Without Russian gas, a Hungarian bill of 15 to 18 million euros
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba was in Brussels on Monday to discuss, among other things, new sanctions against Russia.
His counterparts from the European Union are meeting there to try to unblock an embargo project on Russian oil imports – refused by Hungary, which is very dependent on it, to the chagrin of the Member States closest to kyiv. “The whole Union is unfortunately taken hostage by a Member State which cannot help us find a consensus,” lamented the head of Lithuanian diplomacy, Gabrielius Landsbergis.
For the head of Hungarian diplomacy, Peter Szijjarto, “Hungarians are legitimately waiting for a proposal for a solution to finance investments [de nouvelles infrastructures] and offset price increases, an overall cost of around 15 to 18 billion euros”.
Fighters evacuated from Azovstal
In Mariupol, in the south of Donbass, more than 260 Ukrainian fighters were evacuated on Monday from the Azovstal steelworks, the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in this strategic port, announced the Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defense, Ganna Malyar. Some “53 seriously injured were evacuated from Azovstal to Novoazovsk for medical assistance and another 211 were transported to Olenivka through a humanitarian corridor”, she said.
These localities are located in territory controlled by Russian and pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, but Ganna Malyar specified that the fighters should be repatriated in the future to territory controlled by Ukraine, “as part of ‘an exchange procedure’.
An affected ammonium nitrate warehouse
A warehouse in which ammonium nitrate was stored was hit by a Russian strike in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine, regional authorities said on Monday.
“The explosion in the Kharkiv region does not pose a threat to the local population,” the governor of the neighboring Donetsk region assured on his Telegram page, accompanying his message with a photograph showing an impressive cloud of orange smoke s rising above the fields.
“A Russian shell hit a warehouse on the territory of the Kharkiv region, where, according to preliminary information, ammonium nitrate was stored,” he said, adding that “the column of smoke could frighten, but [qu’]there is no reason to panic”.
McDonald’s leaves Russia permanently
After more than 30 years of presence in Russia, McDonald’s announced on Monday that it would withdraw entirely from the country and sell its activities in response to the invasion of Ukraine. “The humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Ukraine and the resulting unpredictable economic environment led McDonald’s to conclude that the continuation of its operations in Russia was no longer tenable or consistent with its values”, indicated the American giant in a statement.
The chain has approximately 850 establishments and 62,000 employees in the country. More than 80% of the restaurants bearing his name there are directly managed by the group, for which Russia represented in 2021 around 9% of its total turnover and 3% of its operating profit.