Slovakia will extend the embargo on imports of Ukrainian grain from January 1, 2024 for an indefinite period, and will also expand the list of Ukrainian agricultural products for which access to the country’s domestic market will be closed, EFE reports.
According to the agency, which cites a statement by the Slovak Ministry of Agriculture, the embargo on the import of Ukrainian goods – wheat, corn, beets and sunflower seeds – to Slovakia expires at the end of this year. Bratislava has decided to maintain these restrictions.
In addition, the government has decided to expand the list of Ukrainian products that will also be subject to an import ban starting January 1, 2024, including barley, wheat flour, cane sugar, malt, soybeans, honey, and some other products.
All products subject to the restrictions can cross the country’s border only in sealed transit. The purpose of these measures is to protect local agricultural producers.
The Union of Slovak Carriers plans to block the movement of freight transport in front of the Vysne Nemecke checkpoint adjacent to the Ukrainian checkpoint Uzhhorod from 16:00 on December 1, 2023, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine reports.
“Four trucks per hour will be allowed to leave Slovakia. At the same time, the transportation of humanitarian and military aid, live animals, fuel and refrigerated cargo will not be blocked,” the message on the Telegram channel reads.
Drivers are asked to take into account possible traffic complications.
Ukraine’s National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) has added Belgian independent gas system operator Fluxys to its list of international sponsors of war.
According to the NACP press service, the decision was made based on the company’s failure to comply with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and its continued promotion of the export of climate-damaging Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG), which provides financial resources for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Despite the ongoing full-scale Russian invasion, the Belgian independent gas infrastructure operator Fluxys continues to provide Yamal LNG, a subsidiary of Novatek, with LNG storage and transshipment services at its terminal in Zeebrugge. These services allow for the export of additional Russian revenues for Novatek and tax revenues for the Kremlin regime, which is committing countless war crimes in Ukraine. Thanks to the facts provided by Ukrainian and Belgian civil society organizations, we have found sufficient grounds to add Fluxys to the list of international sponsors of the war,” said Agiya Zagrebelska, Head of the Department for Minimizing Corruption Risks in the NACP’s Sanctions Policy.
The Belgian operator Fluxys provides liquefied natural gas storage and transshipment facilities to Yamal LNG, a joint venture majority owned by the Russian gas company Novatek, which is directly involved in financing military aggression and war crimes in Ukraine. A detailed analysis conducted by the International Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) in 2022 showed that Fluxys and its shareholders profited by facilitating the export of Russian LNG to the markets of Asia, South America and the Middle East, especially in the winter months of 2021/2022, which exacerbated the European energy crisis and increased profits for Novatek.
“The reputational risks associated with being listed as a sponsor of war and potentially having its credit rating downgraded are not unique to Fluxys. By continuing its involvement in Russian LNG transactions, Fluxys may face the risk of being subject to secondary sanctions from the United States, especially since Novatek is reportedly directly contributing to Russia’s war of aggression, as investigations suggest that the company’s security guards were used to form special military units that took part in the fighting in Ukraine,” said Svitlana Romanko, founder and director of Razom We Stand.
In response to the unprovoked and illegal aggressive war of aggression, many companies ceased all business interaction with Russian partners after February 24, 2022, but Fluxys continued to cooperate with Yaman LNG and Novatek throughout 2022 and into 2023. Experts estimate that Russia expects to receive up to €800 million in tax revenues from exports, which is possible due to the transshipment of LNG in Zeebrugge in 2023. Only 7% of this gas goes to EU markets. Fluxys receives 50 million euros a year for this service under a long-term contract signed in 2015, a year after Russia annexed Crimea and started the war in Donbas.
Novatek, owned by Russian oligarchs Leonid Mikhelson and Gennady Timchenko, is the main supplier of Russian liquefied natural gas to international markets. Mikhelson and Timchenko are members of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle and, with the help of his regime, have seized stakes in Russian oil and gas projects from international companies. “Novatek is the largest private natural gas producer in Russia. In July 2014, Novatek was added to the sanctions lists of the United States and Canada. In 2016, the US imposed sanctions on several Novatek subsidiaries. On November 2, 2023, the United States imposed sanctions against the Artsyl LNG 2 project, which was intended to double Novatek’s export capacity.
In October, Razom We Stand, on behalf of 23 Ukrainian NGOs, sent an open letter to the Belgian federal government calling on it to take the initiative to impose a complete ban on the transshipment of Russian LNG in all EU harbors, including the Fluxy-operated LNG terminal in Zeebrugge. The Netherlands and the United Kingdom have already introduced such bans.
The main shareholders of Fluxys are Belgian municipalities (77.41%) and the Belgian federal government (3.44%). Both parties have pledged to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5℃ by supporting the Covenant of Mayors and the Paris Agreement, respectively. They also claim to highly respect international humanitarian law, which prohibits intentional attacks on civilians or critical civilian infrastructure. These commitments contradict the actual continuation of cooperation with the Russian company Novotec.
Benchmark oil prices do not show a single trend on Thursday morning, as traders assess data on US stockpiles and await the OPEC+ ministerial meeting.
The price of January futures for Brent on the London ICE Futures exchange at 7:00 a.m. was $82.95 per barrel, $0.15 (0.18%) lower than at the close of the previous session. The day before, these contracts rose in price by $1.42 (1.7%) to the highest since November 6 at $83.1 per barrel. They will expire at the close of the market on Thursday.
February futures, which are more actively traded, are rising in price by $0.16 (0.19%) to $83.04 per barrel.
Quotations for January futures for WTI in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) by this time increased by $0.18 (0.23%) to $78.04 per barrel. At the end of the previous session, they rose by $1.45 (1.9%) to the highest since November 14 at $77.68 per barrel.
Commercial oil reserves in the United States last week increased by 1.609 million barrels, according to the weekly report of the country’s Energy Ministry published on Wednesday. This came as a surprise to analysts who had forecast an average decline of 933 thousand barrels, according to Trading Economics.
Gasoline reserves increased by 1.764 million barrels, and distillate reserves by 5.217 million barrels. On average, experts had expected an increase in gasoline stocks by 229 thousand barrels and a decrease in distillate reserves by 394 thousand barrels.
For their part, the OPEC+ ministers will try to meet again on Thursday (this time online) to review their strategy in the oil market. A face-to-face meeting of the countries participating in the agreement was scheduled for last Sunday, but was postponed a few days later.
Export of important goods from Ukraine in Jan-Sept 2023
Source: Open4Business.com.ua and experts.news
Former US Secretary of State (1973-1977) and National Security Advisor (1969-1975) Henry Alfred Kissinger has died in the United States at the age of one hundred, the BBC reported on Thursday.
