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☆ Russia says it will destroy fighter jets sent to Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 17 (Reuters) - Russia said on Friday that all fighter jets supplied to Ukraine by Western nations would be destroyed after NATO members Poland and Slovakia pledged to send MiG-29 jets to Kyiv. Since Russia's invasion last year NATO countries have sent billions of dollars of military aid to Ukraine, as Kyiv asks for weapons it says are vital to fend off Russian advances. Moscow has accused the West of directly participating in the conflict through supplying weapons to Ukraine, and has warned before that NATO weapons were legitimate targets for its forces. "It feels like all of these countries are thus engaged in the disposal of old unnecessary equipment," he said. Slovakia ordered F-16 fighter jets from the United States in 2018 to replace its ageing MiG-29 planes.

☆ Poland says it will send MiG fighter jets to Ukraine 'in the next few days'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Aditi Bharade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Poland will be the first NATO member to supply about a dozen fighter jets to Ukraine. This makes Poland the first NATO member to supply fighter jets to Ukraine. This plea for fighter jets has been a longstanding request from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. But Poland's decision to supply military jets to Ukraine may not push other allies to do the same. A White House representative said President Joe Biden has not changed his mind on not giving Ukraine fighter jets.

☆ Slovak government to send MIG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine - PM
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 17 (Reuters) - The Slovak government approved sending MIG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, Prime Minister Eduard Heger said on Friday, stepping up its military assistance to Kyiv in its fight against the Russian invasion. Slovakia is the second country to send war planes to Kyiv after Poland, which announced on Thursday it would do so. Its fleet of 11 MiG-29 planes was retired last summer and most of them are not in operational condition. On Thursday, Poland announced it would send Ukraine four MiG-29 fighter jets in coming days, making it the first of Kyiv's allies to provide such aircraft. Western countries that have provided Ukraine with arms have so far declined to send fighter jets.

☆ Slovakia sends MIG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine - PM
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 17 (Reuters) - Slovakia on Friday became the second of Ukraine's allies to provide MIG-29 fighter jets which Kyiv believes are crucial to repel Russia's year-long invasion. Its fleet of 11 MiG-29 planes was retired last summer and most of them are not in operational condition. On Thursday, Poland announced it would send Ukraine four MiG-29 fighter jets in coming days, making it the first of Kyiv's allies to provide such aircraft. Western countries that have provided Ukraine with arms have so far declined to send fighter jets. Slovakia ordered F-16 fighter jets from the United States in 2018 to replace the ageing MiG-29 planes.

☆ Poland to send Ukraine four MiG-29 jets in coming days
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] A Polish Air Force MiG-29 aircraft fires flares during a performance at the Radom Air Show at an airport in Radom August 24, 2013. REUTERS/Kacper PempelWARSAW, March 16 (Reuters) - Poland will send Ukraine four MiG-29 fighter jets in coming days, the president said on Thursday, making it the first of Kyiv's allies to provide such aircraft. One of Ukraine's staunchest supporters, Warsaw has taken a leading role in persuading sometimes hesitant allies to provide Kyiv with heavy weaponry. NATO allies in the former communist east such as Poland and Slovakia have been particularly vocal supporters of Kyiv since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Slovakia has also been considering whether to send MiG-29s to Ukraine but has yet to reach a decision.

☆ Poland may give Ukraine MiG-29 jets in next 4-6 weeks, says PM
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WARSAW, March 14 (Reuters) - Poland could give Ukraine MiG-29 fighter jets in the coming four to six weeks, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Tuesday, suggesting that Kyiv's allies were moving closer to an agreement on the next step in their military support for the country. Poland has said it would be prepared to send Soviet-designed MiG-29 jets to Ukraine as part of a coalition of countries. "That could happen in the coming 4-6 weeks," Morawiecki told a news conference when asked how long it could be before Warsaw supplies the aircraft. Nad said the time had come also for Slovakia to make a decision on whether or not to send jets to Ukraine. Poland has sent 14 German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

☆ Exclusive: Agrofert to win EU approval to buy Borealis' nitrogen unit
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BRUSSELS, March 10 (Reuters) - Czech group Agrofert is set to win unconditional EU antitrust approval for its purchase of the nitrogen business of Austrian energy group OMV's (OMVV.VI) unit Borealis, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said on Friday. Borealis in June last year announced the deal to sell the business, which includes fertiliser, melamine and technical nitrogen, on the basis of an enterprise value of 810 million euros ($863.5 million). Borealis is 75%-owned by energy group OMV and 25% by Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala. It finalised a turnaround programme in its fertiliser business two years ago. Agrofert has manufacturing facilities in Germany, Slovakia and the Czech Republic and is owned by Czech ex-premier and now opposition leader Andrej Babis.

☆ Awaiting an IRA response, Volkswagen pauses decision on eastern Europe battery plant
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Companies Volkswagen AG FollowMarch 8 (Reuters) - Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) is pausing plans for a battery plant in eastern Europe and prioritising building a plant in North America where it expects to reap 9-10 billion euros ($10.54 billion) in subsidies, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. The company was waiting for a response from Europe to the U.S. $369-billion Inflation Reduction Act package before moving ahead with its plans in the region, the newspaper reported, citing sources with knowledge of the matter. Volkswagen board member Thomas Schmall posted on LinkedIn last week that Europe risked losing "the race for billions of investments that will be decided in coming months and years" to the attractive conditions offered by the IRA. The company said in October last year it planned to firmly settle on a location for the plant in the first six months of 2023. ($1 = 0.9489 euros)Reporting by Victoria Waldersee Editing by Paul CarrelOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ More pain for the crypto industry means a chance for startups to pivot
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

After an awful 2022 that saw one of the industry's high-profile figures implode, the crypto market is looking for a bounceback. McDermott laid out to Insider's Bianca Chan and Dakin Campbell how tough times for crypto startups mean more realistic valuations and, in some cases, a reevaluation of the business model. Once of the most common critiques I hear about crypto is "It's a solution looking for a problem." The most recent crypto winter could force startups to be a bit more pragmatic about the specific problem they are looking to address. "If you can solve fraud in crypto, you can solve fraud in basically any part of finance," Meier told Insider.

☆ Slovak prime minister starts new pro-Western party for Sept election
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 7 (Reuters) - Slovak caretaker Prime Minister Eduard Heger launched a new pro-Western, liberal centrist party named the Democrats on Tuesday to run in a September election called after his coalition fell from power last year. Heger said pro-Western democratic values and aid to neighbouring Ukraine were the cornerstones of his agenda. Heger said he would not cooperate with far-right nationalists, like Fico's Smer (Direction) nor the Hlas (Voice) party, which itself split from Smer on a more pro-Western platform and now leads opinion polls. Four ministers from the current government, including Defence Minister Jaroslav Nad, have joined Heger's new outfit. Under Heger's leadership, Slovakia shipped military equipment to Ukraine including the S-300 air defence system, and allowed hundreds of thousands refugees across the border after Russia's invasion of Ukraine started in February 2024.

☆ Toblerone chocolate to cut iconic Matterhorn logo from packaging due to 'Swissness' laws
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Jenni Reid | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Toblerone chocolate bars with a representation of the Matterhorn mountain (back) and of a generic mountain (front) in Geneva. The Swiss Matterhorn peak will be removed when some of the chocolate's production is moved from Switzerland to Slovakia and replaced by a more generic mountain under strict "Swissness" rules. Toblerone chocolate packaging will no longer feature Switzerland's iconic Matterhorn mountain, as its U.S. owner Mondelez moves some production to Slovakia later this year. The company will also remove a reference to Toblerone being "Swiss chocolate," instead declaring it, "Established in Switzerland in 1908." Mondelez confirmed it is changing its packaging due to Swiss legislation as it moves some production overseas.

☆ Toblerone chocolate could lose its iconic Swiss mountain logo because it won't be able to meet the country's standard of 'Swissness'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Toblerone is set to drop the iconic image of Switzerland's Matterhorn mountain from its packaging. Switzerland has laws regulating the use of national symbols and products claiming to be Swiss-made. Toblerone's new branding will feature a "modernized and streamlined" logo instead of the Matterhorn's jagged outline, per Aargauer Zeitung. The Matterhorn debuted on Toblerone's packaging in 1970, according to its brand page. "We'll relaunch the Toblerone packaging from this summer, saying the brand was 'established in Switzerland,'" Livia Kolmitz, a Mondelez spokeswoman, told Reuters.

☆ Ukraine, Neighbors Sign Pact on Prosecuting the Crime of Aggression
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Ian Lovett | Oksana Grytsenko | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

International prosecutors including U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, third from left center, met to discuss the international response to aggression against Ukraine. LVIV, Ukraine—Representatives from seven countries agreed Saturday to establish an international center for prosecuting the crime of aggression, which they hope will be a first step toward going after the top Russian officials responsible for invading Ukraine. At a summit in Lviv that brought together leaders from across the Western world, officials from Ukraine, the Baltic states, Poland, Romania and Slovakia signed the agreement to create the new center in The Hague.

[1/5] The logo of Nord Stream AG is seen at an office building in the town of Vyborg, Leningrad Region, Russia August 22, 2022. Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, each consisting of two pipes, were built by Russia's state-controlled Gazprom to pump 110 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas a year to Germany under the Baltic Sea. Three of the pipes were ruptured by unexplained blasts in September, and one of the Nord Stream 2 pipes remains intact. Engie (ENGIE.PA), Gasunie (GSUNI.UL) and Wintershall DEA (WINT.UL) (BASFn.DE) - stakeholders in Nord Stream AG, the operator of Nord Stream 1 - declined to comment. The similar-sized Nord Stream 2 had been completed in September 2021 as tensions with Russia were growing and ran in trouble as Germany's regulators refused to certify it.

☆ WTA roundup: Katie Volynets escapes 5-0, third-set hole
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 2 - Down 5-0 and a match point in the third set, the United States' Katie Volynets rallied to upset third-seeded Anastasia Potapova of Russia 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 on Wednesday in the second round of the ATX Open in Austin, Texas. Volynets heated up while winning the last seven games, as she lost just one point total in the final three games. Abierto GNP SegurosThird-seeded Donna Vekic of Croatia needed just 80 minutes to rout the United States' Emma Navarro 6-3, 6-2 in the second round at Monterrey, Mexico. Fifth-seeded Lin Zhu of China registered a 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-3 win over Canada's Rebecca Marino, and Belgium's Ysaline Bonaventure topped Russia's Kamilla Rakhimova 7-6 (2), 1-6, 6-3. In the last match of the night, Slovakia's Anna Karolina Schmiedlova was scheduled to oppose the United States' Caroline Dolehide.

[1/5] An employee prepares online grocery orders in the storage area of Czech online grocer Rohlik Group in Prague, Czech Republic February 1, 2023. HUGE GROWTH POTENTIAL Rohlik, founded in 2014, leads the Czech market by mainly targeting customers in big cities through its string of distribution warehouses. "Competition is still mainly driven by stationary retail but a small number of online grocery players are gearing up in each market to become leading e-grocery platforms." KOSIK TURNS EASTAs Rohlik bets on Germany, Kosik is looking eastward, entering the Slovak market and expanding in Bulgaria. CEO Ivan Utesil said the company would also seek to cut into Czech market share by capitalising on its tie-in with German wholesaler Metro (B4B.DE) in some regional areas.

☆ Ukraine's economy stabilizes after shock of war
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Olena Harmash | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

The economy shrank by a third last year, the largest fall since Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine's largest steel mill, said its production was currently at about 25% of pre-war levels amid electricity blackouts. Ukraine's central bank predicts GDP will grow by 0.3% this year, while the economy ministry forecasts 3.2% growth. The agreement saved Ukraine's agriculture, which accounted for about 12% of GDP and some 40% of overall exports before the war. The steel sector, a key pillar of the economy, is among the hardest hit.

☆ Russia halts pipeline oil supplies to Poland, PKN Orlen CEO says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WARSAW, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Russia has halted supplies of oil to Poland via the Druzhba pipeline, Daniel Obajtek, chief executive officer of Polish refiner PKN Orlen (PKN.WA), said on Saturday. PKN Orlen said it could fully supply its refineries via sea and that the halt in pipeline supplies would not impact deliveries of gasoline and diesel to clients. The pipeline, which supplies oil to Poland and Germany, as well as to Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia, was excluded from sanctions to help countries with limited options for alternative deliveries. Following the invasion of Ukraine and before the EU embargoed seaborne supplies from Russia, Orlen stopped buying Russian oil and fuels via the sea. Its capacity tops volumes that can be processed by Polish refineries and is in part used to supply oil to refineries in eastern Germany that are linked to Druzhba.

After Russia invaded Ukraine, the West formed what looked like an overwhelming global coalition: 141 countries supported a United Nations measure demanding that Russia unconditionally withdraw. South Korea Indonesia Israel Thailand Japan Saudi Arabia Philippines Afghanistan CambodiaBy contrast, Russia seemed isolated. Eritrea “Russian actions are being distorted” North Korea Russia Belarus Syria Eritrea “Russian actions are being distorted” North Korea Russia Belarus SyriaBut the West never won over as much of the world as it initially seemed. But like many other African countries, South Africa appears careful to balance its growing ties with Russia against maintaining a relationship with the West. Others that provided Ukraine with military support have declined to impose economic sanctions on Russia.

WHO IS INVESTIGATING WAR CRIMES IN UKRAINE? Ukrainian war crimes prosecutors are working with mobile justice teams supported by international legal experts and forensic teams. A total of 296 individuals have been charged with war crimes. War crimes can be defined under customary international law or national law. A number of mostly European states have universal jurisdiction laws that allow them to prosecute Ukrainian war crimes.

☆ Hundreds of foreign soldiers to help train Ukrainian troops in Germany, general says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Marlow's Special Training Command (STC) is part of a European Union military mission set up in November to train up to 30,000 Ukrainian troops in various skills to help Kyiv fight off Russia's year-old invasion. Courses in various European countries range from basic training to the operation of modern battle tanks such as the Leopard 2, air defence systems, rocket launchers and howitzers. Poland is another major training hub while Spain, France, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Italy are also running courses. Beyond the EU mission, U.S. and British troops are training Ukrainian troops in Europe as well. Marlow said he was impressed by the quick wits, skills and commitment of the Ukrainian troops.

☆ Biden, Putin display their alliances with Ukraine war backdrop
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Washington is concerned Beijing could provide material support for Moscow's war in Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24 last year and has become the biggest land conflict in Europe since World War Two. Not just for Ukraine, but for the freedom of democracies throughout Europe and around the world," Biden said. In two speeches last September Putin indicated that he would, if needed, use nuclear weapons to defend Russia. "We have heard implicit threats to use nuclear weapons. The so-called tactical use of nuclear weapons is utterly unacceptable.

"One year ago, the world was bracing for the fall of Kyiv," Biden said at the Warsaw Royal Castle Gardens as the crowd waved Polish flags. "Well I've just come from a visit to Kyiv and I can report Kyiv stands strong, Kyiv stands proud, it stands tall and most important, it stands free." "One year into this war, Putin no longer doubts the strength of our coalition, but he still doubts our conviction. U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in Kyiv, Ukraine on February 20, 2023. "Tonight I speak once more again to the people of Russia: The United States and the people of Europe do not seek to control or destroy Russia," Biden said.

☆ Eleven EU countries urge 'great caution' in loosening state aid rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Gabriela Baczynska | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BRUSSELS, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Eleven European Union countries urged "great caution" in relaxing the bloc's state aid rules in a bid to support Europe's green industry in a global race, saying that risked damaging competition inside the bloc, a document showed. The Commission proposed easing EU restrictions on state aid for investments in renewable energy or decarbonising industry, partly in response to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act. "EU state aid rules should be designed taking into account the value added at the level of EU as a whole. EU state aid rules should protect the level playing field on the EU internal market," it said. The European Commission initially also proposed creating a special fund meant to help poorer EU countries dole out more state aid.

☆ Factbox: Will Ukraine get Western fighter jets and what are the challenges?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday several Western countries were ready to provide Kyiv with aircraft to defeat Russia's invasion. Ukraine has been asking allies to provide modern fighter jets - dubbed "wings for freedom" in Zelenskiy's speech to British lawmakers this week - to replace its ageing fleet of Soviet MiG and Sukhoi planes. WILL UKRAINE GET THE FIGHTER JETS? Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson did not rule out sending fighter jets but played down expectations, saying the issue was not on Stockholm's agenda at the moment. The Kremlin has said that Western countries would be moving towards direct conflict with Russia if they send jets.

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