Ukraine war: 'This is a dreadful mistake' - head of UK armed forces says Russia has 'strategically lost' - Sky News

Russia has "strategically lost" the war in Ukraine and is a "more diminished power", the head of the UK's armed forces has said.

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said Vladimir Putin had used 25% of Russia's army for only "tiny" gains.

And although Russia may achieve "tactical successes" in the coming weeks, he said any notion the war had been a success was "nonsense".

War at 'pivotal moment' in Donbas - Ukraine latest updates

Sir Tony, who is the UK's chief of defence staff, said Russia was running out of troops and advanced missiles and would never be able to take over all of Ukraine.

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His comments come as Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, told Sky News it is "highly likely" that the UK will add many hundreds more troops to a NATO force in Estonia tasked with further deterring Russia.

Sir Tony said: "This is a dreadful mistake by Russia. Russia will never take control of Ukraine.

"Russia has strategically lost already. NATO is stronger, Finland and Sweden are looking to join."

He said Moscow had been forced to give up its objectives of taking over most Ukrainian cities and was now engaged in a tactical battle in which fighting is "tough".

Image: Admiral Sir Tony Radakin

Read more:
Ben Wallace talks to Sky's Deborah Haynes
Ambulances 'covered in blood' and 'nothing is safe' in Donbas
Is Putin really ill? Why are there rumours about his health?

Sir Tony said: "The Russian machine is grinding away, and it's gaining a couple of - two, three, five - kilometres every day.

"And that's tough for Ukraine, but this is going to be a long fight. And we're supporting Ukraine, Ukraine has shown how courageous it really is.

"And Russia has vulnerabilities because it's running out of people, it's running out of hi-tech missiles."

Image: How things stand in East Ukraine on day 113 of the invasion

He continued: "President Putin has used about 25% of his army's power to gain a tiny amount of territory and 50,000 people either dead or injured."

Russia is now a "more diminished power" diplomatically and economically than several months ago, he said.

"Any notion that this is a success for Russia is nonsense. Russia is failing.

"It might be getting some tactical successes over the last few weeks. And those might continue for the next few weeks.

"But Russia is losing strategically."

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2:40

EU leaders visit war-torn Ukraine

Key developments in Ukraine:
• EU leaders support Ukraine's bid to join the bloc
• UN says deaths resulting from the battle for the key port city of Mariupol are likely to be "in the thousands" and "gross violations" of international human rights law occurred
• At least four people were killed and seven wounded after an airstrike hit the eastern city of Lysychansk
• A total of 660 Ukrainian families in England are either homeless or at risk of homelessness after their accommodation was unavailable, it has been revealed

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0:45

European leaders support Ukraine's EU candidacy

Sir Tony said he was in touch with his Ukrainian counterpart, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who recognised they were in a "tough battle" in the east.

The defence secretary admitted on Thursday that Russia outnumbered Ukraine in artillery fire by 20 to one in some areas.

But Mr Wallace told Sky's defence and security correspondent Deborah Haynes that, because allies were starting to give Ukraine long-range artillery and rocket systems, they would soon be able to make "significant progress in the east of the country".

Sir Tony paid tribute to Ukrainians. "They're courageous people," he said. "They're ingenious people in terms of how they're taking the fight to the Russians.

"But they're also honest people, with saying actually they need some help."

He said the UK would continue its support for Ukraine and "we're in this for the long haul".

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4:49

Day in the life of Ukrainian medic

Earlier this week Mykhailo Podolyak, Ukrainian presidential adviser, urged the West to help his country achieve "heavy weapons parity" with Russia in the war, calling for more heavy artillery, rocket systems and vehicles.

Sir Tony said he was "wary" of phrases such as parity as no single capability would determine the outcome of the war.

The UK is providing MLRS rocket systems and has recently delivered 120 armoured fighting vehicles, he said.

"We've been providing anti-tank weapons, there are other elements that we're providing and that will continue," he said.

"But it's the mass that's provided by the whole of the international community - and it's putting that alongside the courage and the resolve of the Ukrainian armed forces to fight for their territory.

"That is where the real parity lies, and where the real strength of Ukraine lies."

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2022-06-17 05:28:10Z
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Trump told repeatedly plan to overturn election was illegal, January 6 committee hears - Financial Times

Donald Trump pressured his vice-president Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election despite having been told repeatedly that doing so would be illegal, a Congressional committee has heard.

Members of the bipartisan panel investigating the attack on the US Congress were told on Thursday that Pence made clear his opposition to the former president’s plan to block the certification of the election results, including in a heated telephone call on the morning of January 6.

Nevertheless, Trump continued to insist that Pence could and might refuse to certify the election, helping to incite the mob that stormed the US Capitol after Pence announced he would not do so.

Pete Aguilar, a Democratic member of the committee, said: “Despite the fact that the vice-president consistently told the president that he did not have and would not want the power to decide the outcome of the presidential election, Donald Trump continued to pressure the vice-president, both publicly and privately.”

The hearing, which was the third in a series of public sessions, focused almost entirely on the role of the vice-president before and during the January 6 attack.

Members showed how Pence refused to bow to pressure from Trump not to certify the results, even after he had to be evacuated from the Capitol building as a mob of the president’s supporters stormed it demanding his execution. Aguilar revealed that some of the rioters got within 40 feet of the vice-president as he was being evacuated.

Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chair of the committee, said: “We are fortunate for Mr Pence’s courage. On January 6, our democracy came dangerously close to catastrophe. That courage put [Pence] in tremendous danger.”

In the weeks before January 6, Trump had been advised by a John Eastman, a constitutional scholar, that the vice-president had the power to simply reject the results during a Congressional session on that day.

Others around the former president vehemently disagreed. Eric Herschmann, one of Trump’s lawyers, called the idea “completely crazy”, arguing it would lead to riots on the streets.

Herschmann said he told Eastman at the time: “You’re going to turn around and tell 78-plus-million people in this country that your theory is this is how you’re going to invalidate their votes because you think election was stolen.”

“‘They’re not going to tolerate that,’ I said. ‘You’re going to cause riots in the streets,’” he added.

Witnesses said that several others in the former president’s legal team agreed, as well as his chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Greg Jacob, one of Pence’s former legal advisers, told the committee that even Eastman conceded in private conversations that the US Supreme Court would vote 9-0 against the theory if it were ever tested in court.

Members also saw evidence suggesting that in a draft letter to Trump written in October 2020, Eastman himself rebutted the theory, arguing: “Nowhere [in the constitution] does it suggest that the president of the Senate [the vice-president], gets to make the determination on his own.”

They also heard that Pence himself decided at an early stage such an attempt would be illegal. Marc Short, Pence’s former chief of staff, said he had made his position clear that “he wouldn’t want that power bestowed upon any one person”.

Pence repeated his position during a call with Trump on the morning of January 6.

In response, said Nick Luna, Trump’s former personal assistant, Trump had called Pence a “wimp”. Julie Radford, the former chief of staff to Ivanka Trump, said the former president’s daughter had told her that her father used “the p-word” about his vice-president.

Even after that call, Trump continued to insist that Pence could overturn the election, and his frustration with his vice-president helped incite the mob which then stormed the Capitol building, members argued.

The committee played video of rioters screaming “Hang Mike Pence” after he announced he would certify the results.

Michael Luttig, a judge who also gave Pence legal advice at the time, argued that had the vice-president caved to Trump’s demands, it would have thrown the country into a constitutional crisis.

“The declaration of Donald Trump as the next president would have plunged America into what I believe would have been tantamount to a revolution within a constitutional crisis in America,” he said.

In a video preview of the hearing, Herschmann recalled telling Eastman the day after January 6: “Get a great effing criminal defence lawyer, you’re going to need it.”

The committee also revealed that Eastman emailed Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s lawyers, a few days after the attack asking to be granted a presidential pardon.

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2022-06-16 20:23:35Z
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European leaders back Ukraine's bid to apply for EU membership - Financial Times

The leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Romania pledged on Thursday to back Ukraine’s bid to apply for EU membership after travelling to Kyiv and meeting president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to show support in the face of Russia’s invasion.

“Europe is at your side and will stay there for as long as it takes,” French president Emmanuel Macron told Zelenskyy at a news conference, condemning Russia for “war, destruction and chaos” and the “barbarity” committed in the Kyiv suburb of Irpin, which the leaders visited earlier in the day.

“All four of us support the immediate granting of EU candidate status for Ukraine,” Macron said ahead of an EU summit next week that will consider the application and is expected to impose conditions on Kyiv including improving the rule of law and fighting corruption.

Macron also pledged to continue sending weapons to help Ukraine’s war effort and announced the addition of a further six Caesar howitzers on top of the 12 already offered. The EU leaders also called for Russia to end its blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports to allow the export of grain needed to ease a global food crisis.

Italian prime minister Mario Draghi said Zelenskyy understood that “the path from [EU] candidate to member is a path, not a point. It is a road that will have to see profound reforms of Ukrainian society”.

He added: “Every day, the Ukrainian people defend the values of democracy and freedom that are the basis of the European project. We cannot delay this process. We must create a community that unites Kyiv with Rome, Paris, Berlin and all the other countries that share this project.”

Germany’s Olaf Scholz also emphasised the importance of Ukraine meeting the criteria for membership and said the EU should at the same time open the door to the states of the western Balkans. He and his EU colleagues, he said, had come to Kyiv with a “clear message . . . that Ukraine belongs to the European family”. 

Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis also made the trip by train from Poland to Kyiv. The day before he had hosted Macron who travelled to Romania to visit French troops deployed for Nato.

EU leaders in Kyiv’s Mariinsky Palace. From left: Italy’s Mario Draghi, Olaf Scholz from Germany, Zelenskyy, Macron and Romania’s Klaus Iohannis © Ludovic Marin/Pool/AFP/Getty Images

Zelenskyy welcomed the pledges from his visitors, saying that Ukraine becoming a candidate to join the EU could “historically strengthen Europe” and insisted on the need for extra weapons from the west.

“We expect further supplies, foremost heavy weaponry, modern multiple launch rocket systems, anti-missile defence systems,” he said. “Each batch of such supplies saves the lives of Ukrainians. And each day of delays or putting off such decisions gives Russian soldiers the chance to kill Ukrainians, or the opportunity to destroy our cities.

“The faster we get such weaponry, the faster we can liberate our lands,” Zelenskyy said. “Russia does not want peace.”

In Moscow, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said the western supply of arms to Ukraine was “futile” and would cause the country further harm.

The European Commission is expected to recommend on Friday that Ukraine should be granted EU candidate status, a first step towards membership.

Soon after the European leaders reached the capital, air raid sirens rang out in the city and across Ukraine, warning of possible missile strikes.

Russia’s armed forces have conducted almost daily strikes on Ukrainian military sites and infrastructure since president Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of the country on February 24.

Scholz said he had invited Zelenskyy to take part in the summit of G7 leaders later this month in Bavaria.

The damage in Irpin said “a lot about the brutality of Russia’s war of aggression, which is all about destruction and conquest”, he said. “The destruction we’ve seen here . . . should be an admonishment to us to act.”

The visit comes as the leaders of the eurozone’s three largest economies have been accused by some in Kyiv, the Baltic countries and Poland of being too accommodating to Russia — accusations that Paris, Berlin and Rome have denied.

Before his trip to Kyiv, Macron, who has been criticised for urging allies not to “humiliate” Russia, insisted he was in constant touch with Zelenskyy about the war and reminded Nato allies that “we are not waging war against Russia”.

“The only desirable outcome of the conflict is either a Ukrainian military victory or at some point a negotiation because there will have been a ceasefire, which could allow for an agreement between Ukraine and Russia,” he said on Wednesday.

US president Joe Biden said on Wednesday that the US would provide an additional $1bn in security assistance to Kyiv, including artillery, coastal defence and advanced rocket systems.

Additional reporting by Amy Kazmin in Rome

Video: Volodymyr Zelenskyy: ‘No one is humiliating Ukraine. They are killing us’

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2022-06-16 16:24:40Z
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Russian gas flows to Europe fall, hindering bid to refill stores - Reuters

• Summary
• Companies

• Nord Stream 1 pipeline capacity down to 40%
• Europe's gas price jumps up to 30% after disruption news
• Gazprom blames cuts on equipment delays from Canada
• Freeport LNG terminal in U.S. offline until September

LONDON, June 16 (Reuters) - Russian gas supply to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline fell further on Thursday and Moscow said more delays in repairs could lead to suspending all flows, putting a brake on Europe's race to refill its gas inventories.

The faltering flows came as the leaders of Germany, Italy and France visited Ukraine, which is pressing for swifter weapons deliveries to battle invading Russian forces and wants support for Kyiv's bid to join the European Union. read more

Russia's state-controlled Gazprom said it was reducing gas supply for a second time in as many days via Nord Stream 1, which runs under the Baltic to Germany. The latest move cuts supply to just 40% of the pipeline's capacity.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said reductions in supply were not premeditated and related to maintenance issues, a reference to earlier comments saying Russia was unable to secure the return of equipment sent to Canada for repairs. read more

Germany said Russia's excuse was technically "unfounded" and was instead aimed at driving up gas prices. Italy said Moscow might be use the issue to exert political pressure. read more

Dutch wholesale gas prices , the European benchmark, jumped around 30% on Thursday afternoon.

Russia's ambassador to the European Union told state news agency RIA Novosti flows via the pipeline could be completely suspended because of problems in repairing turbines in Canada.

Alexey Miller, the chief executive of Gazprom, the state-controlled company with a monopoly on Russian gas exports by pipeline, said Western sanctions made it impossible to secure the return of equipment from Canada for the pipeline's Portovaya compressor station. read more

EUROPE RACES TO REFILL STORAGE

Nord Stream 1 has capacity to pump about 55 billion cubic metres (bcm) a year to the European Union, which last year imported about 140 bcm of gas from Russia via pipelines.

Germany, like other European countries, is racing to refill its gas storage facilities so they are 80% full by October and 90% by November before winter arrives. Stores are 52% full now.

Cutting flows through Nord Stream 1 would make that job harder, the head of the Germany energy regulator said.

"We could perhaps get through the summer as the heating season is over. But it is imperative that we fill the storage facilities to get through the winter," Klaus Mueller told Thursday's edition of Rheinische Post daily.

Uniper (UN01.DE), Germany's biggest importer of Russian gas, said supplies were down a quarter on agreed volumes but it could fill missing volumes from other sources. Power producer RWE (RWEG.DE) said it had seen restrictions in the past two days.

Slovakia's state-owned gas importer SPP said it expected Thursday's Russian gas deliveries to be reduced by about 30%, while Czech power utility CEZ (CEZP.PR) said it had seen a similar fall but was filling the gap from other sources.

The European Union aims to ensure gas storage facilities across the 27-nation bloc are 80% full by November. read more

The latest reduction in supply could mean northwest European storage only 88% full by the end of October - 1 bcm less than planned - instead of 90%, analysts at Goldman Sachs said.

DRAWING UP CONTINGENCY PLANS

Germany is not alone in facing falling supplies.

Austria's OMV (OMVV.VI) said Gazprom informed it of reduced deliveries, France's Engie (ENGIE.PA) said flows had down but clients were not affected, while Italy's Eni (ENI.MI) said it would receive 65% of the volumes it had requested from Gazprom.

The Italian government said all possible measures were in place to deal with the situation if gas supply cuts from Russia continued in coming days. Other European countries have also drawn up contingency plans.

Adding to the challenge, Nord Stream 1 will shut completely during the pipeline's annual maintenance on July 11-21.

Norway, Europe's second biggest exporter behind Russia, has been pushing up production to help the European Union towards it target of ending reliance on Russian fossil fuels by 2027.

Britain's Centrica (CNA.L) signed a deal with Norway's Equinor (EQNR.OL) for extra gas supplies to the United Kingdom for the next three winters. Britain does not rely on Russian gas and can also export to Europe via pipelines.

European states have also boosted liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports but Europe has limited LNG import capacity and the already tight LNG market has faced additional challenges with disruptions to U.S. LNG production. read more

A fire last week at a U.S. LNG export plant in Texas, operated by Freeport LNG, means the plant will be offline until September and will operate only partially from then until the end of 2022.

The facility, which accounts for about 20% of U.S. LNG exports, has been a major supplier to European buyers.

"There is risk of further delay, in our view," analysts at investment bank Jefferies said, adding that regulators need to approve the restart while two investigations were ongoing into the cause of the LNG leak at the plant.

Reporting by Reuters, Giuseppe Fonte in Rome, Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich in Vienna, Jan Lopatka in Prague, Madelaine Chambers in Berlin, Nina Chestney in London; Writing by Nina Chestney; Editing by Jason Neely and Edmund Blair

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2022-06-16 14:24:00Z
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Is Putin really ill? Expert says he is probably 'a hypochondriac' - and uses Botox frequently - Sky News

Rumours constantly circulate about Vladimir Putin's health - but is there anything to back up the claims?

During a live session of questions and answers on Sky News with defence and security analyst, Professor Michael Clarke, one viewer asked: Is Putin really ill or is it just wishful thinking?

Mr Clarke said speculation about Mr Putin's health will "circulate", and people often ask "has he got cancer, has he got pancreatic cancer, has he got Parkinson's disease?"

"When you see him in these clips that we're seeing increasingly frequently now that COVID is over and he's now coming out of the shadows, where he's been for over two years, and he's making it clear that he's in control - he looks alright.

"I've spoken to a number of people who say you cannot detect Parkinson's disease from the way he walks, you cannot detect symptoms of cancer just by looking at photographs."

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He said there is "no convincing evidence".

Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, denied there were any concerns over Mr Putin's health when he was interviewed on French television at the end of May.

He said "you can watch him on screens, read and listen to his performances" and "I don't think that sane people can see signs of some kind of illness or poor health".

Rumours about his health are sparked by observers who have speculated about how Mr Putin has looked during meetings, including whether he is gripping the table in pain - or that he has a puffy face which could show evidence of steroid use.

'I suspect that he's only a hypochondriac'

Mr Clarke said: "On 7 October he will be 70. He is known to hit the Botox quite heavily, I always say that he's trying to embalm himself while he's still alive - he does take a lot of Botox.

"He moves around with doctors, there's known to be a little team of doctors who are never far away, and it's said that he leaves meetings at frequent intervals to go and consult with somebody.

"I suspect that he's only a hypochondriac, to be honest."

Read more:
Why Russia's leader is so fixated on taking Ukraine

What if the Russian leader does become ill?

"If he is ill, or becomes ill, that would be one way out for Russia to say that the president has stepped down and the war will now be prosecuted by Nikolai Patrushev - who's every bit as nasty as he is," said Mr Clarke.

"At least it would be a change of face which the West might then be able to do something with, but that's just a side possibility, really."

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2022-06-15 10:52:19Z
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The next hole in UK’s Rwanda asylum plan: Conflict in Congo - POLITICO Europe

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LONDON/BUKAVU, Congo — Lawyers aren’t the only obstacle to Boris Johnson’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

The U.K. prime minister will soon also have to grapple with the fallout of a dramatically escalating regional conflict that Rwanda is accused of stoking in the east of neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Britain’s first planned flight transporting refugees more than 4,000 miles away to Kigali was ultimately canceled on Tuesday night after an 11th-hour intervention from the European Court of Human Rights. Undeterred by farcical scenes of passengers being pulled from the plane one-by-one in the minutes before take-off was scheduled, Johnson’s government is vowing to press ahead with its highly contentious new migration policy.

Britain’s portrayal of Rwanda as a safe haven to which anyone the U.K. government determines to have entered illegally — like undocumented refugees crossing the English Channel — can be deported to apply for asylum has already run into strong headwinds from critics, who point out the African nation has a dismal record on political and media freedoms.

Those fears about Kigali’s suitability as Britain’s partner are now only being further compounded as Congolese officials and a Nobel laureate accuse Rwanda of being behind an upsurge of violence in eastern Congo that is forcing thousands to leave their homes.

Congo said this week that Rwanda-backed M23 rebels and Rwandan defense forces occupied the Congolese town of Bunagana. Sylvain Ekenge, a Congolese general from North Kivu province, described the attack as “nothing more nor less than an invasion” of Congo.

Denis Mukwege, a gynecologist who won a Nobel prize for his work combating sexual violence in conflict zones, said an increasing number of victims were heading to his clinic in eastern Congo and pointed the finger squarely at Kigali. “Rwanda is hoping that everyone will look at the Ukraine war and that it will be left alone here,” he told POLITICO at the Panzi hospital in Bukavu.

Michela Wrong, a journalist and author who has worked extensively in the region, accused both the Rwandan and British governments of “breathtaking” hypocrisy.

“On the one hand you have Rwanda opening its arms to refugees and being relentlessly hyped as a safe haven by [Home Secretary] Priti Patel and [Prime Minister] Boris Johnson; on the other hand you have a rebel group which has always been regarded as a Rwandan proxy going on the attack and sending tens of thousands of villagers fleeing their homes in Congo and Uganda in the space of a few weeks. It’s jaw-dropping,” she said.

Andy Slaughter, a senior parliamentarian in Britain’s opposition Labour Party, condemned the U.K. government for attempting to fly refugees to a third nation and added that deportation to Rwanda “has additional risks given its questionable human rights record and alleged involvement in conflict in the region.”

Rwanda repeatedly denies both accusations linking it to the M23 rebels and that it sends troops into its neighbor’s territory, but international pressure is growing. In comments that were widely viewed as a signal to Rwanda, Belgium, which is a significant diplomatic player in the region because of its colonial history in Congo, last week urged regional countries to take responsibility in the conflict.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo told reporters in Kinshasa that Congo, like Ukraine, has the right to defend its border and even went as far as to say Belgium was ready to take up a role in the conflict in eastern Congo.

President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Felix Tshisekedi (C) greets Prime Minister of Belgium Alexander De Croo (C-L) as Belgium’s King Philippe (2nd R) and Belgium’s Queen Mathilde (R) greet official upon their arrival at the N’djili International Airport in Kinshasa on June 7, 2022 | Arsene Mpiana/AFP via Getty Images)

His comments followed a plea from Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi, who said “there can be no development without security” and stressed that Congo must “ensure our national defense and security.” In outrage at what it sees as Rwanda’s involvement, Congo has summoned the Rwandan ambassador and halted flights to Congo by Rwanda’s national airline.

Rwandan government spokesperson Yolande Makolo said the fighting “is an internal Congolese conflict” but accused Congolese groups of shelling Rwandan territory.

“While it would be legitimate for Rwanda to respond to the repetitive attacks … on our territory, Rwanda is not involved in the ongoing fighting in eastern DRC and has no intention of being drawn into an internal matter of the DRC. Rwanda wants to collaborate with neighboring countries for a sustainable solution to insecurity in our region,” she said.

Conservative MP and former International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said Rwanda had legitimate self-defense concerns, and argued links between the government and M23 rebels are not as clear now as in the past.

He said it was “generous” of the Rwandans to agree to take in refugees from the U.K., but blasted the British government for going ahead with a plan he insisted would not prevent people-smuggling and would end up being expensive for British taxpayers. 

Britain is paying Rwanda £120 million (€138 million) to act as its partner in its new migration policy, and the main defense of the scheme from the ruling Tory Party is that it will kill the trade of profiteering people smugglers, who charge refugees a fortune to risk a perilous Channel crossing to the U.K. in a small boat.

Under the new U.K. law, migrants who enter Britain illegally or have their asylum applications rejected will be sent to Rwanda from where they can choose to apply for asylum in the east African nation or return to their country of origin. They will be given accommodation while they wait, and if accepted will be allowed to remain for five years, after which they can apply again. There is no path to return to the U.K.

A U.K. government spokesperson said the deal with Rwanda “will see those who make dangerous, illegal and unnecessary journeys to the U.K. relocated to Rwanda and, if recognized as refugees, they will be supported to build a new life there. Rwanda is a safe and secure country. No one will be relocated if it is unsafe or inappropriate for them.”

A Home Office official called on leaders in the region to increase efforts to pursue dialogue and resolve disputes.

The war between Congo and Rwanda officially ended in the early 2000s, but violence has continued in the east of Congo, leading to thousands of deaths, mostly through disease and malnutrition, and a huge flux of refugees. Conflict minerals in the region have played a major role in the strife.

Undaunted by criticism from human rights groups and church leaders, Johnson insisted to his ministers he would “get on and deliver” the deportation plan.

One man who was due to be deported on the first flight told the BBC he would “prefer to die” than be sent to Rwanda, due to concerns over its human rights record. He said he had been kidnapped and abused by human traffickers on his route to the U.K.

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2022-06-15 07:35:45Z
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ECB calls unscheduled meeting to discuss market turmoil - Financial Times

The European Central Bank has started an emergency meeting of its rate-setters, sparking speculation it could announce measures to tackle surging borrowing costs in weaker eurozone economies.

The ECB said earlier on Wednesday: “The governing council will have an ad hoc meeting on Wednesday to discuss current market conditions.” The meeting began at 11am CET.

The meeting, which comes less than a week after the rate-setting governing council’s last vote, has raised investor expectations that the central bank is preparing to announce a policy instrument to stave-off another debt crisis in the region.

Italian government bonds rallied in price following news of the planned meeting, reversing some of the recent sell-off that analysts said brought the country’s borrowing costs towards the “danger zone”.

Gilles Moec, chief economist at Axa, an insurer, said the “stakes are high” for the ECB “now that everyone is dusting off their debt sustainability spreadsheets for Italy, they probably need to go up an extra notch”.

The 10-year yield on Italian government bonds fell about 0.2 percentage points in choppy early trading on Wednesday to about 3.98 per cent, according to Tradeweb data. It had risen to almost 4.2 per cent in the previous session from just over 1 per cent at the end of 2021.

The eurozone central bank disappointed investors last Thursday with a lack of detail over when or how it would intervene in government bond markets to tackle so-called financial fragmentation, which had raised the costs of borrowing for vulnerable southern European countries more than for their northern neighbours.

Moec said investors would expect the ECB to “at least say they will launch a new instrument” as well as give more detail on how it will use flexibility in reinvesting the proceeds of maturing bonds to tackle fragmentation in eurozone bond markets.

The gap, or spread, between Italian and German borrowing costs had widened to 2.4 percentage points, double last year’s level and up from about 2 percentage points before last week’s ECB meeting, when rate-setters signalled an end to ultra-loose monetary policy by announcing plans to stop buying more bonds and start raising interest rates.

The euro reversed some of its losses, rising 0.6 per cent against the dollar to $1.047 early on Wednesday after the ECB statement was reported by newswires.

European bank shares also rose on Wednesday. The Euro Stoxx Banks index gained 3.7 per cent with big Italian lenders UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo jumping more than 6 per cent.

The meeting comes ahead of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decision on Wednesday with the market expecting the US central bank to raise rates by 0.75 percentage points.

ECB executive board member Isabel Schnabel indicated in a speech on Tuesday evening that the central bank was getting closer to the point where it would intervene in bond markets, saying “some borrowers have seen significantly larger changes in financing conditions than others since the start of the year”.

She added: “Such changes in financing conditions may constitute an impairment in the transmission of monetary policy that requires close monitoring.”

Schnabel, the ECB executive who oversees its market operations and one of the most influential voices on its board, said the central bank’s commitment to the euro had no limits. “And our track record of stepping in when needed backs up this commitment,” she added.

Analysts estimated the ECB already had an additional €200bn to spend on stressed government debt from bringing forward some reinvestments of maturing sovereign assets by up to a year.

The last time the ECB called an unscheduled board meeting was at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, when it launched a vast bond-buying scheme to counter the sharp sell-off in bonds of more vulnerable eurozone countries such as Italy.

ECB president Christine Lagarde is planning to continue with a trip to the UK on Wednesday evening to receive an honorary degree from the London School of Economics, where she is due to speak at an event.

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2022-06-15 07:24:05Z
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