U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen to advocate for price cap on Russian oil during Asia trip
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies during the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing titled “The Financial Stability Oversight Council Annual Report to Congress,” in Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., May 10, 2022.
Tom Williams | Pool | Reuters
Janet Yellen plans to advocate for a price cap on Russian oil during her first trip to the Indo-Pacific as U.S. Treasury secretary, in what amounts to an attempt to curb revenues flowing to the Kremlin as it wages war on Ukraine.
The Treasury Department said Yellen’s trip to Japan, Indonesia and South Korea will focus on “opportunities to further strengthen the historic sanctions” imposed on Russia. It added that the goal of a potential price cap on Russian oil would be to “limit revenue for Russia’s military while at the same time dampening the impact of the war on gas and energy prices in America and globally.”
Russia is one of the world’s largest exporters of petroleum products, and its war on its neighbor has constrained supply due to disrupted trade routes and sanctions imposed by the U.S. and NATO allies. President Joe Biden and other world leaders are trying to balance support for Ukraine with domestic anger and budget angst caused by food and energy inflation.
Some 67% of Americans said gas prices were causing them financial hardship, according to a Gallup poll conducted in June, when U.S. gas prices hit all-time highs. The last time two-thirds of Americans indicated that gas prices were causing financial hardship was 2011.
The national average price of a gallon of regular gasoline fell to $4.721 on Friday, down from a record $5.016 notched on June 14.
— Thomas Franck
Celebrity chef and humanitarian Jose Andres shares video of volunteers packing food donations in Ukraine
Spanish celebrity chef and restaurateur Jose Andres shared a video on Twitter of volunteers in Ukraine preparing meals for the war-weary country.
“More than 40,000 bags are made each day! 20 meals per bag=800k meals plus hundreds of thousands of hot meals,” wrote Andres, who founded the World Central Kitchen, a humanitarian organization dedicated to feeding vulnerable communities.
The two-star Michelin chef brought the World Central Kitchen to Ukraine to address the mounting food crisis triggered by Russia’s war.
— Amanda Macias
Russian ambassador reportedly says troops unlikely to leave southern Ukraine
Russian ambassador to London, Andrei Kelin, says the Kremlin’s forces will defeat Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donbas region and Moscow is unlikely to withdraw from a large swathe of land across Ukraine’s southern coast, according to Reuters.
“We are going to liberate all of the Donbas,” Kelin told Reuters in an interview.
“Of course it is difficult to predict the withdrawal of our forces from the southern part of Ukraine because we have already experience that after withdrawal, provocations start and all the people are being shot and all that.”
— Sam Meredith
Zelenskyy says retaking of Snake Island shows Ukraine ‘cannot be broken’
Moscow said Russian troops withdrew from Snake Island (pictured here in an image released by the military governor of Odesa) last week as a “goodwill gesture.” Ukraine, however, said Russian forces hastily evacuated after successful military action.
Odessa Military Governor | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the retaking of Snake Island, a strategically important Black Sea island, sends a powerful message to Russian forces.
“And now let every Russian captain — whether of a ship or an aircraft — see the Ukrainian flag on Zmiinyi [Snake Island] and know that our state cannot be broken,” Zelenskky said.
Moscow said Russian troops withdrew from Snake Island last week as a “goodwill gesture.” Ukraine, however, said Russian forces hastily evacuated after successful military action.
— Sam Meredith
Russia’s Lavrov accuses the West of ‘rabid Russophobia’ at G-20 meeting
Russia’s Lavrov meets Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi at the G-20 ministers’ meeting in Bali, Indonesia on July 8, 2022.
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Western officials at the G-20 ministers’ meeting in Bali, Indonesia, of criticizing Moscow rather than focusing on how to tackle global economic issues.
G-20 host Indonesia had pushed for ministers to find a way to help bring an end to Russia’s onslaught in Ukraine.
Speaking as he arrived at the conference, Lavrov said: “Despite all this and the useful discussions that should allow us to ask our Western colleagues some very blunt questions, they have no answers to these questions.”
He added, “There is only rabid Russophobia, which they turn to instead of finding much-needed common ground on key issues on the global economy and finances, for which the G-20 was created.”
— Sam Meredith
Russian forces seen preparing for new offensives in Donetsk, UK says
Russian troops are preparing for new offensives in eastern Ukraine, according to Britain’s Defense Ministry.
Russian forces “are likely pausing to replenish before undertaking new offensive operations in Donetsk Oblast,” the ministry said via Twitter. It added that Ukrainian forces continued to make “gradual advances” in the southwestern Kherson area.
“There is a realistic possibility that Russia’s immediate tactical objective will be Siversk, as its forces attempt to advance towards its most likely operational goal of the Sloviansk-Kramatorsk urban area.”
U.S. asks for fighters detained in Ukraine to be recognized as ‘combatants,’ media reports
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has reportedly said that the U.S. asked for American fighters detained in Ukraine to be considered “combatants,” according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
The U.S. Embassy in London was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC Friday.
Putin tells Ukraine that Russia has barely started its military action
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends Caspian Summit in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan June 29, 2022.
Grigory Sysoyev | Sputnik | Reuters
With Russia’s military action in Ukraine in its fifth month, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Kyiv that it should quickly accept Moscow’s terms or brace for the worst, adding ominously that Russia has barely started its action.
Speaking at a meeting with leaders of the Kremlin-controlled parliament, Putin accused Western allies of fueling the hostilities, charging that “the West wants to fight us until the last Ukrainian.”
“It’s a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, but it looks like it’s heading in that direction,” he added.
“Everybody should know that largely speaking, we haven’t even yet started anything in earnest,” Putin said in a menacing note.
He declared that Russia remains ready to sit down for talks to end the fighting, adding that “those who refuse to do so should know that the longer it lasts the more difficult it will be for them to make a deal with us.”
— Associated Press
War could leave Ukraine’s environment with a ‘toxic legacy for generations to come,’ UN warns
A Ukrainian woman walks past flames and smoke rising from a fire following an artillery fire on the 30th day of the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces in the northeastern city of Kharkiv on March 25, 2022.
Aris Messinis | AFP | Getty Images
United Nations investigators said the war in Ukraine “could leave the country and region with a toxic legacy for generations to come,” according to preliminary monitoring reports from the region.
The United Nations Environment Program, or UNEP, found thousands of possible incidents of air, water and land pollution and the degradation of ecosystems, including risks to neighboring countries.
“The mapping and initial screening of environmental hazards only serves to confirm that war is quite literally toxic,” wrote UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen in the report.
“The first priority is for this senseless destruction to end now. The environment is about people: it’s about livelihoods, public health, clean air and water, and basic food systems. It’s about a safe future for Ukrainians and their neighbors, and further damage must not be done,” she added.
Andersen said that Ukraine will also require international support to remediate the damage across the country and mitigate risks to the wider region.
— Amanda Macias
Finland to boost security at Russia border with amended law
Finland’s army soldiers attend the multinational NATO exercise Saber Strike in Adazi, Latvia, June 11, 2015.
Finland’s army soldiers attend the multinational NATO exercise Saber Strike in Adazi, Latvia, June 11, 2015.
Finland’s Parliament passed amended legislation on border security that allows for the closure of crossing points with Russia amid fears that Moscow could choose to send large numbers of migrants to the frontier.
The move by lawmakers came just two days after NATO’s 30 members signed formal accession protocols for Finland and Sweden to join the alliance — an outcome that has angered Russia. The two Nordic nations’ membership bids were approved at a NATO summit at the end of June in Madrid.
The amendments approved by Finnish lawmakers will give the center-left government led by Prime Minister Sanna Marin wider powers to restrict border traffic in exceptional situations particularly on the 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border with Russia, the longest of any European Union member.
The changes would also allow Finland, a nation of 5.5 million, to build barriers and fences along the border with Russia if needed. Finnish President Sauli Niinisto is due to sign the amendments into law on Friday.
— Associated Press