WAR IN UKRAINE: July 14, 2023
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 506
Overnight Russia launched 17 "Shahed" drones over Ukraine - 16 of them were shot down. Air defense forces worked in Odesa, Mykolaiv & Dnipropetrovsk regions. One drone hit a utility company in Kryvyi Rih. A man was injured, dozens of nearby buildings damaged -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s confrontational tweet this week challenging NATO leaders on the glacial pace of his war-torn country’s admission into the alliance so roiled the White House that U.S. officials involved with the process consideredscaling back the “invitation” for Kyiv to join, according to six people familiar with the matter. Ultimately, the United States and its allies agreed they would preserve the declaration’s language as eventually presented Tuesday at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. The declaration lacks a timeline for Ukraine’s membership into the bloc but was the product of hard-won efforts to move the Biden administration and other European leaders to grant more-specific offers to Kyiv amid Russia’s ongoing invasion. The incident illustrates the frustration inside NATO with Zelensky’s pressure tactics, where even some of his strongest backers questioned this week whether he was serving Ukraine’s interests with his outburst. At the same time, the backroom scramble it set off shows how little the alliance can do about it: NATO nations are all-in on the war effort, and many member states remain deeply sympathetic to Zelensky’s demands for a deeper level of support. And while many officials expressed annoyance with the tweet, there was an understanding that the leader of an embattled nation must demonstrate he will do anything to extract the maximum on behalf of his people - Washington Post
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has proposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin that he extend a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of grain from Ukraine in return for connecting a subsidiary of Russia's agricultural bank to the SWIFT international payment system, sources told Reuters. Russia has threatened to ditch the grain deal, which expires on Monday, because several demands to dispatch its own grain and fertilizer abroad have not been met. The last two ships traveling under the Black Sea agreement are currently loading cargoes at the Ukrainian port of Odesa ahead of the deadline. A key demand by Moscow is the reconnection of the Russian agricultural bank Rosselkhozbank to the SWIFT international payment network. It was cut off by the European Union in June 2022 over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. An EU spokesperson said in May the EU was not considering reinstating Russian banks. However, the EU is considering connecting to SWIFT a subsidiary of Rosselkhozbank to allow specifically for grain and fertilizer transactions, three sources familiar with discussions told Reuters on Wednesday. The European Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
My take: it’s a very regrettable decision and illustrates the desperation on the part of the UNSG - who staked his reputation on the deal - to preserve his legacy. It also rewards the blackmailer - Russia - for weaponising food and will encourage the Kremlin to press for further sanctions relief.