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Chinese premier meets Putin; Scholz says Germany will keep supporting Kyiv

Chinese premier meets Putin; Scholz says Germany will keep supporting Kyiv
Bloomberg
By Bloomberg
22 Aug 2024
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Chinese Premier Li Qiang told Russian President Vladimir Putin that relations between the two countries ‘benefit regional and even world peace, stability and prosperity’.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany’s support for Ukraine would not let up as he sought to blunt concerns that budget tightening within his coalition would halt funding to the war-battered nation.

Air defences shot down 10 drones approaching Moscow in what Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called one of the largest attacks on the Russian capital since the beginning of the war on Ukraine, as Kyiv’s forces continued their incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.

China premier meets Putin, vows more cooperation


Chinese Premier Li Qiang told Russian President Vladimir Putin that relations between the two countries “benefit regional and even world peace, stability and prosperity”.

President Xi Jinping’s government was willing to explore cooperation opportunities in emerging fields with Moscow, while consolidating their partnership in traditional areas, Li said during his meeting with Putin in the Kremlin on Wednesday, according to a readout from Beijing. 

More focus should be put on scientific, technological and industrial innovations, he added.

China was ready to work with Russia to strengthen their “all-round practical cooperation”, Li told his Russian counterpart Mikhail Mishustin in a separate meeting. He also pledged to push Beijing’s comprehensive strategic partnership with Moscow “to a new level”, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The Chinese premier’s visit to Russia highlights the growing ties between the two nations. 

China has become Russia’s main trading partner in the wake of Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent, sweeping sanctions imposed by the US and European Union against Moscow. 

Trade between the two countries surged by more than 60% to $240-billion in 2023, with Russia surpassing Germany, Australia and Vietnam on the list of Beijing’s top trading partners, Chinese customs data show. The yuan now accounts for about 40% of Russia’s export and import payments and more than half the value on Russia’s foreign currency market. 

Scholz says Germany will support Kyiv ‘as long as necessary’


Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany’s support for Ukraine would not let up as he sought to blunt concerns that budget tightening within his coalition would halt funding to the war-battered nation.

“We will continue to support Ukraine as long as necessary,” Scholz told reporters during a trip to Moldova on Wednesday. “Everybody can depend on us.”

Scholz’s government this week sought to tamp down a debate about Ukraine funding following a report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper that spending constraints meant that no new additional funds would be earmarked for Ukrainian military aid. 

The German leader said that his government remained the European Union’s biggest financial supporter of Ukraine.

Scholz cited €4-billion earmarked in Germany’s budget next year and pointed to a Group of Seven agreement this year to provide some $50-billion in new aid backed by the profits generated by frozen Russian central bank assets.  

Russia downs 10 drones in one of largest attacks on Moscow


Air defences shot down 10 drones approaching Moscow in what Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called one of the largest attacks on the Russian capital since the beginning of the war on Ukraine, as Kyiv’s forces continued their incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.

“Our force should be felt in various corners of Russia,” Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said on Wednesday on Telegram, without specifically referring to the drone assault. “So it will be.”

Sobyanin said Moscow’s “layered defence” had succeeded in intercepting all the drones, and there were no reports of damage or casualties. In total, 45 drones were shot down overnight in various regions of Russia, said the defence ministry.

Ukraine’s military caught Russia off guard with its intervention into the Kursk region that’s now in its third week, the first foreign military offensive inside Russian territory since World War 2.

Ukrainian air defences downed 50 out of 69 Shahed drones, the highest number reported so far this month, as well as one missile out of three fired by Russia overnight, the country’s Air Force Command said on Telegram.

Russia and Ukraine can’t mount major offensives against each other, says US


Ukraine and Russia both lacked the military assets to mount major offensives against each other, the Pentagon’s intelligence agency said in new assessments that suggest the two sides were headed toward stalemate.

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessments concluded that Ukraine still did not have the munitions to match Russia’s ability to fire some 10,000 artillery rounds a day, even after the US Congress unlocked fresh military aid in April. Ukrainian forces remain capable of defensive operations but won’t be able to launch large-scale counteroffensives for at least six months.

Russia, on the other hand, had adopted a strategy of exhausting Ukraine and would be able to maintain a buffer zone its troops captured — but didn’t have enough strength “to threaten a deeper advance into Ukrainian-held territory, such as Kharkiv city,” said the DIA in one observation.

The Defense Intelligence Agency’s conclusions are included in the latest quarterly report on US assistance to Ukraine issued by the Pentagon’s inspector-general, Robert Storch. They echo public statements by senior US officials including Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that the conflict was about to become deadlocked.

The inspector general report covers the three months ending on 30 June, after Congress passed the latest $61-billion assistance package for Ukraine. Since then, Ukraine launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region and has started to fly allied-provided F-16 fighters. 

The report highlighted Ukraine’s successful use of the US-provided Army Tactical Missile System, or Atacms, beyond previously disclosed attacks on Russian ammunition storage areas and parked helicopters at two locations inside Ukraine.

Swiss firms get more time for exemptions from Russia ban


Switzerland is giving companies more time to apply for an exemption from a ban on operating in Russia, as many Western companies continue to do business there despite international sanctions.

The cabinet on Wednesday extended the deadline until the end of the year, the latest reprieve from the original deadline of September 2023. The aim was to “ensure that Swiss companies can legally terminate their business activities in Russia”, the Swiss government said on Wednesday.

Western companies have tried to exit the Russian market since the country invaded Ukraine more than two years ago. But many firms have faced difficulties in getting their assets out of the country, with companies such as Danish brewer Carlsberg seeing their local operations seized by the Russian government.

The government in Bern also announced further steps following the European Union’s 14th sanction package, including harmonising its ban on Russian diamonds with internationally agreed measures. Since the invasion of Ukraine, Switzerland has regularly mirrored EU sanctions against Russia. DM

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