Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba visits China – DW – July 23, 2024

Ukrainian forces said they had attacked the Caucasus port on the Sea of ​​Azov in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai region, causing “significant damage” to a Russian ferry being used for military purposes.

The General Staff said on social media that the ferry “Slavyanin” was the last Russian-owned rail ferry in the region.

“The occupying forces used the ferry for military purposes to transport rail cars, vehicles and containers,” the report said.

Meanwhile, Krasnodar Krai governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on the Telegram messaging app on Tuesday that a Ukrainian drone attack had damaged a ferry in the Caucasus port, killing one person.

The port of Caucasus is located on land opposite Crimea, and ferries based there help connect mainland Russia with the peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Hungary’s foreign minister said it would block reimbursement to European Union member states that provided arms to Ukraine until Kiev allows oil from Russia’s Lukoil to be transported through a pipeline that passes over its territory.

Slovakia and Hungary said earlier this month they had halted oil deliveries from Lukoil through the Druzhba pipeline after Ukraine banned the company from shipping resources.

Kiev said it had cut off crude supplies from Lukoil, but overall flows through the pipeline, which also supplies other sources, have not been reduced.

“Unless Ukraine resolves this issue, everyone should forget about the payment of 6.5 billion euros in compensation to the European Peace Facility (EPF) for arms transfers,” ATV broadcaster quoted Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó as saying.

Member states that have supplied arms to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in 2022 can claim compensation from the fund. But Hungary has been blocking the next payment of its EPF funds for more than a year, citing a variety of issues.

The Ukrainian presidential chief of staff discussed the situation on the battlefield and the Russian aggression with Kamala Harris, national security adviser to the U.S. vice president and a front-runner for the Democratic nomination.

In a statement, the Ukrainian presidential office said Andriy Yermak spoke with Phil Gordon by phone.

According to the statement, the two leaders discussed further U.S. assistance, strengthening Ukraine’s air defenses, and the results of the first Peace Summit.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock reiterated the importance of European unity, a day after EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell announced his country would boycott a meeting of foreign ministers planned for next month in Budapest, Hungary.

“Times are too serious for petty bargaining,” Mr Beerbock warned during a meeting with his Dutch counterpart Caspar Veldkamp in Berlin.

She said the EU should remain “united and resolute” rather than obsess over the details of the boycotted meeting.

The boycott was a response to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s self-declared “peace mission” to Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.

Muscovites who volunteer to fight in Ukraine will receive an initial payment of 1.9 million rubles (20,000 euros, $21,800) from the city, bringing their first-year salary to 5.2 million rubles (55,000 euros, $59,600), the mayor’s office said.

This increase means that, based on statistical data for the first quarter of 2024, the annual salary of a Moscow contract soldier will be more than five times higher than the average nominal wage in Russia.

Heavy payments to volunteers have allowed Russia to avoid a new nationwide mobilization after the chaotic 2022 movement led to a mass exodus of its citizens to neighboring countries.

Russian officials say some 190,000 people have volunteered to fight in Ukraine so far this year in what Moscow calls “special military operations,” a significant increase from the 490,000 contracts signed for 2023.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who is in China for talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, said he would hold “extensive, detailed and substantive negotiations” with his Chinese counterpart but did not say when the meeting would take place.

“Competition between peace plans must be avoided. It is crucial that direct dialogue takes place between Kiev and Beijing,” he said in a statement on Instagram.

Ukraine is aiming to host a second international summit later this year to advance the peace initiative, after the first meeting in Switzerland in June attracted dozens of delegations from around the world but none from Russia or China.

China and Brazil released a six-point joint peace proposal in May and said they supported holding an international peace conference approved by both warring parties.

Ukraine has said it wants a second summit to be hosted by a country from the “Southern Hemisphere” and for Russia to participate. Kiev has also said it wants China to play a more active role in trying to end the war.

Following Prime Minister Kaja Kallas’s resignation to take up a job with the EU, Estonia has sworn in his successor, Kristen Michal.

Michal belongs to the same centre-right Reform party as Karas and is also a vocal critic of Russia.

In an op-ed published in Estonia’s state-run news agency ERR, Michal wrote that his top priority was to counter “Russian aggression against a free Ukraine and the entire Western world”.

Estonia was annexed and occupied by the Soviet Union from 1994 to 1991. Successive independent Estonian governments have emphasized security concerns about sharing a vast land border with Russia.

At least one person was killed and five injured in a Ukrainian drone attack in southern Russia, local authorities said on Tuesday.

“A drone attacked a ferry ship in the Caucasus port,” Krasnador Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said in a Telegram post.

“Unfortunately, there have been injuries and fatalities among the crew and port staff,” he added.

The incident came as Russia and Ukraine exchanged drone attacks overnight.

The Ukrainian Air Force said the Russian strikes had damaged vital infrastructure in the Sumy region, but no casualties were reported.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry reported several more airstrikes on the border with Ukraine and over the occupied Crimean peninsula.

“Last night, air defense systems on duty intercepted and destroyed two drones over the Bryansk region and two over the Belgorod region. They also intercepted and destroyed 21 drones over the territory of the Republic of Crimea and in the Black Sea area,” the defence ministry said in a statement on social media.

EU foreign and defense ministers have decided to hold a key meeting in Brussels instead of Budapest in protest at Hungary’s dishonest diplomacy on Ukraine.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán recently visited Moscow and Beijing in what he called an “ambassador of peace.” Hungary currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU, and Orbán is considered the EU’s friendliest ally with Russia.

“We have to send a signal, even if it’s a symbolic one,” EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said late on Monday.

Borrell said all EU member states had “overwhelmingly” criticised Orban, with only Slovakia supporting Hungary’s position.

Hungary was quick to condemn the change of venue.

“What a fantastic response they have made,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó said.

“I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but I feel like I’m in kindergarten.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Orban and Putin hold peace talks in Ukraine

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Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba arrived in China on Tuesday for talks on how to end the war with Russia.

China, which has strengthened its “unrestricted” ties with Russia since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, has taken a neutral stance on the conflict.

But Western governments accuse China of aiding Russia during the war.

“The main topic of the talks is exploring ways to counter Russian aggression and China’s possible role in achieving a stable and just peace,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The visit will be Kuleba’s first to China since the 2022 invasion. Beijing said the trip will last until Friday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the news.

“For us, relations with China are of the utmost importance,” he said. “We will continue on the path of developing Russian-Chinese relations in all spheres.”

zc/rm (Reuters, AFP, AP, DPA)