Ukraine latest: Turkey doubles Russian oil imports, filling EU void
The Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on Feb. 24 continues, with casualties mounting on both sides.
Ukrainian forces are putting up resistance using Western military aid, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy regularly calls on the world to do more to help. Governments around the globe have imposed heavy sanctions against Moscow but have stopped short of direct intervention for fear of sparking a wider conflict.
Meanwhile, rising geopolitical risk and volatile energy and financial markets are rocking Asia.
For all our coverage, visit our Ukraine war page.
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Note: Nikkei Asia decided on March 5 to temporarily suspend its reporting from Russia until further information becomes available regarding the scope of the revised criminal code. Entries include material from wire services and other sources.
Here are the latest developments:
Monday, Aug. 22 (Tokyo time)
5:30 p.m. Oil majors such as ExxonMobil and Chevron will have to cut exports of Kazakh oil via Russia again due to damaged equipment, the pipeline operator says, adding to energy supply disruptions from Russia to the West. CPC, which ships oil from Kazakhstan via Russia to global markets and handles about 1% of global oil, said oil exports from two of its three mooring points at a Black Sea terminal had been suspended. It said loadings were only being processed from SPM-3, while SPM-1 and SPM-2 were out of service. Oil loading requests will therefore have to be reduced, it said.
3:00 p.m. Turkey doubled its imports of Russian oil this year, Refinitiv Eikon data shows. Trade between Turkey and Russia has been booming since spring as Turkish companies not banned from dealing with Russian counterparts stepped in to fill the void created by EU businesses leaving Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. Turkey increased oil imports from Russia -- including Urals and Siberian Light grades -- beyond 200,000 barrels per day so far this year compared with just 98,000 bpd for the same period of 2021, Refinitiv data showed.
1:50 p.m. Germany has a good chance of getting through the coming winter without taking drastic measures but faces a difficult time and must prepare for Russia to tighten gas supplies further, Economy Minister Robert Habeck says. "We still have a very critical winter ahead of us. We have to expect that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will further reduce the gas," Habeck told German broadcaster ARD from Canada, where he is on a three-day trip with Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
3:24 a.m. Russian missiles hit targets near the city of Odesa, a Ukrainian Black Sea port and grain export hub, as the war heads for the six-month milestone on Wednesday. Local authorities say Ukrainian defenses shot down two of the cruise missiles while three hit agricultural targets, but there were no casualties.
Aug. 24 also will mark 31 years of Ukraine's independence from Soviet rule, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calls for vigilance in a nightly video address, saying Moscow could try "something particularly ugly."
Meanwhile, artillery shells rain down overnight on Nikopol, a city lying across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, cutting power to 3,000 residents and spurring fears of a nuclear accident.
2:00 a.m. Russian authorities are investigating a suspected car bomb attack outside Moscow that killed the daughter of Alexander Dugin, an ultranationalist ideologue who advocates Russia absorbing Ukraine. Investigators say they are considering "all versions" when it comes to establishing who was responsible for Darya Dugina's death, while Russia's Foreign Ministry speculates of a link to Ukraine, which Kyiv denies.
"I confirm that Ukraine, of course, had nothing to do with this because we are not a criminal state, like the Russian Federation, and, moreover, we are not a terrorist state," Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak says. Read more.
Sunday, Aug. 21
10:00 p.m. Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong says tensions between the United States and China and the Russia-Ukraine war affect Asia-Pacific security. "We can expect more geopolitical contestation in the Asia-Pacific," he said, adding that Singapore would try its best to avoid being caught up in the "major power rivalry." Worsening U.S.-China relations are making it "almost impossible" to work together on pressing global issues like climate change, pandemics and nuclear proliferation, he said, speaking at the city-state's national day rally.
4:45 a.m. Russia shot down Ukrainian drones in Crimea, while Ukrainian officials said Russian forces pressed ahead with efforts to seize one of the few cities in eastern Ukraine not already under their control, The Associated Press reports.
In Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, Russian authorities say local air defenses shot down a drone above the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol. It was the second drone incident at the headquarters in three weeks and followed explosions at a Russian airfield and ammunition depot on the peninsula this month.
For earlier updates, click here.