered between Russia and Ukraine by the United Nations and Turkey last July. Without this grain, a number of countries would experience a critical food shortage.
In November the deal was extended for 120 days but is now expected to be renewed on Saturday for 60 days after Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Vershinin met with UN Officials in Geneva, citing restrictions on Russian agricultural exporters.
Ukraine’s infrastructure minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said that Russia’s stance went against the agreement, but did not reject Moscow’s 60-day proposal.
[The grain] agreement involves at least 120 days of extension, therefore Russia’s position to extend the deal only for 60 days contradicts the document signed by Turkey and the UN.
We’re waiting for the official position of the UN and Turkey as the guarantors of the initiative.
Key events
Rebecca Ratcliffe
Authorities in the Indonesian island Bali have asked the government to cancel a visa on arrival policy for Ukrainians and Russians, citing concerns that citizens of the two countries were violating local laws and regulations.
Russians make up one of the biggest groups of foreign visitors to Indonesia, and many stayed in Bali during the pandemic and following the invasion of Ukraine.
But local people’s patience with tourists has worn thin, due to frequent reports of unlawful or disrespectful behaviour, and of foreigners working illegally while staying on tourist visas.
Bali Governor Wayan Koster said he had written to the Law and Human Rights Minister and the Foreign Affairs Minister to request that they revoke the visas on arrival policy for Russian and Ukrainian citizens visiting Bali, saying there was a significant problem with citizens from the two countries breaching rules.
“Because the two countries are at war, they don’t feel comfortable in their own country. So they come to Bali,” Koster said, according to a report by Tempo.
Local people in Bali have taken to social media over recent years to complain about tourist behaviour – this includes instances where social media influencers violated Covid rules for online pranks during the pandemic, a model who posed naked at a sacred tree and a man who allegedly hit a pedestrian while driving under the influence of alcohol.
More than 77,500 Russians arrived in Indonesia between September 2022 and January 2023 following the relaxation of Covid restrictions, according to Reuters. About 8,800 Ukrainian visitors arrived between September 2022 and January 2023.
Koster said it is possible that other countries may also have visa on arrival entitlement revoked. The Law and Human Rights Ministry is yet to respond.
Ukraine’s defence ministry claims in its latest update that in the last 24 hours its forces have killed over 700 Russian troops. It also says that it has destroyed ten tanks, 15 armoured combat vehicles, 16 pieces of artillery and 11 drones. The claims have not been independently verified.
“Nothing is impossible in this world. Firm determination, it is said, can move heaven and earth.”
Yamamoto TsunetomoTotal combat losses of the enemy from February 24, 2022 to March 14, 2023: pic.twitter.com/bLaIp5h9f8
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) March 14, 2023
In its latest daily briefing of how it assesses the situation in Ukraine, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has asserted that “defence manufacturing capacity is a key vulnerability” in Russia’s campaign in Ukraine. It writes:
In recent weeks, Russian artillery ammunition shortages have likely worsened to the extent that extremely punitive shell-rationing is in force on many parts of the front. This has almost certainly been a key reason why no Russian formation has recently been able to generate operationally significant offensive action.
There is little respite in the air alarms in Ukraine so far this morning. Donetsk region declared an all clear a few minutes ago, and then just three minutes later declared a new air alert. Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv all also have active air alerts at the moment.
Patrick Wintour
Britain’s refresh of its defence and foreign policy may mark the moment when the UK sobers up about its place in a world that it now describes as “defined by danger, disorder and division”, and increasingly tilting to authoritarianism.
Gone is the optimistic Global Britain bombast of the Boris Johnson era, set out in the original integrated review only two years ago. That version championed the UK as “a beacon of democratic sovereignty” and one of the most influential countries in the world, and hailed its ability to draw on its post-Brexit status to “do things differently, economically and politically”.
By contrast, the reworked review is a vision of a colder, darker and more hostile world where the interests of the west do not necessarily triumph. There is no shortage of patriotism, but warnings and forebodings fill every page:
What has changed is that our collective security now is intrinsically linked to the outcome of the conflict in Ukraine.
But the scale of these intensifying threats has only led to a modest increase in defence spending of £5bn over two years, mainly related to the Aukus nuclear submarine deal. There has been, however, a re-evaluation of the importance of alliances and partnerships to the UK. The emphasis now is less on the benefits of Britain going it alone, and more on the necessity for democracies to “out cooperate” the autocracies.
For more on how the UK is reconsidering its position in the world, read Guardian diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour’s, full analysis:
Partisan group Atesh claims to have killed the deputy head of the military administration of Nova Kakhovka just after midnight on Monday.
In a post to the group’s telegram, it claims to have detonated a bomb killing the official as he approached his car outside a cafe on Pobedy Avenue and that no civilians were injured.
The claims have not been verified.
Atesh is a partisan group operating in parts of occupied Ukraine, made up of Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars and Russians since September 2022.
It has previously claimed credit for a number of significant attacks on Russian personnel in occupied Ukraine, including a February 10 car bomb attack in the area of Nova Kakhovka which killed two Russian soldiers and injured two others.
The prosecutor at the international criminal court will formally open two war crimes cases and issue arrest warrants for several Russians deemed responsible for the mass abduction of Ukrainian children and the targeting of Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, according to reports on Monday.
The New York Times and Reuters news agency reported that the prosecutor, Karim Khan, would ask pre-trial judges to approve arrest warrants on the basis of evidence collected so far. If successful, it would be the first time ICC warrants have been issued in relation to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It is not clear whether the warrants would be sealed, which would leave suspects guessing over whether they had been implicated. It is unlikely that the warrants would lead to trials as the ICC would not try the defendants in absentia, and Russia, which is not a member of the ICC, is highly unlikely to hand them over to the court, based in The Hague.
For more on this story read the full report:
In September 2022 The New York Times published an article that contained recordings from wiretaps of Russia troops where they spoke about looting, killing civilians and criticised their commanders.
Independent Russian media outlet, Mediazone, tracked down 13 Russian soldiers whose calls were published by the NYT for a recently published longread,
One soldier, referred to as Sergei, who was quoted in the NYT story as describing the invasion of Ukraine as a “criminal war” told Mediazone that even after a year he had not changed his mind. He was the only soldier that agreed to speak to the reporters or who did not insist they supported the war.
During their calls quoted in the New York Times, Sergei told his girlfriend about looting by other soldiers and of the murder of three civilians. Adding further context to the Mediazone reporters, Sergei said:
The conversation is incomplete. Personally, I didn’t kill anyone from a machine gun, I personally didn’t take civilians prisoner, it was our guards who did it. The situation was as follows: in front of my eyes, three prisoners were taken and taken away. We were told that they were taken away and would hardly be released. Peaceful or not, I can’t say for sure, everything was too far away. I saw them already naked.
Sergei also described to the Mediazone reporters how he found a field of bodies in a forest near where he was serving. When asked why he did not refuse to obey orders if he considered the war illegal, he said he did not know:
We were intimidated by prison. I just wanted to endure it all and come home alive. Of course, I could ask the lawyer everything, but there was no time for that, we didn’t sleep much, and in general it was more important for me to talk with my relatives. In general, I didn’t even think about it somehow
A Russian soldier who had reportedly been hiding for about six months in abandoned buildings after the liberation of the Kharkiv region has been arrested by Ukrainian police.
The soldier, a 42-year-old serviceman from the 27th Russian Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, was taken into custody on Monday as regional police officers patrolled villages in the Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi area.
After he was searched, it turned out that the man, who is from the Moscow region, was a serviceman of the 27th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade of the Russian Federation. The detainee claimed he had been hiding since the liberation of the Kupiansk district by Ukraine’s armed forces.
The man, dressed in civilian clothes, was apparently separated from his unit as they fled the Ukrainian counteroffensive last September. It is still unclear how he had managed to hide for the six months since the Russian retreat.
For more on this story, read the full report below.
Ukrainian forces have sustained significant losses since the start of the war as western officials have questioned the wisdom of holding Bakhmut since January, according to a report by The Washington Post.
Speaking to serving members of the military and unnamed officials in western governments in the US and Europe, The Washing Post reports that Ukraine may have suffered as many as 120,000 killed and wounded during the conflict, compared to 200,000 on the Russian side – though it claims Ukraine keeps its casualty reports secret, even from its staunchest allies.
The report suggests western training programs aren’t preparing soldiers fast enough and many of the junior offices who have received training over the last nine months have already been killed in action.
It also claims Ukrainian security services closed down a telegram group that informed members about where authorities were distributing draft summonses.
The Washington Post report closes with figures describing the aid promised by western governments but cites named and unnamed sources who wonder whether it will be too little, too late.
Ukrainian defence forces repelled more than 100 attacks along the frontline, according to the General staff of the armed forces of Ukraine.
In its latest update, it claimed Russian forces launched five rocket strikes against civil infrastructure in Sumy and Donetsk that resulted in deaths and injuries among civilians. The Russian airforce carried out 35 airstrikes and 76 rocket salvo attacks.
Though it says the operational environment “has not changed significantly”, near Kupyansk and Lyman, Russian forces are mounting attacks against Ukrainian defences.
Ukrainian forces carried out 10 airstrikes on Russian forces, and hit five concentration areas with artillery, along with three ammunition warehouses and four communications systems.
Russian forces have made “marginal” gains in several parts of Ukraine according to the latest analysis by the Institute for The Study of War (ISW).
Northeast of Kupyansk, Russian forces appeared to advance 17km and 7km east of Siversk.
However the ISW says Russian forces have not been able to complete a turning movement around Bakhmut despite further advances in the area.
Military bloggers associated with the Wagner Group have speculated the organisation is attempting to extend its flank west of Bakhmut to the Siversky Donetsk-Donbas water canal to create an “artificial operational encirclement”.
These same commentators have also been growing concerned about a build up of Ukrainian troops and equipment that may signal a counterattack to break Wagner’s blockade of the city, and a broader offensive among the entire front line.
2/ Russian forces have made marginal territorial gains northeast of #Kupyansk as of March 13. Geolocated footage posted on March 13 shows that Russian forces advanced south of Hryanykivka (17km northeast of Kupyansk). pic.twitter.com/ZvQcwSWrqF
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) March 14, 2023
Fierce fighting is raging for control of the centre of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, forces from both sides of the conflict have said, as casualties continue to mount in the longest and bloodiest battle of Russia’s war.
Russia ratcheted up its efforts to take Bakhmut in early February after months of intense fighting around the town, and has since inched into the small city’s suburbs. Ukraine’s forces are now fighting off attacks from the north, east and south. Their only road out, to the west, is under Russian artillery fire.
Ukraine insists there is a strategy behind continuing the fight for Bakhmut. The head of Ukraine’s ground forces, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Sunday that it was using the defence of Bakhmut to buy time until Ukraine is able to carry out an anticipated spring offensive. Syrskyi also said Ukraine was using the opportunity to kill as many Russian troops as possible and wear down its reserves.
It is necessary to buy time to build reserves and launch a counteroffensive, which is not far off. [Ukrainian soldiers are] inflicting the heaviest possible losses, sparing neither themselves nor the enemy.
For more on this story, read the full report.
Russia to extend critical grain agreement for 60 days
Russian has suggested renewing a crucial deal to allow the safe export of gain from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports for half the term of the previous agreement, Reuters reports.
The proposal was first brokered between Russia and Ukraine by the United Nations and Turkey last July. Without this grain, a number of countries would experience a critical food shortage.
In November the deal was extended for 120 days but is now expected to be renewed on Saturday for 60 days after Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Vershinin met with UN Officials in Geneva, citing restrictions on Russian agricultural exporters.
Ukraine’s infrastructure minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said that Russia’s stance went against the agreement, but did not reject Moscow’s 60-day proposal.
[The grain] agreement involves at least 120 days of extension, therefore Russia’s position to extend the deal only for 60 days contradicts the document signed by Turkey and the UN.
We’re waiting for the official position of the UN and Turkey as the guarantors of the initiative.
Opening Summary
Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine – this is Royce Kurmelovs bringing you the latest developments.
China’s president, Xi Jinping, is planning to visit Russia as soon as next week, according to sources speaking to the Reuters news agency. The visit comes after senior Chinese officials flagged that China’s values its relationship to Russia in the face of western hostility.
Xi also plans to speak with Volodymyr Zelenskiy for the first time since the start of the war, according to the Wall Street Journal. China’s president is to speak virtually with his Ukrainian counterpart, probably after a visit to Moscow next week, the paper reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The Institute for The Study of War (ISW) says Russian forces have made “marginal” gains in some parts of Ukraine. Crucially the ISW says Russian forces have not been able to complete an encircling operation in the area around Bakhmut despite small advances overnight.
Meanwhile, Serbian economy minister Rade Basta called for sanctions to be imposed against Russia. Basta said Serbia, which has traditionally had a close relationship with Russia, had paid a “high price” for having delayed.
In other developments:
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The Italian government has said Russian mercenary group Wagner is behind a surge in migrant boats trying to cross the central Mediterranean, as part of Moscow’s strategy to retaliate against countries supporting Ukraine, Reuters reported. Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin responded to the claims, saying, “We have no idea what’s happening with the migrant crisis, we don’t concern ourselves with it.”
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The international criminal court intends to open two war crimes cases tied to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and will seek arrest warrants for several people. The cases are the first international charges to be brought forward since the start of the conflict, the newspaper reports.
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Moscow says a deal allowing the safe export of grain from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports will be extended only for a period of 60 days, half the term of the previous renewal, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Vershinin has said.
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Britain has declared that the UK’s security hinges on the outcome of the Ukraine war in an update to its foreign policy framework published on Monday. The UK will invest an extra £5bn in the armed forces over two years and increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP.
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Britain’s Royal Navy said it was escorting a Russian frigate and tanker in waters close to the UK having shadowed the vessels through the Channel on Sunday morning.
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President Zelenskiy said his government will spend $13.5bn on defence, including military salaries and drones this year.
