REVIEW UKRAINE. Deaths and injuries in Russian attacks on Kherson and Kharkiv – EU countries want stricter import rules for Ukrainian agriculture | War Ukraine and Russia

The EU countries want to further tighten the rules for the import of Ukrainian agricultural products. They want to reduce the amount of a number of products that can be sent to the European Union duty-free. The Member States will now try to reach agreement on this with the European Parliament.

The governments of the 27 EU member states and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement last week, but Poland, France and a number of other countries felt that this did not protect their own farmers enough. That is why the EU ambassadors of the member states have now agreed that they want to slightly reduce the quotas for eggs, poultry and other agricultural products from Ukraine, say EU diplomats. If the country wants to export more, it must pay import duties.

The tightening will cost Ukraine around 330 million euros per year, EU sources estimate. According to the original plan, the damage to the country, which is constantly teetering on the brink of bankruptcy due to the war, would be 86 million euros lower.

Agricultural superpower Ukraine has been allowed to export to the European Union without tariffs since June 2022. The EU wants to extend, but weaken, this measure, which expires in June. In this way, she wants to respond to European farmers who complain that they are being outcompeted. The new (and final) extension would apply until June next year.

Some EU countries, such as Hungary, also insisted on introducing a limit on duty-free imports of wheat from Ukraine. But there will be no such ’emergency brake’ for wheat under the new proposal.

The quotas for agricultural products such as sugar, honey, corn, oats and groats were originally going to be adjusted to imports in 2022 and 2023. At that time, a large part of exports already went to the EU, because Russia, for example, blocked the Black Sea. The EU countries have now agreed to also take into account exports in the second half of 2021, when Ukraine exported much less to the EU.

The EU countries must now negotiate with the European Parliament again. “We will know more about their side after the Easter weekend,” said an EU diplomat. There is now urgent need to complete the adjustments before June. If that doesn’t work, all import duties would apply again and Ukraine would be completely in a bad way. But the EU source is in good spirits, because “this new compromise is a step towards” what the European Parliament wanted.

In the Ukrainian Oblast Cherson is at least one death fallen in new air raids by the Russian army. According to the governor of Kherson, a 61-year-old woman was killed in her home in a drone attack on the village of Mychajlivka, on the Dnieper River (Dnipro).

Also in Kharkiv suffered one death, but also sixteen injuries fallen, says Oleh Synyehubov, the region’s governor. “According to preliminary data, the enemy has Kharkiv hit for the first time with a large-calibre guided missile”the governor said.

Synyehubov had previously said that three people aged 55, 56 and 64 had been injured in nighttime bombings by Russia. A 62-year-old was injured in a drone attack.

Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, close to the border with Russia, is under Russian fire almost every day.

A total of 13 Russian drones attacked several Ukrainian oblasts on the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, the Ukrainian Air Force said. Ten were intercepted by Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses over Kharkiv, Sumy and Kiev.

China must put pressure on Russia to “push the war in Ukraine in the right direction.” Resigning Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte asked President and party leader Xi Jinping this during a meeting in the Chinese capital Beijing.

According to Rutte, the Chinese government has “enormous influence” on Russia, he said in a conversation with the media. For him, the conflict in Ukraine was one of the main themes in the consultations with Xi. He said he wanted to make it clear to the party leader that a Russian victory threatens the security of the whole of Europe.

China, a close ally of Moscow, has not condemned the invasion of Ukraine. Chinese companies also circumvent Western sanctions against Russia and supply so-called ‘dual use’ goods. These are goods that are suitable for both civil and military use.

The Ukrainian security services (SBU) said on Wednesday that they have arrested two people suspected of being Russian agents. The two would location of sensitive military targets to the armed forces in Moscow.

“After a special operation two FSB agents arrested in Kiev and Odessa” the SBU said in a statement. “They tried to identify the locations of Ukrainian forces and then send the occupiers the coordinates to adjust the Russian airstrikes,” the statement added.

The two suspected Russian agents “were arrested red-handed while they potential targets for the occupiers“, said the SBU. One of the suspects photographed a thermal power plant, apparently to help Russia attack Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, the same source said.

The two men have been charged with collaboration and could face life in prison.

Several people in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle believe there is no link between the attack in Moscow that killed 139 people and Ukraine. This is what the American news agency ‘Bloomberg’ writes.

Four Bloomberg sources with close ties to the Kremlin say Putin was present at discussions during which it was made clear that there is no evidence of Ukraine’s involvement at the attack. Kiev itself also denies that it had anything to do with the attack.

Putin himself, however, continues to point to Ukraine as the culprit. Yesterday he admitted that “radical Islamists” were behind the attack, but he said it was no coincidence “that the perpetrators fled towards Ukraine”.

“Putin continues to try to use the tragedy in Moscow to rally the Russians behind the war in Ukraine,” a Bloomberg source said.

Another Russian warship has been hit, the Ukrainian Navy spokesman said. Dmytro Pletenchuk said this morning on national television in an announcement that landing ship Konstantin Olshansky has been affected by one Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missile.

The ship originally belonged to Ukraine, but was captured by the Russians in 2014 during the occupation of Crimea. Most of the Ukrainian Navy then disappeared. “Right now the ship is no longer ready for combatPletenchuk said.

The reason Ukraine chose the Konstantin Olshansky as a target is that it has been renovated and prepared for use against Ukraine. In addition, the reconnaissance ship Ivan Choers was also hit, according to a statement from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.

It is not possible to independently verify the spokesperson’s claim. Russia has not yet responded.

Ukraine conducted in recent months several successful attacks out on ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Sea drones or missiles were used in each case. Two other landing ships were hit on Sunday.