The Ukrainian military said missile strikes on Russian airfields in Luhansk, in the occupied east, and Berdyansk, on the Sea of Azov, destroyed nine Russian helicopters, an air defense missile unit and a ammunition depot, and damaged the runways of the two airfields. The Russian military made no comment.
Ukraine used US-supplied ATACMS missiles for the first time in the attack, CNN reported. The United States has not officially confirmed that it has approved a transfer. President Joe Biden told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in September that he was ready to provide Ukraine with long-awaited missiles, Bloomberg reported last month.
Latest developments
Putin arrives in China to meet Xi on rare international trip
President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Beijing, according to Chinese state media, a rare foreign trip for the Russian leader who is the subject of an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court on charges of alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
Putin should participate in the Belt and Road Forum, reported CGTN. He was also scheduled to meet President Xi Jinping on Wednesday, Russian newspaper Interfax reported earlier.
The visit underscores the close ties between Beijing and Moscow, which officials in Washington and Brussels are watching closely in the context of the war in Ukraine. China has provided key diplomatic and economic support to Russia since Putin ordered the 2022 invasion, mitigating the effects of Western sanctions against Moscow.
Learn more: Xi’s diplomatic gamble on Putin leaves both countries with much to lose
Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Monday and exchanged views on issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.
Hungary describes the tax imposed by Bulgaria on the transit of Russian gas as a “hostile measure”
Hungary has vowed to retaliate against Bulgaria after the Balkan country blindsided it by imposing a tax on the transit of Russian gas, potentially threatening the viability of energy imports via a critical route.
The levy that Bulgaria announcement last week, came without warning and was considered by Hungary to be a “hostile measure,” Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Tuesday. He said Hungary would work with Serbia, which also depends on the Balkan pipeline for its natural gas, towards a response.
“We are not going to leave this step unanswered,” Szijjarto told state television after Orbán’s meeting with Putin in Beijing. Szijjarto did not provide any details on how his country might respond.
Bulgaria published a law on Friday introducing a tax of 20 Bulgarian levs ($10.81) per megawatt hour of gas of Russian origin, increasing its cost by around 20% compared to the European benchmark gas price negotiated in the regional center of Amsterdam.
The move was not aimed at Hungary or Serbia, but at Russia, which seeks to exploit energy profits to finance its war in Ukraine, Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov said on Tuesday.
“We do not hope to increase prices in Serbia and Hungary, but to reduce Gazprom’s profits,” Denkov was quoted as saying by the Dnevnik.bg news site at a conference. “That is, reducing the funds that enter the Russian state budget to wage war.”
Orbán is the first European leader to meet Putin since the ICC arrest warrant
Orbán became the first European Union prime minister to meet with Putin since an international arrest warrant was issued for the Russian leader for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
Orbán met with Putin on Tuesday in Beijing, where the two leaders are participating in the Belt and Road Initiative forum hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping. The leaders discussed cooperation in gas, oil and nuclear energy, Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter .
Orbán’s meeting is likely to provoke a backlash from his EU and NATO allies as well as Ukraine, who have sought to isolate Putin since Russia invaded Russia’s eastern neighbor. Hungary last year. Hungary’s prime minister has acted to undermine this unity by striking energy deals with Russia, trying to limit Western aid to Ukraine, delaying NATO expansion, and publicly calling on the EU to lift economic sanctions imposed on Moscow.
Orbán called the meeting with Putin the most difficult yet because of the “military operation and sanctions.” He said the aim was to salvage as many economic ties as possible, including gas imports from Russia and Moscow’s leading role in the expansion of Hungary’s only nuclear power plant.
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March, citing his alleged role in the illegal deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia. Hungary ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC in 2001, during Orbán’s first term as prime minister.
Russian crude oil shipments increase again
Russian oil flows are rising steadily again after months of scrupulous compliance with a deal with Saudi Arabia to keep barrels off the global market.
The country’s seaborne crude exports rebounded in the seven days to October 15, bringing four-week average flows to their highest level in more than three months.
About 3.51 million barrels per day of crude were shipped from Russian ports last week, an increase of about 285,000 barrels per day from the previous seven days, according to tanker tracking data monitored by Bloomberg . That brought the least volatile four-week average to around 3.36 million barrels per day.
The increase was driven by an increase in Black Sea flows to a six-week high and a resumption of shipments from the Arctic port of Murmansk after a decline the previous week. DM