Day: April 1, 2022

Ukraine’s attack on a fuel depot in Russia is not conducive for peace negotiations to continue, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

On Friday night, Governor Belgorod Oblas Vyacheslav Gladkov posted on Telegram that two Ukrainian helicopters targeted a fuel base in the city of Belgorod, near the border, igniting eight oil reservoirs and injuring two employees.

“The fire at the oil depot occurred as a result of an airstrike by two helicopters of the armed forces of Ukraine, which entered the territory of Russia at a low altitude.

“Two workers were injured; residents of houses on three streets near the fuel base are being evacuated. Eight reservoirs are burning,” he wrote.

Peskov said the incident “is not something that can be perceived as creating comfortable conditions for the continuation of negotiations.”

President Vladimir Putin was also told about the situation, he added.

Turning to the subject of Russian gas payments in rubles, Peskov said supplies will not be halted on Friday if European contractors refuse to open ruble accounts in Russian banks.

“Payment for those deliveries that are going on now should not be made today, it should be made at the end of the second half of the month, April, or even at the beginning of May,” he noted.

He acknowledged that the decision to sell gas for rubles may be reversed in the future, but that for the time being, this option is the best for Moscow.

Peskov also criticized German media reports claiming that Berlin may nationalize subsidiaries of Russian energy giant Gazprom.

“Such a plan would very seriously violate international law and all conceivable rules and laws. Therefore, we will monitor it (the reports) very carefully. Of course, we consider even the very elaboration of such a question unacceptable,” he stressed.

Asked how this alleged nationalization could affect Germany’s gas contracts, Peskov answered, “These are different stories.”

“But we are now seeing a massive line on the bandit seizure of property, which occurs by (withdrawing) funds from bank accounts, private property, and so on. Clear-cut bandit actions were taken against Russian international reserves. If the nationalization is added to this now, then, of course, it does not bode well,” he said.

On March 23, President Putin ordered that payments for Russian gas supply to Europe be made in rubles, despite EU sanctions against Moscow.

The Russia-Ukraine war, which started on Feb. 24, has been met with international outrage, with the European Union, US and UK, among others, implementing tough financial sanctions on Moscow.

At least 1,232 civilians have been killed in Ukraine and 1,935 injured, according to UN estimates, with the true figure feared to be far higher.

More than 4 million Ukrainians have also fled to other countries, with millions more internally displaced, according to the UN refugee agency.

Source: Anadolu Agency

China wants a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis, President Xi Jinping told top European Union officials on Friday as they pressed him to pressure Russia to end the war.

“China supports the EU’s efforts toward a political settlement of the Ukraine issue and has been encouraging peace talks in its own way,” Xi said in a virtual meeting with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel.

Von der Leyen said they conveyed the EU’s position to Xi in a “frank and open” manner and emphasized that China needs to fulfill its responsibility as a member of the UN Security Council.

“There are a few members (of the UNSC) and they have a vast responsibility. China has an influence on Russia and, therefore, we expect China to take its responsibility to end this war,” she said at a joint press conference with Michel after the virtual meeting.

“We also made very clear that China should, if not support, at least not interfere with our sanctions (on Russia),” she added.

According to a statement by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Xi stressed the need for all stakeholders to “insist on promoting peace talks” between Moscow and Kyiv, and put forward four proposals.

“Peace talks are the only viable way to prevent an escalation of tensions,” he said.

“The international community should keep creating favorable conditions for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, rather than adding fuel to the fire and aggravating tensions.”

While Beijing has so far refrained from directly condemning Russia’s war on Ukraine, Xi’s latest comments indicate a push from China to secure a halt in hostilities that, according to latest UN figures, have claimed the lives of at least 1,276 civilians and left 1,981 more injured since Feb. 24.

The Chinese leader also called for a joint response to avert a humanitarian crisis, saying that Beijing has sent aid to Kyiv and supplies to European countries that have been receiving large numbers of refugees from Ukraine.

According to the UN refugee agency, more than 4.1 million people have fled Ukraine, while millions more are internally displaced in the country.

“Third, fostering lasting peace in Europe and the Eurasian continent. The root cause of the Ukraine crisis is the regional security tensions in Europe that have built up over the years. A fundamental solution is to accommodate the legitimate security concerns of all relevant parties,” Xi said.

To prevent the regional conflict from spiraling, Xi said the fourth step should be to “not focus on just one aspect of the issue without regard to the rest, or hold the entire world hostage.”

– ‘EU should have independent policy on China’

Calling for “steady and sustained” enhancement of bilateral relations, Xi said the EU must “form its own perception of China and adopt an independent policy,” an apparent reference to the US’ influence on the European bloc.

He urged the EU to work with Beijing to jointly promote stability and long-term development of bilateral relations.

He said there is a need for China and the EU to “increase communication on their relations and on major issues concerning global peace and development, and play a constructive role in adding stabilizing factors to a turbulent world.”

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang also held discussions with the EU leaders earlier on Friday.

“China has always pursued an independent foreign policy of peace, and advocated that countries should abide by the goals and principles of the UN Charter, safeguarding international law and universally-recognized basic guidelines of international relations, including respecting countries’ sovereignty and territorial integrity, and resolving conflicts through dialogue and negotiation,” he told the EU leaders.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Russia plans to capture one-third of Ukraine quite soon to strengthen its position on negotiating table, Poland’s prime minister claimed on Thursday.

In a televised interview on CNN International, Premier Mateusz Morawiecki said: “I see the Russian troops are regrouping, reorganizing. I think they will try to surround Ukrainian forces quite soon in the Donbas region in particular. And then having captured one-third of the land of Ukraine, they will want to probably negotiate from this very very strong position.”

Morawiecki said that Russia is fearful of long-term sanctions, and the war can be stopped “through imposing a real crushing set of sanctions, overwhelming sanctions because this is the only thing with which Russia counts.”

Poland is doing everything to stop the purchase of Russian oil and natural gas, he added.

“It is so wrong that a big country in the third decade of the 21st century can swallow a smaller country only because the bigger country wants to take all resources from the smaller country. This is happening before our eyes,” he said.

The Polish prime minister also added that Russia is prepared for the war for the next couple of months, adding he is not sure if the European Union and NATO are as well prepared.

“We cannot allow Russia to commit all those war crimes in Ukraine,” he added.

The Russian war against Ukraine, which started on Feb. 24, has been met with international outrage, with the EU, US, and Britain, among others, implementing tough financial sanctions on Moscow.

At least 1,232 civilians have been killed in Ukraine and 1,935 injured, according to UN estimates, with the true figure feared to be far higher.

More than 4 million Ukrainians have also fled to other countries, with millions more internally displaced, according to the UN refugee agency.

Source: Anadolu Agency

An Islamophobic Dutch group is planning to hold deliberately provocative barbecues near mosques over the next several weeks, coinciding with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in which most believers fast from sunrise to sunset.

According to PEGIDA, standing for “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of West,” the barbecues will be held in front of mosques at the sunset fast-breaking time in 12 cities across the country, and they have applied for permits.

In years past, similar PEGIDA barbecues have featured the roasting of pork, a food prohibited under Islam.

The group argued that these events have not been allowed for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but that now there is no obstacle to what they call the “Ramadan Barbecue Tour.”

PEGIDA intolerance

Starting in 2014, the far-right Islamist PEGIDA held its first protest in Dresden, Germany with some 350 people, including 12 organizers.

Through early 2015 the number of protesters is said to have reached some 25,000 but later fell.

PEGIDA has inspired xenophobic groups both inside and outside Germany.

Source: Anadolu Agency

A new law criminalizing torture in Syria has drawn scathing criticism from international rights groups, who say it intends to whitewash decades of human rights violations by the Bashar al-Assad regime.

“It fails to offer redress to past victims of torture, include any protection measures for witnesses or survivors of torture, nor does it state whether torture survivors, or in the event of their death, their families would receive compensation,” Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement on Friday.

“Crucially, it fails to mention any measures that could be taken to prevent torture from occurring in detention centers and prisons in the future,” she said, adding that the law “effectively whitewashes decades of state-sanctioned human rights violations.”

The law passed by the Assad regime on March 30 “criminalizes torture and assigns a penalty of at least three years’ imprisonment, and up to the death penalty where the torture results in death or involves rape,” according to a statement by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

It said the announcement of the law by the Syrian regime “might have appeared as satire.”

“It is hard to take something like this seriously, given how pervasive the use of torture is by Syrian state authorities. As HRW and others have extensively documented, Syria has arbitrarily detained and tortured tens of thousands of people in what amount to crimes against humanity,” read an HRW statement released on Friday.

Amnesty International also said it has “previously documented inhuman conditions across Syria’s prisons.”

“The widespread and systematic use of enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment, which has led to deaths in detention, and extrajudicial executions following sham trials, amount to crimes against humanity,” the group said.

Amnesty International said the Syrian regime must urgently give independent monitors access to the country’s notorious detention centers “as a first step to signaling any genuine intent to curtail the practice of torture by state agents.”

HRW stressed that the Assad regime “needs to do far more than pass a law to show that it is reforming.”

“It should start by holding accountable those responsible for torture over the past decade; by releasing all those arbitrarily detained in official and unofficial detention facilities, and by seriously contributing to an international and independent effort to determine and reveal the fate of the thousands who have been disappeared,” read the HRW statement.

Syria has been mired in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Various estimates suggest the violence has claimed the lives of some 500,000 people and forced more than 12 million to flee their homes.

Source: Anadolu Agency