Latest news with #Rosatom
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Ukraine says Russia's financial reserves may dry up in 2026
Russia has spent over half of its National Wealth Fund (NWF) during the three years of its invasion of Ukraine, says Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service. Source: Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine Details: If the current restrictions and additional measures imposed by the West are maintained, including increasing control over the circumvention of oil sanctions, the Russian Federation risks losing the last remnants of its national welfare fund as early as 2026. The report notes that the NWF's liquid assets had reached US$145 billion as of the beginning of July 2022. A year later, in July 2023, this figure had dropped to US$78 billion. On 1 May 2025, the reserves were down to only US$39 billion. Since the start of the full-scale war, the fund has reduced almost fourfold. "The average price of Brent oil is projected to be US$64 for a barrel in 2025 and US$60 in 2026. For Russia, whose budget is replenished with oil and gas revenues, such a dynamic creates critical fiscal risks," the report said. It is also pointed out that state corporation Rosatom's 2025 projects are still 80% underfunded, Russian railways is experiencing a drop in traffic, production in the mining, metallurgical, and construction sectors are falling and Russian corporations are suspending dividend payments in large numbers. "Despite this, Moscow continues to publicly demonstrate confidence in the stability of the economy. However, state-controlled propaganda that conceals the real extent of the economic downturn does not change the facts: the resource-based model of the Russian economy is losing efficiency," the Foreign Intelligence Service said. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Reuters
2 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Russia's Rosatom expects boom in foreign vessels using Arctic shipping route
MOSCOW, May 30 (Reuters) - Russia expects a 50% rise in voyages by foreign vessels using the Northern Sea Route (NSR) along its Arctic coast this year, which Moscow sees as an alternative to the Suez Canal, state-controlled nuclear energy firm Rosatom told Reuters on Friday. Rosatom runs a fleet of icebreakers and is in charge of operations along the NSR, which connects Russian ports with China during the summer months, saving vessels up to 10 days at sea compared to traveling via the Suez Canal. Moscow is promoting the route as a way of avoiding sailing close to the borders of European Union member states at a time of mounting geopolitical tensions. "There is a clear upward trend in international interest in the NSR ... In 2025, foreign companies are expected to conduct at least 1.5 times more voyages through the NSR compared to the previous year," the company told Reuters in emailed comments. As of May 27, a total of 196 applications have been submitted for vessel navigation along the NSR, including vessels sailing under foreign flags, Rosatom said, adding that summer-autumn navigation will be open from July 1 to November 30. A record volume of nearly 38 million metric tons of various goods, including oil and liquefied natural gas, was shipped along the route last year, the company said. However, the NSR presents a massive challenge for ships due to thick ice in winter, and navigation is restricted to warmer months. Long dominated by vessels managed by Russian shipping giant Sovcomflot, Azerbaijan-based Vista Vvave Shipmanagement was among companies using the NSR for the first time last year.
Euronews
4 days ago
- Business
- Euronews
Iceland should have 'skin in the game' in securing Arctic, PM says
Iceland needs to have "skin in the game" when it comes to defence and security in the High North and is looking at how to adjust its defence posture and spending accordingly, the country's prime minister said on Wednesday. "When it comes to the Arctic, this is a place where we have to step up. This is our area. We need to have skin in the game when it comes to the Arctic and have an opinion on that, not that just being run by others," Kristrún Frostadóttir said in Brussels following a meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte. "I see a lot of possibilities coming out of that as well, even though we're in a situation where this is also run a bit from a threat position, there's still possibilities for build-up in Iceland as well. So this is something we're looking into. We will have concrete points going into the Hague summit and then also going forward in our spending reviews," she added, referring to a NATO summit scheduled to take place in the Dutch city in late June. US President Donald Trump has threatened to annex Greenland by force, arguing that US control of the semi-autonomous Danish territory is necessary for "international security". "We have a lot of our favourite players cruising around the coast and we have to be careful," Trump told Rutte in March. "The whole area is becoming very important and for a lot of reasons, the routes are very direct to Asia, to Russia, and you have ships all over the place and you have to have protection. So we're going to have to have a deal on that," he added. Russia and China have increased their presence on the Northern Sea Route (NSR), a shipping lane in the Arctic Ocean that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This is due to warming temperatures, which makes the route more manageable for longer, and Chinese growing appetite for Russian commodities including fossil fuels. Rosatom, a Russian state corporation primarily focusing on energy and high-tech products, said last month that the volume of cargo transportation along the NSR reached a record high of 37.9 million tonnes, a 4.4% increase on the previous year and a near ten-fold increase from ten years ago. China, which describes itself as a "near-Arctic state", and Russia are also increasing their military presence in the natural resources-rich area, with joint patrols and military exercises. Denmark, an EU and NATO member state, announced shortly after Trump's return to the White House that it will inject €1.95 billion into boosting its military presence in the Arctic and North Atlantic region. Iceland, together with Norway and UK, two fellow NATO allies, is also now using AI to detect hostile activity in the Arctic. Frostadóttir stressed on Wednesday that although the island nation doesn't have a military, "that doesn't mean we don't have strong defences and a role to play in NATO". Members of the military alliance are currently negotiating an increase to its defence spending target from its current 2% of GDP threshold. Allies appear to have landed on 5% of GDP target, a number repeatedly called for by Trump, although it would be split in two: 3.5% of GDP for hard military spending, and a further 1.5% on defence-related spending including, for instance, infrastructure and cybersecurity. NATO defence ministers will continue negotiations next week at a meeting in Brussels, with leaders set to adopt the new target at the June summit in The Hague. "We're willing to spend more when it comes to defence-related investments, to strengthen our facilities when it comes to Keflavik Air Base, when it comes to ports, when it comes to general host nation support," Frostadóttir said. "And also very good and constructive talks on Arctic security. We're aware of our position in the north. This is obviously our home. It's not just a conceptualised idea." "Russia's aggression towards Ukraine is something that is relevant to us, even though it's far away, because if they win on the eastern flank, they might move their views towards the north, which is where we live. So this is also our fight," she added. Rutte, speaking alongside Frostadóttir on Wednesday, said positive steps have been taken by the seven allies that have stakes in the Arctic - Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and the US - but that the alliance as a whole needs to be better organised, including when it comes to intelligence gathering. "We do not have enough icebreaker capacity within NATO potentially, so we have to look into that," he also said. Former surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec was handed a 20-year sentence on Wednesday, after being found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting 299 children, over a 25-year period which spanned from 1989 to 2014. Judges followed the public prosecutor's recommendations, sentencing Le Scouarnec to France's maximum jail term for aggravated rape after a three-month trial. Most of Le Scouarnec's victims were unconscious or sedated hospital patients when the crimes occurred. The 74 year old's victim include 158 boys and 141 girls, aged on average 11 years at the time of the crimes. The criminal court of Morbihan in Brittany, ordered the former surgeon serve at least two-thirds of his sentence, before being eligible for release on parole. Le Scouarnec is already serving a 15-year prison sentence for a conviction he was handed in 2020 for the rape and sexual assault of four children, including two nieces. In French law, sentences run concurrently and Le Scouarnec should only serve the additional years after the first sentence is completed. Despite handing Le Scouarnec the maximum sentence, the court rejected a request from prosecutors calling for the application of a specific provision of French criminal law, which is designed to ensure that criminals who have served their sentence but are likely to reoffend be placed in supervised centres upon their release. However, the court rejected this request, citing Le Scouarnec's "desire to make amends." For many of Le Scouarnec's victims and their lawyers this decision was a major blow. "Psychiatric assessments of Le Scouarnec raised concerns regarding the risk he could repeat similar crimes, so I am baffled by this decision", Gwendoline Tenier, a lawyer who represented one of the former surgeon's victims told Euronews. Le Scouarnec was first convicted in 2005 for possession of child pornography and was handed a four-month suspended prison sentence and a €90 fine. At the time, no measures were taken to suspend his medical license or limit his contact with children, and Le Scouarnec continued his abuse in hospitals until his arrest in 2017. A number of Le Scouarnec's victims and their lawyers have complained about a perceived lack of attention from the media over the course of the trial. "Media coverage of the trial has been extremely disappointing and has fallen short of showing the level of the violent crimes which were carried out", Maëlle Noir, an activist for the feminist NGO Nous Toutes told Euronews. "We can't help but compare the media coverage for this case with the trial of Dominique Pelicot, in which Gisèle's was portrayed as a sort of iconic figure. This could not happen in this trial because of the sheer amount of victims", added Noir. For others, the media is to blame, but also the public's inability to process the nature of the crimes. "Such sordid, repulsive acts committed against children go beyond the intellectual and processing abilities of many individuals. This is very problematic as it causes many people to turn away from these issues", Tenier told Euronews. Tenier's client was summoned in 2019 by police investigators for a hearing which would change her life. "She discovered that Le Scouarnec had raped her when she was 11, while being treated for appendicitis in hospital," said Tenier. The alleged incident happened in 2001 in a hospital in Brittany where Annabelle's mother worked as a care assistant and Le Scouarnec had been practising for years. According to several victims and human rights NGOs, France's health and judicial authorities are also partly to blame for the scale of the abuse Le Scouarnec was able to carry out. In mid-May, a group of 50 victims sent a letter to France's Ministries of Health and Justice, as well as to the country's High Commissioner for Children, in which they called on the authorities to establish an inter-ministerial commission following the trial. Meanwhile, the child protection charity "La Voix De l'Enfant" has condemned the lack of investigations into Le Scouarnec from health authorities or other related bodies, despite the fact he was handed a four-month suspended prison sentence in 2005 for possessing images of child pornography. The trial is the culmination of a seven-year investigation, which began when a six-year-old neighbour told her parents that Le Scouarnec had touched her over the fence which separated their properties. Police searched Le Scouarnec's home and discovering his diaries in which he is alleged to have meticulously catalogued the instances of rape and abuse, alongside the victims' names. In one entry, he allegedly wrote: "I am a paedophile and I always will be." Not all victims were initially aware they had been abused. Some were contacted by investigators after their names appeared in journals kept by Le Scouarnec, in which he meticulously documented his crimes. Others only realised they had been hospitalised at the time after checking medical records. Two of his victims took their own lives some years before the trial. Using the cover of medical procedures, the former surgeon took advantage of moments when children were alone in their hospital rooms. His method was to disguise sexual abuse as clinical care, targeting young patients who were unlikely to remember the encounters. Le Scouarnec's trial comes as campaigners across France have been attempting to lift the taboo which has long surrounded sexual abuse, months after the Gisèle Pelicot case drew to a close. Pelicot was drugged and raped by her ex-husband and dozens of other men over a nine-year period. The men involved were handed sentences ranging from three to 20 years. In a separate case focusing on alleged abuse at a Catholic school, an inquiry commission of the National Assembly, France's lower house of parliament, is investigating allegations of physical and sexual abuse over five decades.
Boston Globe
5 days ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Satellite images suggest a Russian plan to restart seized Ukrainian nuclear plant
Based on the location and direction of the work, Greenpeace said the project aimed to link the new power lines to a large substation near Mariupol that was connected to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, about 140 miles farther west. Advertisement 'Putin's plan for restarting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant depends on securing new electricity transmission lines — this is the first physical evidence of those plans,' Shaun Burnie, a nuclear specialist at Greenpeace Ukraine, said in an interview. Moscow's exact plans remain unclear. There are questions about whether it seeks to run the plant in a postwar Ukraine or to do so while fighting is still underway. In either case, experts note, Russia would need to build several more lines to connect the Zaporizhzhia plant to its own grid, a process that would take time. Advertisement Olga Kosharna, an independent Ukrainian nuclear expert, said linking the plant to its own grid has been a longtime goal for Moscow, as expressed in official statements throughout the war. It would be the first time a warring nation seized another country's nuclear facility and then used it for its own energy needs. And it would go against recent efforts by the Trump administration to discuss the fate of the plant as part of possible peace talks. President Donald Trump has expressed interest in the United States taking control of Ukrainian nuclear plants, citing safety concerns and their economic potential. Last month, the White House presented a peace plan to Kyiv and its allies calling for Russia to return the plant to Ukraine, but under US management. Under that plan, the facility would supply electricity to Ukraine and Russia. Russia has flatly rejected the idea, with Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov telling CBS News that the Zaporizhzhia plant was being run by Russian nuclear giant Rosatom and that he did not think 'any change is conceivable.' Rosatom and Russia's energy ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the building of new power lines. The recent power line construction suggests that Russia is not aiming just to hold onto the plant but also wants to harness it to power its own grid. Built during the Soviet era, the Zaporizhzhia facility is Europe's largest nuclear power complex. Its six reactors can generate up to six gigawatts of electricity — enough to power all of Portugal — and they supplied nearly a quarter of Ukraine's electricity before the war began in 2022. Advertisement The plant sits in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region, dangerously close to the front lines, making safe operation impossible. All six reactors were gradually shut down after Russia seized the site, with the last one closing in 2023. Russia has signaled its intent to power it back up, at one point citing 2024 as the target year to bring it online. 'Everyone is living with the dream of restarting the plant,' Rosatom's director-general, Alexei Likhachev, said last week, according to Russian news agency Interfax. A plan had been developed to return the Zaporizhzhia facility to full capacity, he said. One of the main challenges to restarting the plant, Likhachev noted, was the need to 'replace the power grid.' Indeed, of the four 750-kilovolt lines that once connected the plant to Ukraine's grid, two pass through Ukrainian-held territory. The other two, on Russian-occupied land, have been damaged by the fighting, and only one may have been repaired, according to Kosharna, the nuclear expert. That leaves Russia without enough lines to fully tap the plant's generation capacity. 'They need to build more of them,' Burnie, of Greenpeace, said. Burnie said one possible goal for Moscow was to eventually connect the Zaporizhzhia plant to the power grid in Russia's Rostov region, which borders occupied areas of eastern Ukraine. Satellite images obtained by Greenpeace show new power lines being built across fields near Mariupol, as well as the distinctive triangular shape of transmission towers. The latest imagery, from May 11 to May 22, shows these lines expanding east of the village of Shevchenko, about 7 miles from a substation linked to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Advertisement Restarting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant would carry significant risks, energy experts say. After more than three years of war, critical equipment remains unreplaced, and many experienced Ukrainian staff members have fled. The 2023 destruction of a nearby dam on the Dnieper River, probably by Russia, also deprived the plant of the main water source needed to cool its reactors and its spent fuel rods. Herman Galushchenko, Ukraine's energy minister, said in a statement that 'any attempts by Russian representatives to restart power units could lead to unpredictable consequences.' This article originally appeared in
Miami Herald
5 days ago
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Satellite Images Suggest a Russian Plan to Restart Seized Ukrainian Nuclear Plant
KYIV, Ukraine -- Russia is building power lines in occupied southeastern Ukraine to link to its own grid a major nuclear plant it has captured, according to a new Greenpeace report. It is the clearest evidence yet of Moscow's intent to restart and exploit the offline facility, despite the risks and calls to address the plant's status in peace talks. The facility, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, was seized by Russia early in the war in a move widely condemned by the international community. Its proximity to front-line fighting has raised fears of a potential nuclear disaster, and experts have warned against any attempt to restart the plant under current conditions. The Greenpeace report, which was shared with The New York Times, includes satellite images showing that, since early February, Russia has been building more than 50 miles of electricity lines and pylons between the occupied Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Berdyansk, along the coast of the Azov Sea. The satellite images were verified by the Times. Based on the location and direction of the work, Greenpeace said the project aimed to link the new power lines to a large substation near Mariupol that was connected to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, about 140 miles farther west. 'Putin's plan for restarting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant depends on securing new electricity transmission lines -- this is the first physical evidence of those plans,' Shaun Burnie, a nuclear specialist at Greenpeace Ukraine, said in an interview. Moscow's exact plans remain unclear. There are questions about whether it seeks to run the plant in a postwar Ukraine or to do so while fighting is still underway. In either case, experts note, Russia would need to build several more lines to connect the Zaporizhzhia plant to its own grid, a process that would take time. Olga Kosharna, an independent Ukrainian nuclear expert, said linking the plant to its own grid has been a longtime goal for Moscow, as expressed in official statements throughout the war. It would be the first time a warring nation seized another country's nuclear facility and then used it for its own energy needs. And it would go against recent efforts by the Trump administration to discuss the fate of the plant as part of possible peace talks. President Donald Trump has expressed interest in the United States taking control of Ukrainian nuclear plants, citing safety concerns and their economic potential. Last month, the White House presented a peace plan to Kyiv and its allies calling for Russia to return the plant to Ukraine, but under U.S. management. Under that plan, the facility would supply electricity to Ukraine and Russia. Russia has flatly rejected the idea, with Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov telling CBS News that the Zaporizhzhia plant was being run by Russian nuclear giant Rosatom and that he did not think 'any change is conceivable.' Rosatom and Russia's energy ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the building of new power lines. The recent power line construction suggests that Russia is not aiming just to hold onto the plant but also wants to harness it to power its own grid. Built during the Soviet era, the Zaporizhzhia facility is Europe's largest nuclear power complex. Its six reactors can generate up to six gigawatts of electricity -- enough to power all of Portugal -- and they supplied nearly a quarter of Ukraine's electricity before the war began in 2022. The plant sits in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region, dangerously close to the front lines, making safe operation impossible. All six reactors were gradually shut down after Russia seized the site, with the last one closing in 2023. Russia has signaled its intent to power it back up, at one point citing 2024 as the target year to bring it online. 'Everyone is living with the dream of restarting the plant,' Rosatom's director-general, Alexei Likhachev, said last week, according to Russian news agency Interfax. A plan had been developed to return the Zaporizhzhia facility to full capacity, he said. One of the main challenges to restarting the plant, Likhachev noted, was the need to 'replace the power grid.' Indeed, of the four 750-kilovolt lines that once connected the plant to Ukraine's grid, two pass through Ukrainian-held territory. The other two, on Russian-occupied land, have been damaged by the fighting, and only one may have been repaired, according to Kosharna, the nuclear expert. That leaves Russia without enough lines to fully tap the plant's generation capacity. 'They need to build more of them,' Burnie, of Greenpeace, said. Burnie said one possible goal for Moscow was to eventually connect the Zaporizhzhia plant to the power grid in Russia's Rostov region, which borders occupied areas of eastern Ukraine. Satellite images obtained by Greenpeace show new power lines being built across fields near Mariupol, as well as the distinctive triangular shape of transmission towers. The latest imagery, from May 11 to May 22, shows these lines expanding east of the village of Shevchenko, about 7 miles from a substation linked to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Restarting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant would carry significant risks, energy experts say. After more than three years of war, critical equipment remains unreplaced, and many experienced Ukrainian staff members have fled. The 2023 destruction of a nearby dam on the Dnieper River, probably by Russia, also deprived the plant of the main water source needed to cool its reactors and its spent fuel rods. Herman Galushchenko, Ukraine's energy minister, said in a statement that 'any attempts by Russian representatives to restart power units could lead to unpredictable consequences.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Copyright 2025
