(Kyiv, eastern Ukraine) Polish oil giant PKN Orlen announced on Saturday that its Russian partner had stopped delivering oil to it through the Druzhba pipeline under the last contract in force, which covered around 10% the needs of the group. China, which called on Russians and Ukrainians to hold peace talks, for its part announced that it would receive Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Moscow’s only European ally, followed by his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron who welcomed the Beijing’s involvement.
“Deliveries via the Druzhba pipeline to Poland have been stopped by the Russian side,” the Polish group said in a statement sent to AFP.
Thus, “PKN Orlen does not receive [plus] oil from Russia”, according to this text.
The shutdown comes a day after the European Union approved a new set of sanctions aimed at hitting Russia’s economy and Iranian companies accused of supporting its just-launched invasion of Ukraine. a year.
The group had already stopped, a year ago, importing Russian oil by sea.
Orlen assured, however, that this shutdown will have no impact on the supply of Polish customers and that “all deliveries can [désormais] be provided by sea” by other suppliers.
For several years, Poland has greatly diversified its sources of gas and oil supply.
PKN Orlen imports oil by sea “from the North Sea, West Africa, the Mediterranean basin, but also the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Mexico”.
The group signed a “strategic oil delivery contract” with Saudi Aramco last year.
Peace talks
PHOTO ZHANG LING, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
China on Friday (February 24, 2023) called for a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia and the start of peace talks as part of a 12-point proposal to end the conflict.
China, which called on Russians and Ukrainians to hold peace talks, announced that it would receive Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Moscow’s only European ally, followed by his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron who welcomed Beijing’s involvement .
A close partner of Russia, China had so far refrained from taking a position on the Russian invasion, which entered its second year. She put forward a 12-point document on Friday in which she urges the two belligerents to dialogue, insists on respect for territorial integrity and opposes any recourse to nuclear weapons.
If Westerners generally welcomed this Chinese diplomatic intervention with skepticism, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was ready to “work” with Beijing and announced his intention to meet his counterpart Xi Jinping.
Russia said it “appreciated” the Chinese efforts, while insisting on the need to recognize the Russian annexation of four Ukrainian regions claimed by Moscow.
Standing out from American or German doubts, Emmanuel Macron considered that “the fact that China is committed to peace efforts is completely good” and announced that he would go to Beijing “at the beginning of April”.
On the ground, Ukraine said it monitors the activity of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea. According to the spokeswoman for the Ukrainian army’s Southern Command, Natalia Goumenyuk, the Russian forces have mobilized nine ships including a missile launcher: “Since yesterday, they have doubled their grouping which could indicate preparations for a new expansion”. .
“An air alert has already sounded twice today, over the whole territory of Ukraine and in the southern regions,” she added, reporting reconnaissance activities for the moment.
The Ukrainian Parliament announced that it had voted on Friday to increase to two kilometers wide a strip along the Ukrainian-Russian and Ukrainian-Belarusian borders which “will concretely be mined territory”.
Lukashenko on Tuesday in Beijing
On the diplomatic front, Beijing announced a state visit from Tuesday to Thursday by Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Vladimir Putin. Belarus has lent its territory for the launch of the Russian offensive against Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Kazakhstan, an economic heavyweight in Central Asia, an ally of Russia, but which has so far maintained a balanced position on the Ukrainian conflict, has supported the Chinese proposals.
Mr. Macron, whose country is a member of the UN Security Council, considered that peace is “possible only if it involves a halt to Russian aggression, a withdrawal of troops and respect for territorial sovereignty and of the Ukrainian people”.
The French head of state called on Beijing “not to deliver any weapons to Russia” and to “help us put pressure on Russia so that it obviously never uses either chemicals or nuclear weapons, and that it stop this aggression prior to a negotiation”.
G20 Finance “destabilized”
Russia on Saturday accused the West of having “destabilized” the G20 Finance summit in India by trying to “blackmail” a passage on Ukraine into the joint communiqué, which did not happen due to of discrepancies.
“We regret that the activities of the G20 continue to be destabilized by the collective West and used in an anti-Russian and purely confrontational manner,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
According to Moscow, the United States, the EU and the G7 have “disrupted the adoption of collective decisions” by trying to impose a “diktat” via “clear blackmail” so that their interpretation of the conflict in Ukraine appears in the joint statement.
The ministry accused Washington and its allies of issuing “ultimatums” to “many delegations”.
“We urge the collective West to renounce its destructive policy as soon as possible, to realize the objective realities of a multipolar world,” Russian diplomacy continued.
“The G20 must remain an economic forum rather than encroaching on the security sphere,” he added.
Moscow said it “shares Beijing’s considerations” while insisting on the need to “recognize the new territorial realities”.
“I want to believe that China will be on the side of a just world, that is to say on our side,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.