Latest news with #Crimean
Business Recorder
a day ago
- Politics
- Business Recorder
Ukraine calls for EU sanctions on Bangladeshi entities for import of ‘stolen grain'
NEW DELHI/DHAKA: Ukraine plans to ask the European Union to sanction Bangladeshi entities it says are importing wheat taken from Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia, after its warnings to Dhaka failed to stop the trade, a top Ukrainian diplomat in South Asia said. Russian forces have occupied large parts of Ukraine's southern agricultural regions since 2014 and Kyiv has accused Russia of stealing its grain even before the 2022 invasion. Russian officials say there is no theft of grain involved as the territories previously considered part of Ukraine are now part of Russia and will remain so forever. According to documents provided to Reuters by people familiar with the matter, the Ukraine Embassy in New Delhi sent several letters to Bangladesh's foreign affairs ministry this year, asking them to reject more than 150,000 tonnes of grain allegedly stolen and shipped from Russian port of Kavkaz. Asked about the confidential diplomatic communication, Ukraine's ambassador to India, Oleksandr Polishchuk, said Dhaka had not responded to the communication and Kyiv will now escalate the matter as its intelligence showed entities in Russia mix grain procured from occupied Ukrainian territories with Russian wheat before shipping. 'It's a crime,' Polishchuk said in an interview at Ukraine's embassy in New Delhi. 'We will share our investigation with our European Union colleagues, and we will kindly ask them to take the appropriate measures.' Ukraine's diplomatic tussle with Bangladeshi authorities has not been previously reported. The Bangladesh and Russian foreign ministries did not respond to requests for comment. A Bangladeshi food ministry official said Dhaka bars imports from Russia if the origin of the grain is from occupied Ukrainian territory, adding that the country imports no stolen wheat. Amid the war with Russia, the agricultural sector remains one of the main sources of export earnings for Ukraine, supplying grain, vegetable oil and oilseeds to foreign markets. In April, Ukraine detained a foreign vessel in its territorial waters, alleging it was involved in the illegal trade of stolen grain, and last year seized a foreign cargo ship and detained its captain on similar suspicions. The EU has so far sanctioned 342 ships that are part of Russia's so-called shadow fleet, which the bloc says enable Moscow to circumvent Western restrictions to move oil, arms and grain. Russia says Western sanctions are illegal. 'Not diamonds or gold' A Ukraine official told Reuters Ukrainian law prohibits any voluntary trade between Ukrainian producers, including grain farmers in the occupied territories, and Russian entities. The Ukraine Embassy has sent four letters to Bangladesh's government, reviewed by Reuters, in which it shared vessel names and their registration numbers involved in the alleged trade of moving the grain from the Crimean ports of Sevastopol and Kerch, occupied by Russia since 2014, and Berdiansk, which is under Moscow's control since 2022, to Kavkaz in Russia. The letters stated the departure and tentative arrival dates of the ships that left from Kavkaz for Bangladesh between November 2024 and June 2025. The June 11 letter said Bangladesh can face 'serious consequences' of sanctions for taking deliveries of 'stolen grain', and that such purchases fuel 'humanitarian suffering.' The sanctions 'may extend beyond importing companies and could also target government officials and the leadership of ministries and agencies who knowingly facilitate or tolerate such violations,' the letter added. In a statement to Reuters, Anitta Hipper, EU Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said the vessels in question were not currently subject to any restrictive measures. The sanctions regime was designed to act against activities that undermine the food security of Ukraine including transportation of 'stolen Ukrainian grain' and 'any proven involvement of vessels in shipping stolen Ukrainian grain could provide the basis for future restrictive measures,' she added. The Russia-controlled territories, excluding Crimea, accounted for about 3% of the total Russian grain harvest in 2024, according to Reuters' estimates based on official Russian data. Russian grain transporter Rusagrotrans says Bangladesh was the fourth largest buyer of Russian wheat in May. Ambassador Polishchuk told Reuters their intelligence shows Russia mixes its grain with that from occupied Ukrainian territories to avoid detection. A Russian trader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that when the grain is loaded for export at a Russian port, it is very difficult to track its origin. 'These are not diamonds or gold. The composition of impurities does not allow for identification,' the person said.
The Star
a day ago
- Politics
- The Star
Ukraine calls for EU sanctions on Bangladeshi entities for import of 'stolen grain'
NEW DELHI/DHAKA (Reuters) -Ukraine plans to ask the European Union to sanction Bangladeshi entities it says are importing wheat taken from Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia, after its warnings to Dhaka failed to stop the trade, a top Ukrainian diplomat in South Asia said. Russian forces have occupied large parts of Ukraine's southern agricultural regions since 2014 and Kyiv has accused Russia of stealing its grain even before the 2022 invasion. Russian officials say there is no theft of grain involved as the territories previously considered part of Ukraine are now part of Russia and will remain so forever. According to documents provided to Reuters by people familiar with the matter, the Ukraine Embassy in New Delhi sent several letters to Bangladesh's foreign affairs ministry this year, asking them to reject more than 150,000 tonnes of grain allegedly stolen and shipped from Russian port of Kavkaz. Asked about the confidential diplomatic communication, Ukraine's ambassador to India, Oleksandr Polishchuk, said Dhaka had not responded to the communication and Kyiv will now escalate the matter as its intelligence showed entities in Russia mix grain procured from occupied Ukrainian territories with Russian wheat before shipping. "It's a crime," Polishchuk said in an interview at Ukraine's embassy in New Delhi. "We will share our investigation with our European Union colleagues, and we will kindly ask them to take the appropriate measures." Ukraine's diplomatic tussle with Bangladeshi authorities has not been previously reported. The Bangladesh and Russian foreign ministries did not respond to requests for comment. A Bangladeshi food ministry official said Dhaka bars imports from Russia if the origin of the grain is from occupied Ukrainian territory, adding that the country imports no stolen wheat. Amid the war with Russia, the agricultural sector remains one of the main sources of export earnings for Ukraine, supplying grain, vegetable oil and oilseeds to foreign markets. In April, Ukraine detained a foreign vessel in its territorial waters, alleging it was involved in the illegal trade of stolen grain, and last year seized a foreign cargo ship and detained its captain on similar suspicions. The EU has so far sanctioned 342 ships that are part of Russia's so-called shadow fleet, which the bloc says enable Moscow to circumvent Western restrictions to move oil, arms and grain. Russia says Western sanctions are illegal. 'NOT DIAMONDS OR GOLD' A Ukraine official told Reuters Ukrainian law prohibits any voluntary trade between Ukrainian producers, including grain farmers in the occupied territories, and Russian entities. The Ukraine Embassy has sent four letters to Bangladesh's government, reviewed by Reuters, in which it shared vessel names and their registration numbers involved in the alleged trade of moving the grain from the Crimean ports of Sevastopol and Kerch, occupied by Russia since 2014, and Berdiansk, which is under Moscow's control since 2022, to Kavkaz in Russia. The letters stated the departure and tentative arrival dates of the ships that left from Kavkaz for Bangladesh between November 2024 and June 2025. The June 11 letter said Bangladesh can face "serious consequences" of sanctions for taking deliveries of "stolen grain", and that such purchases fuel "humanitarian suffering." The sanctions "may extend beyond importing companies and could also target government officials and the leadership of ministries and agencies who knowingly facilitate or tolerate such violations," the letter added. In a statement to Reuters, Anitta Hipper, EU Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said the vessels in question were not currently subject to any restrictive measures. The sanctions regime was designed to act against activities that undermine the food security of Ukraine including transportation of "stolen Ukrainian grain" and "any proven involvement of vessels in shipping stolen Ukrainian grain could provide the basis for future restrictive measures," she added. The Russia-controlled territories, excluding Crimea, accounted for about 3% of the total Russian grain harvest in 2024, according to Reuters' estimates based on official Russian grain transporterRusagrotranssays Bangladesh was the fourth largest buyer of Russian wheat in May. Ambassador Polishchuk told Reuters their intelligence shows Russia mixes its grain with that from occupied Ukrainian territories to avoid detection. A Russian trader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that when the grain is loaded for export at a Russian port, it is very difficult to track its origin. "These are not diamonds or gold. The composition of impurities does not allow for identification," the person said. (Reporting by Aditya Kalra in New Delhi and Ruma Paul in Dhaka; Additional reporting by Moscow bureau, Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv, Julia Payne in Brussels; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Scotsman
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
The Death of Shame by Ambrose Parry review: 'rattles along compellingly'
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Edinburgh 1854: a successful society doctor, Cameron Tuck, climbs to the top of the Scott Monument on a winter's night and throws himself over the edge. We know it is an act of suicide, but his daughter Eugenie will not believe this. Marisa Haetzman and Chris Brookmyre, who write together under the penname Ambrose Parry. She herself is married to a young doctor, Will Raven, who is setting up his own practice with no help from his father-in-law. A former pupil of the great Sir James Simpson, the obstetrician, famous for first discovering the value of chloroform as an anaesthetic, Raven is being partly funded by another of Simpson's students, a young woman called Sarah Fisher who herself aspires to be a doctor, though another woman tells her she has no chance of becoming one and would be wiser to serve as a nurse with Florence Nightingale in the Crimean war. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad This, after the leap from the Monument, is a suitably convincing, matter-of-fact opening to what proves to be a grim tale of vice and crime. One might add that it is clear from the first that Sarah is in love with Will, and as his marriage crumbles we are likely to hope they will come together in the end. Edinburgh has long been recognized as a two-faced city, a gift to the novelist exploited by, among others, Scott, Hogg and Stevenson, more recently by Spark and Rankin: virtue on the surface, vice flourishing in its lower depths, these also being explored by the well-to-do. Ambrose Parry, the husband-and-wife team of of Chris Brookmyre and Dr Marisa Haetzman, are in a well-established tradition, therefore, and write with gusto and understanding. There is a richly complicated plot - but one happily easy to follow and also admirably credible. It has two strands: first the question of what caused Tuck to leap to his death, the second a search of the city's brothels, with their often rich and supposedly virtuous patrons. Sarah's 12-year-old niece has come to the city for a position as a domestic servant but then disappeared. Has she been picked up in the street and taken to work in the sex trade? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad On the one hand, Raven is confronted by the problem of his late father-in-law's finances: he has drawn money from his bank, which has disappeared. On the other, there is the question of Sarah's niece. There is, Raven discovers, a possible link. If young girls are vulnerable, so, in a different way, are their respected patrons. Raven soon learns of distinguished doctors being blackmailed. Was Dr Tuck one of them? To add to the dangers, a vigorous Gutter Press eagerly spreads stories of vice and corruption. The Death of Shame is a long novel but one so well devised and plotted that it rattles along compellingly. It is full of horrors, yet at the same time the characterization and the authors' mastery of pace means that you are likely to read it very happily at the gallop. I found it thoroughly enjoyable, a fine piece of craftsmanship. It is well anchored, partly because the relationship between Raven, Sarah, and Raven's wife Eugenie is rooted in convincing reality, something rare in this kind of fiction, partly because even Raven, a worthy hero, has a dark and disturbing Past himself. That said, I did wonder if it was normal for a doctor to have a key which would admit him to the Scott Monument in a winter's night.
New Indian Express
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
In scenic Russia, teenage student trio from Thiruvananthapuram broaden their horizons
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Imagine having a large circle of friends from different parts of the world — buddies who respect you and your culture! How about developing such bonds while being trained in your areas of interest? That is exactly what Aaaqil, Vishal, and Vaiga, three teenagers from Thiruvananthapuram, are experiencing, as they represent India at Artek — a globally renowned children's centre — on Russia's Black Sea coast. Artek conducts annual camps for students from around the world. Children are trained in various domains according to their age and areas of interest on a campus spreads over 252 hectares. Speaking to TNIE by phone, Aaaqil M Aju, the author of a collection of horror short stories, termed his experience in the Crimean peninsula as refreshing. 'I was surprised to see people turn more considerate and friendlier on coming to know that we are from India,' exclaimed the Class 12 student of St Thomas Residential School, Mukkolakkal. Aaaqil penned a song about his experience at Artek, which was put to music and played at the camp's farewell. Having participated in media workshops, the 16-year-old hopes that interactions at the camp will help shape him in his quest to become a filmmaker. Vishal S Nair, 16, was deeply moved by the scenic beauty of the location. 'We are surrounded by mountains on three sides, and by the sea on the fourth.' An avid sports and arts enthusiast, the 11th grader of Sai Krishna Public School, Chenkal believes that this is the best time to be at Artek, as participants got to celebrate Russia Day and Russian Children's Day.
Yahoo
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Putin Isn't Actually Enjoying This
The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Within weeks of Donald Trump's second inauguration, pundits began saying that his return to office opened new doors for Vladimir Putin, offering Moscow opportunities it hadn't seen in years. The deference the new administration afforded the Kremlin appeared to be rivaled only by its hostility toward its own national-security establishment. Trump entered negotiations to end the war in Ukraine by presenting Putin with a bouquet of inexplicable concessions. Washington ruled out NATO membership for Ukraine—then proposed that it might recognize the illegally occupied Crimean peninsula as Russian (in a reversal of long-standing U.S. policy), allow Russia to retain most of the territory it had seized since 2022, and lift sanctions. The U.S. even sided against its European allies when they presented a resolution at the United Nations condemning Moscow—and then it drafted a peace proposal that omitted any criticism of Russia. You'd think Putin would be delighted by all of this. Instead, he's been thrown on his heels. Trump's efforts at rapprochement have left Russia's propaganda apparatus, foreign policy, and economic stability in worse shape than they were before January 20. Whatever the intent, Washington has robbed the Kremlin of its north star: opposition to the United States. After years of routinely threatening to drown the Eastern Seaboard, Moscow can no longer afford the luxury of calling America its enemy No. 1. Thanks to Trump, the Kremlin now has to portray Washington as a rational negotiating partner—even as American-made missiles continue to rain down on Russian troops. The title of Russia's civilizational enemy has been reassigned to the European Union. The Russian propaganda machine has some flexibility, but being locked in an existential struggle with the Netherlands is far less flattering to the imperial mindset than going up against the world's leading superpower. And so Russia's information mills seem to be glitching out. In a May 25 Truth Social post, Trump wrote that Putin was absolutely 'CRAZY' for bombing Ukrainian cities in the middle of negotiations. 'We are really grateful to the Americans and to President Trump personally,' Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in response. The last time I scanned Russia's top propaganda sites, I couldn't find a single hostile reference to the United States. On May 20, Konstantin Kosachev, the deputy speaker of the Russian senate, described two emerging camps: a 'Russian American' one 'discussing prospects for achieving peace,' and a 'Ukrainian European' one 'exploring options for continuing the war.' The reversal isn't just a problem for Putin's media proxies. The Russian leader himself has been forced to improvise. For years, Putin claimed that direct talks with Ukraine were impossible because President Volodymyr Zelensky's government was illegitimate and, more important, Ukraine wasn't a real country—merely a proxy for the American imperial project. He framed the war as a conflict that only Russia and the U.S. could resolve, in a Yalta-style deal between great powers—preferably in occupied Yalta itself. Along came Trump, who repeatedly sidelined Ukraine and the EU to speak with Putin one-on-one. Putin looked set to get what he wanted. But then that changed, as all things Trump tend to do: By May, Putin wasn't carving up Europe with Trump—he was competing with Zelensky to convince the White House that the other side was out of control. Trump's point man for Russia is the billionaire real-estate developer Steve Witkoff, whose bewilderingly affectionate approach to Putin continues to flummox the Western media. His meetings with the Russian dictator last for hours. He forgoes American translators (relying instead on Russian intelligence assets), sits alone with top Kremlin negotiators, and emerges voicing Moscow's talking points without even being able to name the Ukrainian regions Russia claims as its own. Even seasoned diplomats have to resist being crushed by Russia's imperial grandeur when they are received like state dignitaries inside the Kremlin complex. Someone who devoted his life to building condos barely stands a chance. Still, the Kremlin surely knows that Witkoff has no authority over what America can offer Russia. Only Trump does. For now, the man trying to rebuild the Russian empire is forced to negotiate with the king of Manhattan real estate. And negotiate he must, because Trump has made forging a settlement between Russia and Ukraine a defining foreign-policy objective. The goal is an elusive one: Washington has so far failed to secure even a 30-day cease-fire. On May 1, the administration threatened to withdraw from the peace talks. Many in the West expected that this would translate into a win for the Kremlin: Trump, they assumed, would abandon Ukraine and strike a separate deal with Moscow. But Russia has reason to be wary that a thwarted Trump administration might not prove so amenable. The U.S. president apparently wants a diplomatic victory, and if he feels that he's been pushed aside, he may have less reason to end arms shipments to Ukraine—especially now that Kyiv is purchasing munitions—and more reason to blame Moscow for sabotaging the peace process. For the Kremlin, standing between Trump and the Nobel Peace Prize is risky, but agreeing to a cease-fire while Russia is making steady, if incremental, gains on the battlefield is a step too far. So it opted for a third path: Putin held a rare late-night press conference inviting Ukraine to bilateral negotiations, dodging the cease-fire while handing Trump a symbolic win that he could sell as a breakthrough. For the Russian dictator, whose foreign and domestic policy is shaped by Brioni-clad men playing by prison-yard rules, the need to appease the U.S. president in this way is a distinctly uncomfortable—and demeaning—shift from the predictable antagonism of the Joe Biden years. Trump frequently holds out the prospect of lifting sanctions or striking lucrative deals as incentives for Moscow to end the war. Russia was even spared from Trump's sweeping tariffs. But what the U.S. can offer Russia is ultimately underwhelming. The sanctions that hurt Russia the most—an oil-export ban, the freezing of two-thirds of its foreign reserves, and its exclusion from the SWIFT bank-to-bank payment network—all came from the EU. Russian exports to the United States were at their peak in 2011—before the annexation of Crimea, the full-scale war in Ukraine, and the U.S. energy boom—and amounted to just $34.6 billion worth of goods. That figure offers little hope for meaningful bilateral trade, especially now. What does matter to Russia is oil sales. And in the months before the renewed conflict between Israel and Iran, oil prices dropped by 20 percent, largely because of the Trump administration's global tariff war. This forced Moscow to revise its federal budget for 2025–26; triple this year's expected budget deficit, from 0.5 to 1.7 percent of GDP; and, as a result, tap its fiscal reserves for $5.51 billion, or about one-tenth of its liquid assets, to balance the budget. It also cost Russia $39 billion in anticipated hydrocarbon revenue—more than the proposed deals with the U.S. could make up for. In other words, without imposing a single new sanction, Trump has significantly intensified fiscal pressure on the Kremlin simply by dint of his erratic economic policies. Washington's public stance on Russia has certainly changed. One popularly circulated YouTube clip shows Secretary of State Marco Rubio refusing to call Putin a war criminal during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on May 21. But as someone who once worked with the Kremlin (I produced a talk show for Russian state media in the late 2000s), I can assure you: Putin would much rather be labeled a war criminal with oil at $70 a barrel than a rational leader looking to end the war with oil at $56. During the first three years of Russia's all-out war in Ukraine, the United States and the EU presented a united front against Russia that proved, perhaps paradoxically, manageable for the Kremlin, in terms of both propaganda and strategic positioning. Trump has shattered that coherence, and now the Kremlin finds itself in an uncomfortable position, despite its triumphalist rhetoric and maximalist demands: It's scrambling to keep pace with an American president who has no idea where he's going.
