EU to move key meeting out of Hungary; Russia convicts another US journalist on same day as Gershkovich

A Russian court sentenced a dual Russian-US citizen and journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to 6½ years in a prison colony on the same day that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was convicted of espionage.

Slovakia’s defence minister is pushing for a major boost to ammunition production. Yet while his government steadfastly refuses to arm Ukraine, Slovak-made shells are ending up there.

EU to move key meeting out of Hungary in protest over Orbán’s diplomacy

The European Union’s foreign policy chief said he planned to move an August meeting of the bloc’s foreign and defence ministers from Budapest to Brussels to protest against Viktor Orbán’s diplomatic forays.

The meeting is traditionally convened by the country that holds the EU’s six-month rotating presidency, but EU member states have been angered by visits that the Hungarian prime minister made in recent weeks to Moscow, Beijing and Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

“We have to send a signal, even if it’s a symbolic signal,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign and security policy, told reporters on Monday after a meeting of foreign ministers. He added that Hungary’s repeated moves to speak against EU policy must “have some formal consequences”.

Previously, some EU member states and the European Commission said they would downgrade their participation in informal meetings planned in Budapest by Hungary during its EU presidency.

Russia convicts second US journalist on same day as Gershkovich

A Russian court sentenced a dual Russian-US citizen and journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to 6½ years in a prison colony on the same day that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was convicted of espionage.

Alsu Kurmasheva was found guilty on Friday of publicly disseminating false information about Russia’s military, the state-run Tass news service reported, citing information from the Tatarstan Supreme Court published Monday. Her trial, like Gershkovich’s, was conducted behind closed doors.

Kurmasheva was detained at Kazan airport in Tatarstan in June last year as she attempted to return to Prague where she worked as an editor, her employer said. She had travelled to Russia to attend to a family emergency. Authorities initially charged her with failing to register as a “foreign agent.”

Russia has used the law criminalising the spread of “fake news” about the country’s army to target critics of President Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Gershkovich was sentenced to 16 years in a penal colony at the conclusion of his trial, the first time since the Cold War that Russia had prosecuted a US reporter for espionage. He and the newspaper denied allegations by Russia’s Federal Security Service that he was spying when he was detained in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg in March last year.

Other Americans already held in Russia include former US Marine Paul Whelan, who was sentenced to 16 years in 2020 on spying charges he denies. Another dual citizen, Ksenia Karelina, was detained on treason charges reportedly tied to a charitable donation to benefit Ukraine. In June, US Staff Sergeant Gordon Black was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison for theft, the Interfax news service reported.

Read more: Russian court sentences US reporter to 16 years in spy trial

The Kremlin and the US are negotiating a potential swap of prisoners. Russia has previously suggested it’s seeking the return of Vadim Krasikov, who is serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 killing of a former Chechen rebel in Berlin, while Putin earlier said the US was taking energetic steps to secure Gershkovich’s release.

US basketball star Brittney Griner was exchanged for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in 2022.

Slovakia is arming Ukraine even though it doesn’t want to

Slovakia’s defence minister is pushing for a major boost to ammunition production. Yet while his government steadfastly refuses to arm Ukraine, Slovak-made shells are ending up there.

The central European country aims to increase production of large-calibre ammunition shells to 200,000 next year from 125,000 expected this year, said Robert Kalinak, defence minister and a close ally of Prime Minister Robert Fico.

However, the government doesn’t have complete control over where the shells end up as it is up to buyers to decide what to do with the ammunition they bought, according to the minister.

Kalinak denied that the sale of Slovak-made shells to Ukraine either directly or through third parties contradicted the position of the government, which opposes military aid to Kyiv.

It is a position which makes Slovakia, along with fellow Nato member Hungary, an outlier on the alliance’s eastern flank.

“Our political declaration states that we won’t give free military aid to Ukraine, because by doing that we would be supporting the conflict,” Kalinak (53) said in an interview. “But we won’t limit defence production when it supports gross domestic product, because by doing that, I’d be harming the interests of Slovakia.”

The defence industry should contribute about 2% to the nation’s economic growth this year, according to the minister. It was a chance to improve Slovakia’s economy and public finances, he said.

Hungary, Slovakia ask for EU help as Ukraine targets Lukoil

Hungary and Slovakia asked the European Union to help convince Ukraine to reinstate the transit of a major Russian oil supplier to eastern Europe.

Budapest and Bratislava were ready to take Ukraine to court to resolve the issue absent an agreement, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said after a gathering of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday. Kyiv last month hardened sanctions against Lukoil, effectively prohibiting the firm from using Ukraine as a transit country for its crude.

Energy is seen as potential leverage over Orbán, who has been a thorn in Ukraine’s side for repeatedly seeking to veto or dilute EU sanctions against Russia over its military invasion. Hungary and Slovakia have received exemptions from EU energy sanctions.

Hungary is seeking a so-called consultation where the European Commission has three days to find a resolution on behalf of affected EU member states, said Szijjarto. If the EU executive failed, Hungary and Slovakia would ask an arbitration court to rule on the matter, he said, adding that he considered Ukraine’s actions as a violation of the country’s association agreement with the 27-member bloc.

“Hungary and Slovakia have initiated a consultation before a court of arbitration proceedings due to Ukraine’s partial ban of crude oil transit,” Szijjarto told reporters. He said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who joined the EU meeting by video link, denied Kyiv was responsible for the halt in Lukoil shipments.

Ukrainian drone attack sets Russia’s Tuapse refinery on fire

Rosneft’s major Tuapse refinery in southern Russia caught fire after a Ukrainian drone attack early on Monday, regional authorities said.

“Infrastructure of the oil refinery in Tuapse was damaged as a result of falling drone debris,” the authorities said in a Telegram statement. The fire, which broke out on a territory of 50 square metres, was extinguished by 8.01am local time, according to a separate statement.

Air defences shot down eight drones around the city of Tuapse, Interfax reported. In total, 75 Ukrainian drones were intercepted and destroyed over Russian territory on Monday morning, the Defence Ministry said in a separate telegram statement.

This was the first successful Ukrainian attack on a major Russian refinery since mid-May, and it came just as Russia’s oil-processing industry was on track to raise its runs to a six-month high to meet growing domestic fuel demand.

Ukraine, key bondholders reach deal on $20bn overhaul

Ukraine reached a deal in principle with some of its private creditors to restructure more than $20-billion of international debt, in a move that will help the country finance its fight against Russia.

The nation’s debt traded at the highest in two years, showing investor optimism that the initial agreement would get a final go-ahead from stakeholders.

The bondholders’ committee accepted nominal losses of 37% of their holdings across 13 notes, forgoing $8.67-billion of claims, according to a statement with the terms of the accord. Ukraine anticipates saving $11.4-billion in the next three years through a combination of lower coupons and maturity extensions.

“Once completed, this restructuring will also pave the way for Ukraine’s market re-entry as soon as possible when the security situation stabilises to fund our country’s swift recovery and reconstruction,” said Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko in a separate statement. DM