The sanctioned oil tankers have transported over $24 billion in cargo since 2024, according to Downing Street. The U.K. has now sanctioned more shadow fleet vessels than any other country.
Washington and its partners are considering additional sanctions if the parties do not observe a ceasefire, with political and technical negotiations between Europe and the U.S. intensifying since last week, Reuters' source said.
The Kyiv Independent’s contributor Ignatius Ivlev-Yorke spent a day with a mobile team from the State Emergency Service in Nikopol in the south of Ukraine as they responded to relentless drone, artillery, and mortar strikes from Russian forces just across the Dnipro River. Nikopol is located across from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Enerhodar.
Peter Szijjarto's announcement came after Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) allegedly dismantled a Hungarian military intelligence network operating in Zakarpattia Oblast.
Moscow and Washington discuss the potential resumption of Russian gas supplies to Europe, among other issues related to the peaceful settlement of Russia's war in Ukraine, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov confirmed to the Russian state-run Interfax news agency.
"This is a historic decision, as weapons for Ukraine will be purchased at the expense of the proceeds from frozen Russian assets through the European Peace Fund," Denys Shmyhal said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is arriving in Brasilia, Brazil, on Feb. 20, 2024, for the upcoming meeting of G20 foreign ministers. (Ton Molina/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will attend a summit of foreign ministers from the Group of 20 nations (G20) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, scheduled to begin on Feb. 21.
Blinken and Lavrov previously met in person at the G20 summit in India in March 2023.
The full-scale war in Ukraine and ongoing fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza are expected to be chief on the agenda at the upcoming summit.
A second G20 summit of heads of state is also scheduled to be held in Brazil in November 2024.
There has been considerable discussion about the prospect of Russian President Vladimir Putin traveling to Brazil in light of the decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in March 2023 to issue a warrant for his arrest in relation to the deportation of Ukrainian children.
Brazil is a party to the ICC's Rome Statute and is therefore obliged to detain Putin, but Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in September 2023 that he would leave the decision up to the judiciary.
It is unclear if Putin plans to attend.
According to Reuters and other media outlets, there are no plans for Blinken and Lavrov to hold official talks, but an informal discussion may still be possible.
The U.S. State Department's press release about Blinken's travel plans does not mention a potential meeting with Lavrov.
The previous G20 summit in September 2023 concluded without a unanimous condemnation of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. Several G20 countries, including India and Brazil, maintain close ties with Russia and are hesitant to explicitly take sides in the conflict.
This year's meeting comes at a crucial time for Ukraine as U.S. aid has been stalled in Congress for months, and Russia has increasingly gained the initiative on the battlefield, illustrated by Russia's capture of the critical front-line city of Avdiivka on Feb. 17.
Nate Ostiller is a former News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. He works on special projects as a researcher and writer for The Red Line Podcast, covering Eastern Europe and Eurasia, and focused primarily on digital misinformation, memory politics, and ethnic conflict. Nate has a Master’s degree in Russian and Eurasian Studies from the University of Glasgow, and spent two years studying abroad at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine. Originally from the USA, he is currently based in Tbilisi, Georgia.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
