EU tariffs on Russian grain could rise – Night at a glance
Published: Friday, Mar 22nd 2024, 06:20
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The EU Commission wants to impose higher tariffs on imports of Russian grain. The authority has prepared a proposal to this effect, said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen late on Thursday evening following talks between EU heads of state and government at a summit in Brussels. In addition to grain, it would also affect other agricultural products from Russia and Belarus.
According to von der Leyen, grain stolen from Ukraine should also be prevented from being sold to the EU. Russian grain should not destabilize the EU market and Russia should not benefit from the export of these goods.
Prior to the summit, several eastern EU states had sent a letter to the EU Commission demanding that the Commission prepare import restrictions on Russian grain. According to the letter, which was signed by the agriculture ministers from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, Russia is also financing the ongoing war against Ukraine with profits from grain exports to the EU.
The proposal is controversial because the EU did not actually want to restrict the import and export of agricultural products. The Commission is now arguing that customs duties are not sanctions. In addition, it should be guaranteed that the duties only apply to imports that remain in the EU. Russian exports to other regions of the world should not become more expensive as a result.
Selensky calls for more EU military aid
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky joined the EU summit on Thursday via video and urgently appealed for more military support for his country. "Unfortunately, the use of artillery on the front line by our soldiers is shameful for Europe in the sense that Europe can do more," he said, according to the text of the speech published by an EU spokesperson. "It is important to prove this now."
Ukraine has long been asking the EU for long-range weapons to destroy the Russian attackers' supply lines far behind the front line. Great Britain and France have already sent their Storm Shadow and Scalp cruise missiles. However, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) does not want to make the Taurus cruise missiles with a range of 500 kilometers available to the Bundeswehr because he fears that Germany could be drawn into the war.
In his evening video address, Zelensky also appealed to the international community to further tighten sanctions against Russia. He criticized the fact that Russian missiles, for example, still often contain Western components that reach Russia via loopholes. "Every Russian terrorist attack indicates that the global sanctions against Putin's system have not yet been sufficient."
Ukraine reports three dead in Kherson and Donetsk regions
According to official reports, at least three people have been killed in the Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Donetsk as a result of Russian attacks. In Kherson in the south of the country, a 70-year-old woman was seriously injured by shelling in a village and died shortly afterwards on the way to hospital, according to the regional military administration. In Donetsk in the east, a 60-year-old man and a 66-year-old woman were killed in the small town of Novohrodivka, according to the public prosecutor's office. Two other people were injured, it said.
Prisoners at war: two penal camps in Siberia close
According to media reports, at least two penal camps in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia are to be closed due to the large number of Russian prisoners fighting in Ukraine. The prisons were to be closed for reasons of "optimization" after many offenders were pardoned due to their deployment in the war zone, said the region's human rights commissioner, Mark Denisov, according to the daily newspaper Kommersant. According to him, the penal camps in the towns of Gromadsk and Areyskoye are affected. In Gromadsk, it is mainly repeat offenders who are being held. Areyskoye is a camp for serious criminals.
SPD leader: It must be possible to talk about the issue of peace
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil currently sees no basis for negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin on an end to the war in Ukraine. "I myself do not believe that it is possible to sit down at the table with Vladimir Putin," Klingbeil said on the ZDF program "Maybrit Illner" on Thursday evening. The SPD leader added that it was up to the Ukrainians to decide.
Among other things, the program dealt with controversial statements by SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich on freezing the war in Ukraine. Klingbeil defended Mützenich against harsh criticism from his coalition partners, the Greens and the FDP. The party leader said that Mützenich was ensuring that the SPD parliamentary group stood united behind Chancellor Scholz's Ukraine policy. In his speech in the Bundestag, the parliamentary group leader clearly stated that Ukraine must continue to receive military support in its defensive struggle against Russia, but that it must also be possible to talk about the issue of peace. "And I can tell you that there is this desire and this need. And I think we can endure these debates and we can have them," Klingbeil emphasized.
This will be important on Friday
On the second and final day of the Brussels summit, the meeting of EU heads of state and government on Friday will once again focus on Russia's war of aggression and strengthening the European defense industry, among other things.
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