(Kiev, eastern Ukraine) Polish oil giant PKN Orlen announced on Saturday that its Russian partner had suspended oil supplies to it through the Druzhba pipeline under the last valid contract, which covered around 10% of the group’s needs. For its part, China, calling on Russians and Ukrainians to hold peace talks, announced that it would host Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Moscow’s only European ally, followed by his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, who welcomed Beijing’s involvement.
Posted 7:51am Updated 12:54pm
Ania TSOUKANOVA with Phil HAZLEWOOD Agence France Press
“Supplies via the Druzhba pipeline to Poland have been stopped by the Russian side,” the Polish group said in a statement to AFP.
Thus, “PKN Orlen will not receive [plus] Oil from Russia,” the text says.
The shutdown comes a day after the European Union passed a new set of sanctions aimed at hitting the Russian economy and Iranian companies accused of aiding the just-launched invasion of Ukraine.
The group stopped importing Russian oil by sea a year ago.
However, Orlen assured that this shutdown will not affect the supply of Polish customers and “all deliveries can [désormais] be provided by sea” from other suppliers.
Poland has largely diversified its gas and oil supply for several years.
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 supply agreement” with Saudi Aramco last year.
peace talks
PHOTO ZHANG LING, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVE
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, calling on Russians and Ukrainians for peace talks, said it would host Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Moscow’s only European ally, followed by his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, who hailed Beijing’s commitment.
China, a close partner of Russia, has so far refrained from commenting on the Russian invasion, which is entering its second year. It presented a 12-point document on Friday calling on the two warring factions to engage in dialogue, insisting on respect for territorial integrity and opposing any recourse to nuclear weapons.
While westerners were generally skeptical about this Chinese diplomatic intervention, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was ready to “work” with Beijing and announced his intention to meet his counterpart Xi Jinping.
Russia said it “appreciated” the Chinese effort but insisted on the need to recognize Moscow’s claimed Russian annexation of four Ukrainian regions.
Emmanuel Macron, contrasting with American or German doubts, thought it was “completely good that China is committed to peace efforts” and announced that he would travel to Beijing “early April”.
On the ground, Ukraine said it monitors the activities of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea. According to the spokeswoman for the Southern Command of the Ukrainian Army Natalia Goumenyuk, Russian forces have mobilized nine ships, including a rocket launcher: “Since yesterday they have doubled their grouping, which may indicate preparations for a new expansion”.
“Air alerts have already sounded twice today over the entire territory of Ukraine and in the southern regions,” she added, reporting on reconnaissance activities for the time being.
Ukraine’s parliament announced that on Friday it voted to widen to two kilometers a strip along the Ukraine-Russia and Ukraine-Belarusian borders that will be “concretely mined area”.
Lukashenko on Tuesday in Beijing
On the diplomatic front, Beijing announced Tuesday through Thursday a state visit by Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Vladimir Putin. Belarus made its territory available to launch the Russian offensive against Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Kazakhstan, an economic heavyweight in Central Asia and an ally of Russia but which has so far taken a balanced position in the Ukraine conflict, has backed the Chinese proposals.
Mr Macron, whose country is a member of the UN Security Council, believed that peace “is only possible if it ends Russian aggression, withdraws troops and respects territorial sovereignty and the Ukrainian people”.
The French leader called on Beijing “not to supply arms to Russia” and “to help us put pressure on Russia so that it obviously never uses chemicals or nuclear weapons and stops this aggression before a negotiation”.
G20 finances ‘destabilised’
Russia on Saturday accused the West of “destabilizing” the G20 financial summit in India by trying to “blackmail” a passage on Ukraine into the joint communiqué, which failed due to disagreements.
“We regret that G20 activities continue to be destabilized by the collective West and used in an anti-Russian and purely confrontational manner,” Russia’s 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 “dictate” through “clear blackmail” in order for their interpretation of the conflict in Ukraine to appear in the joint statement.
The ministry accused Washington and its allies of giving “ultimatums” to “many delegations.”
“We urge the collective West to renounce its destructive policies as soon as possible and to face the objective realities of a multipolar world,” Russian diplomacy continued.
“The G20 must remain an economic forum and not encroach on the security sphere,” he added.
Moscow said it “shares Beijing’s thinking” while insisting on the need to “acknowledge the new territorial realities”.
“I want to believe that China will be on the side of a fair world, that is, on our side,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.