Ukraine said Russia used a cruise missile in Monday’s attack on a hospital in Kyiv, rebutting Moscow’s claims that a Ukrainian anti-air missile was responsible.
A Moscow court ordered the arrest in absentia of Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late Russian opposition leader whose death in an Arctic prison camp this year triggered international condemnation.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on his “friend” Vladimir Putin to seek a peaceful end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, a day after a deadly missile strike on a children’s hospital in Kyiv provoked international outrage.
Ukraine rebuts Russian claims about strike on Kyiv hospital
Ukraine said Russia used a cruise missile in Monday’s attack on a hospital in Kyiv, rebutting Moscow’s claims that a Ukrainian anti-air missile was responsible.
Ukraine’s Health Ministry said in a statement that 627 patients were in the Okhmatdyt hospital at the time of the attack that injured 32 people including eight children and killed two.
Investigators used the engine and other parts of the cruise missile to identify it as an X-101, Ukraine’s Security Service known as the SBU, said in a statement, presenting photos of the missile debris including measurements and serial numbers. The X-101 is an air-launched cruise missile which Russia has used during its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“Experts’ conclusions are unambiguous — it was an intentional strike,” said the SBU. The destruction of the two-storey hospital building was caused by an X-101 warhead, which weighs more than 400kg, according to the statement.
Kyiv has sought to refute claims by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, who told RIA that a falling Nasams anti-air missile, which Ukraine uses for air defence, was responsible for the damage to the hospital. She also claimed that a military facility was located near the hospital.
The Norwegian-developed Nasams couldn’t cause that scale of damage “as their warheads are 20 times less powerful”, said the SBU.
Ukraine became a target of a massive Russian missile attack on Monday morning, which hit many civilian targets in Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih and Dnipro. Monday’s attacks killed 40 people across Ukraine, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said in a statement.
In a Telegram post on Tuesday morning, Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi described the attack on Okhmatdyt hospital as “deliberate” and vowed to “punish” those responsible.
Ukrainian military struck targets across Russia overnight, including an air base in Aktyubinsk, an oil refinery in Volgograd and an electrical substation in the Rostov region, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
Moscow court orders arrest of Navalny’s widow, reports Interfax
A Moscow court ordered the arrest in absentia of Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late Russian opposition leader whose death in an Arctic prison camp this year triggered international condemnation.
The court ordered Navalnaya’s detention on charges of being part of an extremist organisation, Interfax reported on Tuesday. The two-month arrest term will enter into force as soon as Navalnaya enters Russian territory, the news service said.
Alexei Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent opponent, died in February at the age of 47 in a camp where he was serving a 19-year sentence for extremism. His supporters and Western governments blamed the Kremlin for his death.
Modi urges Putin to seek peace after attack on Ukraine hospital
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on his “friend” Vladimir Putin to seek a peaceful end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, a day after a deadly missile strike on a children’s hospital in Kyiv provoked international outrage.
“Loss of life leads to despair especially when children are killed,” Modi told the Russian president in televised comments on Tuesday at the start of their formal talks in the Kremlin. “Resolution can’t be found on the battlefield, peace needs to be pursued through dialogue and diplomacy.”
Putin said they discussed the war during informal talks over dinner on Monday, and he thanked Modi for “trying” to find ways to resolve the conflict. Modi said their lengthy discussion yielded “several ideas” that left him “hopeful” of a way forward, without providing further details.
The Indian leader was on his first visit to Russia since Putin ordered the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and also his first bilateral visit since winning a third term in elections last month. His arrival in Moscow came after at least 38 people were killed and nearly 200 wounded on Monday in a wave of Russian missile attacks on Ukraine, including a strike that hit the main children’s hospital in Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky slammed Modi’s visit in a post on the social-media site X, saying it was “a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day”.
India has avoided censuring Russia for its war and abstained at United Nations votes on the issue, but has advocated diplomacy to resolve the conflict.
While Modi’s trip affirms longtime ties between New Delhi and Moscow going back to the Cold War era, it has drawn concerns from the US, which has sought to isolate Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow has laid out the red carpet for Modi. India is a major buyer of Russian oil and military hardware supplies. Maintaining the relationship is a balancing act for Modi, as India is seeking investment and technology from the US. Washington is also aiming for closer ties with India, which it sees as a regional counterweight to China.
Economic issues, energy supplies and manufacturing would dominate Modi’s visit, as the two countries look to bolster the relationship, Indian officials said.
US says Russia used AI-powered bots in disinformation campaign
The US government disrupted a Russian disinformation effort that used artificial intelligence-powered bots to create fake social media profiles on X, officials said on Tuesday.
An editor at a Russian state media outlet developed software to create a bot farm as part of a project that was funded by a member of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, according to court documents unsealed on Tuesday by the Department of Justice. From June to December, nearly 1,000 accounts were part of a campaign that impersonated Americans and promoted pro-Russian government messaging.
One profile claimed to be a user based in Minneapolis, Minnesota who joined X in June 2023. That account posted a purported video of Russian President Vladimir Putin saying that parts of Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania became part of Russia following World War 2. Another profile that was identified as “Sue Williamson” living in Gresham, Oregon posted a video that disputed the number of foreign fighters embedded with Ukrainian troops.
X voluntarily suspended the bot accounts identified in the court documents for terms of service violations, according to the Justice Department. The company didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The bot farm was organised by an individual who worked in 2022 as the deputy editor-in-chief at RT, a Russian government-funded media agency, according to an affidavit included in the government filings. The documents didn’t disclose the identity of the individual. RT didn’t respond to a request for comment.
That person continues to work at RT and since 2023 has led a digital media department. That’s where the software for the bot farm was developed, according to the US. A Russian intelligence officer approved and funded the project, according to the affidavit.
People associated with the bot farm also transferred funds internationally to purchase two domain names from a US-based company to create private email servers, the court filings said. Those were used to create email addresses that enabled the creation of at least 968 fictitious social media accounts, according to the US government.
“Russia intended to use this bot farm to disseminate AI-generated foreign disinformation, scaling their work with the assistance of AI to undermine our partners in Ukraine and influence geopolitical narratives favourable to the Russian government,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray in a statement.
Erdoğan cautions Nato against being dragged into war in Ukraine
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday cautioned Nato allies ahead of a leaders’ summit against taking steps that could drag the alliance into war in Ukraine against invading Russian forces.
“While designing the steps to be taken to support Ukraine, we also maintain our principled stance not to make Nato a party to the war,” Erdoğan said at the airport in Ankara before flying to Washington to join Nato leaders at a summit meeting.
Erdoğan’s warning reflected growing concerns in the Turkish capital over plans by allies to ramp up the supply of weapons including F-16 warplanes and missile defence systems to Ukraine and deploy army trainers in the country against invading Russian forces.
Turkey, which is working to improve military relations with the US even while maintaining ties with Russia, acknowledges that Ukraine needs military aid to defend itself but fears that Moscow could use the increased military aid to Ukraine by the allies as a pretext to directly accuse Nato of fuelling the war.
“Turkey’s commitment and support to Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence is known to everyone,” Erdoğan said referring to Turkey’s supply of armed TB2 drones as well as Nato-standard 155mm calibre ammunition for Ukraine.
Russia’s embrace of Chinese yuan stalls over risk from sanctions
The rapid uptake of China’s yuan in Putin’s war economy, spurred by the fallout with the West over the invasion of Ukraine, may have hit its limit.
Countries that continue to do business with Russia face growing US pressure, most notably through the threat of secondary sanctions. That’s proved an effective brake on further yuan usage in the country as it stifles bilateral trade and payments.
“Moscow may be more eager to adopt the yuan than Chinese banks are willing to accommodate,” said Alex Isakov, Russia economist at Bloomberg Economics. “US secondary sanctions threats scare banks.” The market is indicating a yuan shortage in Russia, as well as an aversion to providing liquidity among Chinese banks, he said.
The gap in yuan overnight borrowing rates in Russia and China drastically widened after US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in December said that the US would not hesitate “to take decisive, and surgical, action against financial institutions that facilitate the supply of Russia’s war machine”. That difference has remained at several percentage points since the warning. The US also in December authorised secondary sanctions on overseas financial firms, and China’s state-owned banks tightened curbs on funding to Russian clients.
In a report published late on Tuesday on financial market risks, the Bank of Russia disclosed that it had to double its offer of yuan liquidity under swap operations as a surge in demand following the end of dollar and euro swaps caused rates to spike to 31%. That helped decrease rates to 5%-7% versus 0%-5% before the sanctions were imposed, according to the report.
In two years, Russia has overtaken Germany, Australia and Vietnam in terms of trade volume with China, which surged by more than 60% to $240-billion in 2023, China customs data shows. China benefits from purchasing Russian oil and other commodities at a discount while Russia gets access to a wide range of consumer and high-tech products.
As a result, China has become Russia’s main trading partner, and the yuan now accounts for about 40% of Russia’s export and import payments and more than half the turnover on Russia’s foreign currency market. The scale of Russia’s yuanisation is even more dramatic considering it started from almost zero at the beginning of 2022, before Putin invaded Ukraine.
That’s made Russia the largest contributor to Beijing’s efforts to increase the yuan’s role in international payments.
Saudis warned G7 over Russia seizures with debt sale threat
Saudi Arabia privately hinted earlier this year it might sell some European debt holdings if the Group of Seven decided to seize almost $300-billion of Russia’s frozen assets, people familiar with the matter said.
The kingdom’s finance ministry told some G7 counterparts of its opposition to the idea, which was meant to support Ukraine, with one person describing it as a veiled threat. The Saudis specifically mentioned debt issued by the French treasury, two of the people said.
In May and June, the G7 was exploring different options regarding the Russian central bank’s funds. The group eventually agreed to tap the profits generated and leave the assets themselves alone despite a US and UK push for allies to consider bolder options, including a direct seizure. Some euro-member nations were against that idea, concerned it could undermine the currency.
Saudi Arabia’s stance probably influenced the reluctance of those countries, said the people, who asked not to be identified to discuss private conversations.
“No such threats were made,” according to a statement sent from the Saudi finance ministry. “Our relation with the G7 and others is of mutual respect and we continue to discuss all issues that promote global growth and enhance the resilience of the international financial system.”
The kingdom’s holdings of euro and French bonds may amount to tens of billions of euros, but probably aren’t big enough to make a major difference if sold off. European officials were still concerned because other countries might have followed Saudi Arabia’s lead.
One Saudi official said it wasn’t the government’s style to make such threats but that it possibly outlined to G7 members the eventual consequences of any seizures.
Swiss allow Russian propaganda outlets to continue broadcasting
Switzerland will allow four Russian media outlets to continue broadcasting even after they were banned by the European Union.
The government on Tuesday announced an advertising ban on Voice of Europe, RIA Novosti, Izvestia and Rossiyskaya Gazeta, which were prohibited by the EU in May, but didn’t stop their transmission in Switzerland.
“These channels are used for the targeted dissemination of Russian propaganda,” the government said. “It is more effective to counter false and harmful statements with facts rather than to prohibit them.”
Switzerland has generally mirrored EU sanctions against Russia since it invaded Ukraine more than two years ago, prompting Moscow to say the country is no longer neutral, but has refrained from targeting its media and propaganda operations. In March 2022, it decided not to ban Russian broadcasters Russia Today and Sputnik after they were sanctioned by the EU.
In June, when Russia retaliated against the EU sanctions by banning 81 European media, Swiss media were not affected. The government in Bern is also examining whether to mirror further EU sanctions on Russia’s financial, energy and goods sectors.
Russian tycoons pocket $11bn dividends on war economy boom
Russian tycoons received billions of dollars in dividends as their companies resumed or boosted payouts amid easing economic uncertainty over the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
At least a dozen business people gained more than one trillion roubles ($11.3-billion) for 2023 and in the first quarter of this year, according to data on dividends compiled by Bloomberg from publicly disclosed information. Many have close links to Putin and include some who’ve been sanctioned over the war that’s now in its third year.
Vagit Alekperov, key shareholder and former president of oil giant Lukoil, topped the list with about 186 billion roubles in dividends. He is sanctioned by the UK and Australia, but has so far avoided US and European Union penalties.
Billionaires Alexey Mordashov, of Severstal, and Vladimir Lisin, of Novolipetsk Steel, were next with 148 billion and 121 billion roubles, respectively, of dividend income. Mordashov is under US, UK and EU sanctions, while Lisin isn’t under any major restrictions.
The list also includes Putin’s billionaire ally Gennady Timchenko and Tatyana Litvinenko, who received a stake in PhosAgro before her husband Vladimir was sanctioned by the US in 2023. Vladimir Litvinenko is rector of St Petersburg Mining University where Putin received a doctoral degree in 1997 and was the president’s campaign manager in the city during three elections.
The US and its allies imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia in response to the February 2022 invasion, prompting many companies to pause dividend payouts on the back of uncertainty over a potential economic collapse. Those fears haven’t been borne out as Russia’s economy gradually adjusted to the new conditions and exporters found alternative markets.
After contracting in the year that followed the start of the war, Russia’s economy rebounded sharply as the government spent massively to expand the defensce industry, shield domestic businesses from the impact of sanctions, and provide social support for families.
Gross domestic product grew by 5.4% in the first quarter compared to the same period last year. Many commodities exporters have resumed payment of dividends after reshaping their businesses and rerouting sales toward markets in China, India and other Global South nations that haven’t implemented sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
Many state-controlled corporations like Gazprom Neft and Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, never stopped making dividend payments as they racked up record profits during the war. Sberbank’s shareholders last month approved a record 752 billion roubles in dividends for 2023. DM