Page 162 - Russia

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UN, Russia hold talks on extending wartime grain deal to ease food crisis

Top Russian and U.N. officials held talks in Switzerland on Friday to try to iron out the extension of a deal allowing Ukrainian grain shipments and Russian food and fertiliser exports, with just over a week left before the wartime agreement meant to ease a global food crisis is set to expire. U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths and U.N. trade chief Rebeca Grynspan, who has been in charge of the Russian side of the agreement, were meeting in Geneva with a Russian team led by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin. This discussion, it is hoped, should advance progress made in facilitating the unimpeded export of food and fertilisers originating from the Russian Federation to the global markets, U.N. Geneva spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci told reporters. The deal is critical because Ukraine and Russia are major suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other food, especially to parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia where many people are already going hungry and food ...

India sends more vacuum gasoil to US as the West shuns Russian oil

India, the world's third-largest oil importer, has been ramping up Russian crude imports and increasing oil product exports to the West for higher margins.

UN, Russians to discuss extension of Ukraine export deal in Geneva

Senior U.N. and Russian officials planned to meet in Geneva on Friday for talks on extending the deal that returned Ukrainian grain to world markets and was supposed to eliminate obstacles for Russian exports of grain and fertilizer. The agreement expires Nov. 19, and Ukraine and Western nations are pressing for it to be extended. However, Russia's government has said it is undecided, expressing dissatisfaction with how the deal has worked for its side. U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths and U.N. trade chief Rebeca Grynspan, who has been in charge of the Russian side of the agreement, were to meet with a Russian delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin, the U.N. said Thursday. Separate agreements brokered by the United Nations and Turkey and signed by Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul on July 22 were a rare example of tacit cooperation between the warring nations in the face of an escalating global food crisis following Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of its smaller .

Indian students who left Ukraine can continue education in Russia: Diplomat

Thousands of Indian medical students were left stranded with their future hanging on the cliff when Russia attacked Ukraine at the end of February 2022 and several were evacuated from Ukraine to India

Russia withdrawing troops, Ukrainian official fears 'city of death'

Russia said it began withdrawing troops from a strategic Ukrainian city Thursday, providing a potential turning point in the grinding war, while a Ukrainian official warned that Russian land mines could render Kherson a city of death. Kyiv acknowledged Moscow's forces had no choice but to flee Kherson but remained cautious, fearing an ambush. With Ukrainian officials tight-lipped with their assessments, reporters not present and spotty communications, it was difficult to know what was happening in the port city, where the residents who remained after tens of thousands fled were afraid to leave their homes. A forced pullout from Kherson - the only provincial capital Moscow had captured after invading Ukraine- would mark one of Russia's worst setbacks of the war. Recapturing the city could provide Ukraine a launching pad for supplies and troops to try to win back other lost territory in the south, including Crimea, which Moscow seized in 2014. Ukrainian forces seem to be scoring more

Russian military claims pullout from occupied city; Ukraine sceptical

Russia's military said Wednesday it will withdraw from the only Ukrainian regional capital it captured, but Kyiv was sceptical and an analyst warned this could be a ruse to lure the country's forces into a deadly trap. A forced pullout from the city of Kherson would mark one of Russia's worst setbacks in the 8-month-old war. Ukrainian authorities cautioned against considering the announced plan to retreat from Kherson, a gateway to the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula, and nearby areas as a done deal. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that the Russians were feigning a pullout from Kherson to lure the Ukrainian army into an entrenched battle in the strategic industrial port city. If confirmed, the withdrawal from Kherson in a region of the same name that Moscow illegally annexed in September would pile on another setback to Russia's early failed attempt to capture the capital, Kyiv, and the chaotic and hasty retreat from the administrative region around Ukraine's ...

Iranian, Russian security officials discuss Ukraine crisis, bilateral ties

Shamkhani noted that Iran welcomes and supports any initiative that leads to a ceasefire and peace talks between Russia and Ukraine and is ready to play a role in ending the conflicts

India, Russia vow to expand economic cooperation, including energy sector

India and Russia on Tuesday vowed to expand their economic engagement including New Delhi's import of petroleum products from its "time-tested" partner even as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar emphasized on ending the Ukraine conflict in view of growing global concerns over energy and food security. After holding wide-ranging talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov in Moscow, Jaishankar said India would be supportive of any initiative that "de-risks" the global economy and stabilises the global order at this stage. In his opening remarks at the meeting with Lavrov, Jaishankar described Indo-Russia relations as "exceptionally steady" and "time-tested" and said the objective is to fashion a contemporary, balanced, mutually beneficial, sustainable and long-term engagement between the two sides. It was Jaishankar's first visit to Moscow after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February and his talks with the Russian ...

Volodymyr Zelenskyy open to talks with Russia on Ukraine's terms

Ukraine's president has suggested he's open to peace talks with Russia, softening his earlier refusal to negotiate with Moscow while President Vladimir Putin is in power while sticking to Kyiv's demands. Volodymyr Zelenskyy's appeal to the international community late Monday to force Russia into real peace talks reflected a change in rhetoric for a man who signed a decree in late September stating the impossibility of holding talks with Putin. But since his preconditions appear to be non-starters for Moscow, it's hard to see how Zelenskyy's latest comments would advance any talks. Zelenskyy reiterated that his conditions for dialogue were the return of all of Ukraine's occupied lands, compensation for damage caused by the war and the prosecution of war crimes. Western weapons and aid have been key to Ukraine's ability to fight off Russia's invasion, which some initially expected would tear through the country with relative ease. But U.S. midterm elections Tuesday will define the ..

US quietly asks banks to keep some ties with Russia, even as Congress balks

"We are following the instructions of the American government as they asked us to do it," Dimon responded before Sherman cut him off

Russia, Iran set to ink massive energy deal to offset Western sanctions

In early October, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister had announced that Moscow and Tehran may agree to a swap of 5 MT of oil and 10 billion cubic metres of gas, to be completed by the end of the year

Ukraine's President Zelensky wants Iran punished for helping Russia

"If it was not for the Iranian supply of weapons to the aggressor, we would be closer to peace now," Zelensky said Sunday evening in his daily address

Russia reactivates its trolls and bots ahead of the US midterms

Researchers have identified a series of Russian information operations to influence American elections and, perhaps, erode support for Ukraine

Russia cafe blaze kills 13, injures five others; investigation underway

A fire in a cafe in the Russian city of Kostroma killed at least 13 people and injured five others on Saturday, local authorities said. The governor of the Kostroma region, Sergei Sitnikov, said 13 people died in the fire and five more were slightly injured. Russian news agency Interfax cited local emergency officials as saying that the death toll stood at 15. The contradicting numbers couldn't be immediately reconciled. The blaze erupted in the early hours after someone apparently used a flare gun, according to the authorities. The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported that a brawl erupted in the cafe shortly before the fire, but it wasn't immediately clear if it had anything to do with the use of a flare gun. Rescuers were able to evacuate 250 people. The roof of the cafe collapsed during the fire, which engulfed an area of 3,500 sq metres (more than 37,000 sq feet). Firefighters spent five hours battling the blaze, and a dozen residents of a nearby residential buildings

Iranian minister acknowledges supplying drones to Russia for first time

Iran's foreign minister on Saturday acknowledged for the first time that his country has supplied Russia with drones, insisting the transfer came before Moscow's war on Ukraine that has seen the Iranian-made drones divebombing Kyiv. The comments by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian come after months of confusing messaging from Iran about the weapons shipment, as Russia sends the drones slamming into Ukrainian energy infrastructure and civilian targets. We gave a limited number of drones to Russia months before the Ukraine war, Amirabdollahian told reporters after a meeting in Tehran. Previously, Iranian officials had denied arming Russia in its war on Ukraine. Just earlier this week, Iran's Ambassador to the UN Amir Saeid Iravani called the allegations totally unfounded" and reiterated Iran's position of neutrality in the war. The US and its Western allies on the Security Council have called on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to investigate if Russia has used Irani

Russia, China block plans for Antarctic marine protections supported by EU

Russia and China have again blocked plans supported by the European Union, the United States and 23 other nations to protect three vast stretches of ocean around Antarctica from most fishing. But conservationists said there were some positives from a two-week international meeting on the future of Antarctica's pristine waters that concluded in Australia late Friday. Those included an agreement on new protections for krill fishing and a commitment to meet in Chile next year to further discuss the proposal for the new marine protected areas, which combined would cover a swath of ocean larger than India. Many nations have become frustrated at the ability of Russia and, to a lesser extent, China to effectively veto proposals, as the rules of the group require it reach consensus before taking action. The U.S., which has been trying to find common ground with China, laid the blame for this year's disagreements squarely on Russia, which the U.S. said was undermining the group. Russia's

US and its allies clash with China, Russia over North Korea missiles

The United States and its allies clashed with China and Russia on Friday over North Korea's escalating ballistic missile launches and American-led military exercises in South Korea, again preventing any action by the deeply divided UN Security Council. US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said North Korea's staggering 59 ballistic missile launches this year, including 13 since Oct. 27 and one that made an unprecedented impact about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from South Korea's shore, are about more than advancing Pyongyang's military capabilities and seek to raise tensions and stoke fear in its neighbours. She said 13 of the 15 Security Council members have condemned North Korea's actions since the beginning of the year, but Pyongyang has been protected by Russia and China who have bent over backwards to justify repeated violations of UN sanctions by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK, the country's official name. And, in turn, they have enabled the DPRK and made a ..

Only dialogue and diplomacy can end Russia-Ukraine war: Global statesmen

Only dialogue and diplomacy can end the devastating war in Ukraine, with total victory on the battlefield impossible for either warring party, members of a group of prominent former world leaders founded by Nelson Mandela said Friday. The group, known as The Elders, delivered that message to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, telling him on a visit to Kyiv this summer that he must start considering a way out of the conflict, said group chairwoman Mary Robinson, former Irish president. We need to encourage more thinking about how it will end in order to get the idea that this needs to end, as opposed to increasing the military arsenal on both sides and the devastation to the population in Ukraine, said Robinson, who also served as UN high commissioner for human rights. The Elders have condemned Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine as a flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter and a reckless, unjustifiable act of aggression that threatens to destabilise world peace and .

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urges Xi Jinping to exert influence on Russia

In a much-scrutinised meeting on Friday with President Xi Jinping in Beijing, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged China to exert its influence on Russia, while the Chinese leader repeated a call for talks between Moscow and Ukraine and warned against the conflict going nuclear. Scholz is in Beijing for a one-day visit that has drawn criticism over China's tacit support for Russia, lingering controversies over economic ties and human rights issues, as well as the timing of the trip. It comes after Xi further cemented his authoritarian rule at a major Communist Party congress last month and as China continues to refuse to criticise Russia. Scholz's visit reflects the importance of Germany's trade ties with China, the world's second-largest economy, particularly in the auto and manufacturing sectors. Mercedes Benz alone sold 758,863 cars in China last year, more than in any other country, according to company figures. Scholz, who is traveling with several top German business leaders,