http://rt.com/news/eastern-ukraine-army-operation-680/
KIEV, August 20. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine’s coal industry lost $22.84 million in July over the continued military operations in the country’s east, First Deputy Energy and Coal Minister Yuriy Zyukov said on Wednesday.
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/19/2014 14:05 -0400
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2014/08/ukraine-demands-rebels-surrender.html
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Ukrainian troops continue their onslaught on the rebel cities of Donetsk and Lugansk. Russia is working with the Red Cross to allow a convoy of humanitarian aid cross border into the battered regions.
Wednesday, August 20
10:34 GMT:
Donetsk has faced another day of heavy shelling, as RT's Paula Slier reports from the besieged city. Once prospering, it has turned into a place on the verge of extinction with its empty streets and people, either hiding in shelters or fleeing their native city. But some locals have decided to stay despite the humanitarian catastrophe in the city with no water and electricity: “I was born here, I was raised here, on these streets - why should I leave this city just because someone decided to bomb it.”
10:10 GMT:
Since March 13, a total of 951 civilians have been killed in the Donetsk region, according to a tally published by the city council’s healthcare department.
09:11 GMT:
09:06 GMT:
An advance mission of the International Committee for the Red Cross has been dispatched to Ukraine to monitor the planned route for the Russian humanitarian aid convoy, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported Wednesday.
The announcement comes after a meeting in Moscow between the Red Cross and Russian diplomats to discuss the aid mission.
Tuesday, August 19
17:10 GMT:
Ukraine has banned 14 Russian television channels including Russia Today and Life News from broadcasting on cable networks in Ukraine, accusing them of spreading war propaganda, Ukrainian interior ministry aide Anton Gerashenko said on Tuesday.
The fourteen channels are banned temporarily for "broadcasting propaganda of war and violence," Gerashenko said in a Facebook post. (Reuters)
12:20 GMT:
Artillery fire started early in the morning in the town of Makeevka, located to the east of Donetsk. Reuters reported residents as saying it was the first time there had been shelling in the area. The town’s railway station came under heavy fire, and most of the local residents have gone down to basements or shelters.
10:49 GMT:
The bodies of 15 refugees killed in the shelling of a convoy to the southeast of Lugansk on Monday morning have been identified, Ukraine’s Security Council said Tuesday, blaming militiamen for their deaths. The self-defense forces in Eastern Ukraine denied the accusations, saying that they have neither force nor the means to conduct such an attack. The prime minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Alexandr Zakharchenko, called the Kiev’s statement “a pure and simple fake”.
10:26 GMT:
Civilians were killed and injured as a result of shelling which nearly destroyed the central part of Lugansk on Tuesday night. No numbers are given in a message on the city council’s website, which cites reports of the city’s residents. It calls the situation in the town critical, as only the most essential products are on sale, and people face waiting in long lines to get bread. There has been no water or electricity, and mobile and landline phone lines have been down for 17 days. High temperatures may trigger infections in the city, due to a lack of fresh water and piles of garbage.
08:59 GMT:
Ukrainian troops have shelled the center of Lugansk, apparently aiming for the city council building, rebels reported. They also denied a report of gunfights in the city center which was voiced on Tuesday morning by a Ukrainian police official.
00:30 GMT:
Washington has recognized the need for Russian humanitarian aid in eastern Ukraine, according to comments by the US State Department spokesperson Marie Harf.
“We agree that the people of that region are in need of aid,” Harf said during a briefing on Monday, adding that US wants the contents of the aid convoys checked.
“We want to make sure this is actually aid, though. We understand there is an agreement that the aid will be inspected by Ukrainian border guards and customs officials before being transferred in batches to representatives of the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross].”
Russian humanitarian convoy ready to enter Ukraine — Foreign Ministry
August 20, 12:59 UTC+4
The lead group of the Red Cross representatives has already set out along the planned route of the convoy
The lead group of the Red Cross representatives has already set out along the planned route of the convoy
MOSCOW, August 20. /ITAR-TASS/. A convoy of Russian trucks carrying humanitarian aid for the embattled south-eastern Ukrainian regions is ready to cross the border into Ukraine as the first group of the Red Cross representatives has already set out along the planned delivery route, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in its statement on Wednesday.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov discussed the situation concerning the Russian humanitarian aid for Ukraine with the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Operations for Europe and Central Asia department Laurent Corbaz at a meeting in Moscow.
According to the statement, the officials discussed “issues concerning the immediate delivery of the Russian humanitarian cargo to the embattled regions in Ukraine’s south-east.” “The lead group of the Red Cross representatives has already set out along the planned route (of the convoy),” the statement added.
Russia dispatched a convoy of trucks with humanitarian supplies for the population of south-east Ukraine last week. Humanitarian supplies include foodstuffs, baby food, medicines and drinking water.
The aid convoy includes 270 trucks carrying 2,000 tons of basic necessities for residents of south-eastern Ukraine. The Russian authorities said the humanitarian cargo included 400 tons of groats, 100 tons of sugar, 62 tons of baby food, 54 tons of medicines and medical items, 12,000 sleeping bags and 69 mobile power units.
Ukrainian coal industry loses $23 million over war in east Ukraine
August 20, 14:43 UTC+4
From 30 to 35 coalmines in east Ukraine are not working mainly due to the absence of electricity and, as a result, mine flooding
From 30 to 35 coalmines in east Ukraine are not working mainly due to the absence of electricity and, as a result, mine flooding
The Ukrainian coal industry’s decline has been unprecedented since World War II, the first deputy minister said.
“We lost 297 million hryvnias in July alone due to the continued war [in east Ukraine] and failed to produce 315,000 tons of coal as planned,” he said.
“We have lost about 420,000 tons of coal since the start of the year,” Zyukov said.
From 30 to 35 coalmines in east Ukraine are not working mainly due to the absence of electricity and, as a result, mine flooding,” the first deputy energy and coal minister said.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-19/ukraine%E2%80%99s-next-crisis-economic-disaster
Ukraine’s Next Crisis? Economic Disaster
Submitted by Robert Bensch via OilPrice.com,
Ukraine’s next crisis will be a devastatingly economic one, as violent conflict destroys critical infrastructure in the east and brings key industry to a halt, furthering weakening the energy sector by crippling coal-based electricity production.
The Ukrainian military’s showdown with separatists in the industrial east has forced coal mines to severely cut production or close down entirely. This has led to an electricity crisis that can only be staunched by cutting domestic production along with exports to Europe, Crimea, and Belarus -- or worse, getting more imports from Russia.
In the coal centers of Ukraine’s industrial east—Luhansk and Donetsk—fighting has forced the full closure of an estimated 50 percent of coal mines, while overall coal production has fallen 22 percent over the same period last year.
Key industry sources say they will potentially run out of coal in less than three weeks.
For Ukraine, the second largest producer of coal in Europe, this will have a devastating impact on the energy sector, which is in a state of emergency, unable to get coal to thermal power plants that provide some 40 percent of the entire country’s electricity.
In the wider energy picture, the halt of coal production sets Ukraine back a decade. The plan was to rely more on coal in order to reduce dependence on Russian natural gas.
But the new reality has insiders wondering how Ukraine will produce more of its own natural gas, after the implementation earlier this month of an amended tax code that targets private gas producers with a tax so high that they will significantly reduce production through the end of the year and beyond that is anyone’s guess. (Full disclosure: my firm, Pelicourt LLC, is the majority shareholder of Ukraine’s third-largest gas producer, Cub Energy, and I have advised the U.S. and Canadian governments on the potential harm the new tax will cause.)
Economically, the conflict in the east is a disaster for Ukraine, which has traditionally been a net exporter of thermal coal for power generation. Now it will have to increase imports of fuel to make up for the loss. But even then, the destruction of supply routes makes this challenging.
Not only have coal supply routes been destroyed in the conflict, but other critical infrastructure has taken a hit as well, threatening other industries.
Across the board, Ukraine’s industrial heartland is reeling from cut-off supply and shipping chains that threaten to destroy as much as 5 percent of Ukraine’s gross domestic product in the second half of this year.
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http://rt.com/business/181540-switzerland-rejects-russia-embargo/
Switzerland to EU: We don’t want to sidestep Russian food ban
Switzerland has said it will not re-export European agricultural products to Russia that now can’t get access to the country’s market.
“We have had requests from European countries, including the producers of fruits, vegetables, dairy products and meat, but we didn’t give permission to have their products imported to Switzerland and then exported to Russia,” as ITAR-TASS quotes Jurg Jordi, a spokesman at the Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture.
Swiss legislation requires certifying food exports for hygiene, which it can’t do if the products are processed outside its borders, Jordi told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The newspaper writes that Moscow’s embargoon imports of some food products from the EU, introduced early August, did not affect Switzerland as it did not apply wide sanctions against Russia.
"As such the Russian ban on EU cheese imports hasn't had much of an effect on us yet," the WSJ quotes Daniel Daetwyler, the Chief Executive of InterCheese.
The most popular goods Switzerland exports to Russia are cheese and coffee, which combined were worth around $220 million in 2013 or 2.4 percent of Switzerland’s total food sales abroad according to the Customs Administration.
Because Switzerland is not a member of the EU it has stayed fairly neutral over the sanctions imposed on Russia. However, it has seen a benefit in increased cheese sales to Russia as supplies from France and the Netherlands run out.
Switzerland’s measures against Russia fall short of the broader economic sanctions the EU and the US have introduced, having halted the sale of defense equipment and tightened the ban on Swiss financial intermediaries.
Tuesday, August 19, 2014 1:30 PM
Ukraine Overnight Interest Rates Soars to 17.5%; External Debt Cannot Be Paid Back; Ukraine Demands Rebels Surrender
It's crystal clear Ukraine has no interest in a ceasefire under any terms. Instead it demands rebels lay down weapons and for Russia to stop intervention. In short, Ukraine demands surrender.
Thus death and destruction will continue, possibly long after Ukraine takes over Luhansk and Donetsk (or rather what's left of Luhansk and Donetsk).
Please consider Ukraine Says It Makes Gains Against Rebels in Luhansk.
Thus death and destruction will continue, possibly long after Ukraine takes over Luhansk and Donetsk (or rather what's left of Luhansk and Donetsk).
Please consider Ukraine Says It Makes Gains Against Rebels in Luhansk.
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Hryvnia vs. US Dollar
From mid-2007 the hryvnia crashed from 4.50 to the US dollar to 13.03 to the US dollar. That is a decline of 65%.
Given that Ukraine's external debt is not priced in hryvnia, but rather euros or US dollars, this currency decline really hurts.
Ukraine External Debt
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From mid-2007 the hryvnia crashed from 4.50 to the US dollar to 13.03 to the US dollar. That is a decline of 65%.
Given that Ukraine's external debt is not priced in hryvnia, but rather euros or US dollars, this currency decline really hurts.
Ukraine External Debt
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Ukraine's external debt as valued in US dollars has risen from under $40 billion in 2005 to nearly $140 billion today. Yet, I hear no mainstream media reporting on how Ukraine is supposed to pay this back.
Here's a hint. It can't.
Here's a hint. It can't.
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