Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe on Friday at a meeting with Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin said that Beijing is ready for military action if anyone makes an attempt to separate Taiwan from China, reports the Chinese edition of Global Times, citing a representative of the defense departments of the People’s Republic of China Wu Qian.
“According to Wu Qian’s statement, Wei Fenghe said that if anyone dares to separate Taiwan from China, the Chinese military will not hesitate to fight and resolutely suppress any attempt at ‘Taiwan independence’ at any cost, and will firmly defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.” , – writes the edition.
According to him, the Chinese defense minister also condemned the recent US decision to send arms to Taiwan again. He stated that this “caused serious damage to China-US relations, as well as peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin held a bilateral meeting on Friday in Singapore, where a security forum is being held. According to Chinese media company Caixin, Wei Fenghe noted that the meeting lasted about an hour and was “honest and successful.” The Pentagon said that the parties discussed issues of global and regional security, the topics of the DPRK, Russia and Ukraine, as well as Taiwan.
“The minister stressed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, rejection of a unilateral change in the status quo, and urged China to refrain from destabilizing actions against Taiwan,” the ministry said in a statement.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said he was not ready to “ask” Moscow for peace.
“I am not ready to ask for the independence of our state. It already belongs to us, ”he said on Friday, speaking via video link to students and teachers of British universities.
Asked about possible peace talks, Zelensky said that “I understood all the years of my presidency that any war must end with a negotiating table.” “I understand that diplomacy can save people. I understand this, but, unfortunately, the President of the Russian Federation does not understand this,” he said.
Zelensky believes that “if Ukraine were in NATO, there would still be a battle for independence, but it would be different.” “There would not have been so many losses, there could have been a small military conflict or provocations, but we would have saved a large number of people,” he said.
During the three months of the war, the construction industry of Ukraine has decreased by more than 70%, despite the point resumption of work at construction sites in Ukraine, while the cost of construction has increased by 20%, said Sergey Pilipenko, general director of the Kovalska group.
“I can state that, despite the statements of individual developers about the resumption of work, including Kovalska, the market has declined by more than 70%. This is if we consider the volume of construction work, the consumption of building materials,” Pilipenko said during online conference “Marshall Plan” and urban prospects of Ukrainian cities after the war: economic and urban strategies” on Thursday.
According to him, the cost of construction of facilities has increased by more than 20%, including due to a significant increase in the cost of building materials, logistics, inflation and the growth of the exchange rate.
The expert pointed out that the primary real estate market has actually stopped. “So far there are no signals for a quick exit from this state,” he said.
Pilipenko believes that the increase in the discount rate to 25% actually made it impossible to finance the business, so investment in new projects is in question. In addition, there are still no mechanisms for financing restoration projects by foreign states and investors.
In his opinion, in the near future the main construction activity will be projects of emergency repairs, dismantling, erection of temporary structures.
“Really assessing the situation, the state, in the context of ongoing hostilities, cannot fully and large-scale finance any restoration projects. It does not have the funds for this, and now the priorities are different. Therefore, from the point of view of construction activity, maximum developers can count on emergency repairs, dismantling or construction of temporary engineering structures, bridges,” he said.
PSG “Kovalska” has been operating in the construction market of Ukraine since 1956. It unites more than 20 enterprises in the field of extraction of raw materials, production and construction. The products are represented by the brands “Beton ot Kovalskaya”, “Avenue”, Siltek and others.
Enterprises of “Kovalska” work in Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Lvov, Kherson and Chernihiv regions. The total number of employees is 5 thousand people.
In addition, the group includes Kovalska Real Estate, which is engaged in the construction of residential facilities in Kyiv. Her portfolio includes 20 completed residential projects.
The governmental emergency response team of Ukraine CERT-UA, operating under the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection, warns of a mass mailing of dangerous emails with the subject line “LIST of links to interactive maps.”
“Mailing lists are carried out, in particular, among Ukrainian media organizations (radio stations, newspapers, news agencies, etc.). More than 500 recipient addresses have been identified. Emails contain an attachment in the form of a LIST of links to interactive maps.docx document, the opening of which may result in the download of the CrescentImp malware,” the message posted on the CERT-UA website on Friday evening reads.
Experts warn that attackers are increasingly resorting to sending emails to compromised government email addresses.
Said hacking activity is tracked by UAC-0113 (medium confidence associated with the Sandworm group).
This group was involved in organizing a large-scale hacker attack on the energy sector of Ukraine in April of this year.
Civilian casualties from February 24, when Russia started the war against Ukraine, to 24:00 June 9 amounted to 9,585 civilians (a day earlier – 9,519), including 4,339 dead (4,302), reports the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Friday.
“OHCHR believes that the actual figures are much higher as information is delayed from some areas of heavy fighting and many reports are still awaiting confirmation,” the UN data document notes.
According to him, this applies, for example, to Mariupol (Donetsk region), Izyum (Kharkiv region) and Popasna (Luhansk region), where there are reports of numerous civilian casualties. They are subject to further verification and are not included in the above statistics.
“The majority of civilian deaths or injuries were caused by the use of explosive devices with a wide area of effect, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, as well as rocket and air strikes,” the report says.
According to confirmed UN data, 1,646 men, 1,098 women, 105 boys and 102 girls died, while the sex of 67 children and 1,321 adults has not yet been determined.
Among the 5,246 injured were 151 boys and 120 girls, as well as 172 children whose gender has not yet been determined.
Compared to the report the day before, two children were killed and four more were injured.
OHCHR indicates that in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as of midnight on June 10, there were 2,370 (2,339) dead and 2,328 (2,326) injured in government-controlled territory, and 157 (154) dead and 662 (653) injured in territory controlled by self-proclaimed “republics”.
In other regions of Ukraine under government control (in Kyiv, as well as in Zhytomyr, Zaporozhye, Kyiv, Sumy, Odessa, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Dnepropetrovsk, Cherkasy and Chernihiv regions), the UN recorded 1812 (1809) dead and 2256 (2238) wounded .
The summary has traditionally stated that the increase in figures from the previous summary should not be attributed only to the cases on June 9, since during this period the Office verified a number of cases from previous days.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), in its June report published on Friday, raised its forecast for Ukrainian corn this year by 5 million tons compared to a month ago, to 25 million tons, while maintaining export estimates at 9 million tons.
American experts increased the forecast for carry-over stocks for the upcoming 2022/2023 marketing year (MY) by 4 million tons – up to 12.07 million tons compared to 6.77 million tons for the current MY.
In addition, USDA raised the estimate of domestic consumption in the new MG by 1.5 million tons – up to 10.7 million tons.
According to the report, in general, the forecast for the feed grain harvest in Ukraine for MY 2022/23 has been increased by 5.2 million tons, to 31.76 million tons, although at the same time, the export estimate has been reduced by 0.2 million tons, to 10.83 million tons.
American experts have increased the forecast of feed grain carry-overs following the results of the upcoming MY by 3.9 million tons – up to 13.06 million tons compared to 7.77 million tons at its beginning.
In addition, USDA raised the estimate of domestic consumption of feed grains in the new MG by 1.5 million tons – up to 15.65 million tons.
The US Department of Agriculture recalled that in the past 2020/21 MY, the wheat harvest in Ukraine amounted to 25.42 million tons, and exports – 16.85 million tons. According to his estimates, in this ending MY, with a crop that has grown to 33.01 million tons, exports will increase to 19 million tons, and carryovers – from 1.51 to 5.61 million tons. In addition, American experts expect domestic wheat consumption in Ukraine to grow to 10 million tons in 2021/22 MY from 8.7 million tons in the previous MY due to livestock.
As for corn, according to the report, in the past 2020/21 MY, its harvest in Ukraine was 30.3 million tons, and exports – 23.86 million tons. According to USDA estimates, in this ending marketing year, with a corn crop that has grown to 42.13 million tons, its exports will decrease to 23 million tons, and carry-over stocks will jump from 0.83 to 6.77 million tons. In addition, American experts expect domestic corn consumption in Ukraine to grow to 13.2 million tons in 2021/22 MY from 7.1 million tons in the previous MY, also due to livestock.
In general, the feed grain harvest in Ukraine in 2020/21 MY, according to the US Department of Agriculture, was 39.59 million tons, and exports were 28.15 million tons. According to USDA estimates, in this ending MY, with a forage grain harvest that has grown to 53.51 million tons, it will increase only to 29.06 million tons, and carry-over stocks will jump from 1.65 to 7.77 million tons. In addition, American experts expect in 2021/22 MY an increase in domestic consumption of feed grains in Ukraine to 18.37 million tons from 12.41 million tons in the previous MY, also due to livestock.
