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Tag: Olaf Scholz

  • The Iron Law Of Electricity Strikes Again: Germany Re-Opens Five Lignite-Fired Power Plants

    The Iron Law Of Electricity Strikes Again: Germany Re-Opens Five Lignite-Fired Power Plants

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    Last week, numerous media outlets reported that Germany will extend the lives of three of its nuclear power plants. The move to keep the reactors online, which was opposed by the country’s Green Party, showed that German politicians are recognizing the need to keep reliable generation plants online to assure the country has enough electricity this winter.

    But another equally important announcement was also made last week that got far less media attention: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that Germany was reopening five power plants that burn lignite, a low-rank coal. Germany’s return to lignite demonstrates, yet again, the Iron Law of Electricity, which says that people, businesses, and governments will do whatever they have to do to get the electricity they need.

    Indeed, Germany’s move back to lignite is chock-full of contradictions, including one that belongs in the “you can’t make this up” column.

    The Iron Law of Electricity is so powerful that the utility RWE is dismantling the Keyenberg wind project in the western part of the country to, wait for it… make more room for the expansion of the Garzweiler mine. Lignite from Garzweiler fuels the Neurath C power plant, which is one of the power plants being brought back online. A spokesperson for RWE told the Guardian newspaper that “We realize this comes across as paradoxical.”

    Yes, there are paradoxes aplenty. Germany’s need to keep the lights on explains why the government is willing to ignore the fact that burning lignite to produce electricity emits more carbon dioxide than any other form of power generation.

    Furthermore, burning lignite contradicts Germany’s climate goals. Under the country’s much-vaunted Energiewende (German for “energy turnaround”) Germany has pledged to slash its total greenhouse gas emissions by 95% by 2050. The cost of that pledge could total more than $500 billion by 2025 — and that figure only accounts for the investment needed to decarbonize the electricity sector. The result of all that spending is that residents of Germany are now paying some of the highest electricity prices in Europe.

    Of course, Germany isn’t the only country that is proving the Iron Law of Electricity. Global coal demand has been soaring for months. European electric utilities are scrambling to buy as much coal as they can to replace Russian natural gas. The Newcastle benchmark price for thermal coal going into the Asian market has been at, or near, $400 per ton for several months in a row. That’s an eight-fold increase over the levels seen in early 2020. gas. And in July, the International Energy Agency said that global coal use will hit an all-time high this year.

    In August, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air and Global Energy Monitorreported that China is planning to build 43 new coal-fired power plants as well as 18 new blast furnaces. As reported by Time.com, the projects “were announced in the first half of this year despite the world’s largest polluter pledging to bring its emissions to a peak before 2030, and to make the country carbon neutral by 2060.”

    The report also found that China began construction on 15 gigawatts of new coal-fired power capacity “started construction in the first half of the year and 24 gigawatts of new projects were announced or re-activated…The volume of new projects represents a return to pre-COVID levels after new projects surged in 2020 but still amounts to almost one coal plant unit per week.”

    That last sentence is remarkable and bears repeating: this year, China has been starting construction on almost one new “coal plant unit per week.”

    While announcing the reopening of the lignite plants, Scholz claimed that the move is “a time-limited but necessary emergency measure.” He added that Germany will “continue to stand firmly by our climate targets.”

    Scholz also said, “The Russian aggression and its consequences mustn’t lead to a worldwide renaissance of coal…We will make clear offers so that developing and emerging countries also can embark resolutely on the path toward a climate-neutral energy sector.”

    But right now, the idea of a “climate-neutral” energy sector in Germany and nearly every other country on the planet, is taking a distant back seat to the more immediate need to keep the lights on. I will end by repeating the same message I have been touting for more than a dozen years: If the countries of the world are serious about reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, the way forward is N2N: natural gas to nuclear. And if the goal is to decarbonize the electricity and industrial sectors and do so quickly, the goal must be to develop and deploy smaller, safer, cheaper nuclear reactors, and do so by the thousands.

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    Robert Bryce, Contributor

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  • Scholz and Macron threaten trade retaliation against Biden

    Scholz and Macron threaten trade retaliation against Biden

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    BERLIN/PARIS — After publicly falling out, Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron have found something they agree on: mounting alarm over unfair competition from the U.S. and the potential need for Europe to hit back.

    The German chancellor and the French president discussed their joint concerns during nearly three-and-a-half hours of talks over a lunch of fish, wine and Champagne in Paris on Wednesday.

    They agreed that recent American state subsidy plans represent market-distorting measures that aim to convince companies to shift their production to the U.S., according to people familiar with their discussions. And that is a problem they want the European Union to address.

    The meeting of minds on this issue followed public disagreements in recent weeks on key political issues such as energy and defense, fracturing what is often seen as the EU’s central political alliance between its two biggest economies.

    But even though their lunch came against an awkward backdrop, both leaders agreed that the EU cannot remain idle if Washington pushes ahead with its Inflation Reduction Act, which offers tax cuts and energy benefits for companies investing on U.S. soil, in its current form. Specifically, the recently signed U.S. legislation encourages consumers to “Buy American” when it comes to choosing an electric vehicle — a move particularly galling for major car industries in the likes of France and Germany.

    The message from the Paris lunch is: If the U.S. doesn’t scale back, then the EU will have to strike back. Similar incentive schemes for companies will be needed to avoid unfair competition or losing investments. That move would risk plunging transatlantic relations into a new trade war.

    Macron was the first to make the stark warning public. “We need a Buy European Act like the Americans, we need to reserve [our subsidies] for our European manufacturers,” the French president said Wednesday night in an interview with TV channel France 2, referring specifically to state subsidies for electric cars.

    Scholz and Macron agreed the EU must act if the US progresses a ‘Buy American’ act offering incentives for companies investing on US soil, which would particularly affect French and German electric vehicle industries | David Hecker / Getty Images

    Macron also mentioned similar concerns about state-subsidized competition from China: “You have China that is protecting its industry, the U.S. that is protecting its industry and Europe that is an open house,” Macron said, adding: “[Scholz and I] have a real convergence to move forward on the topic, we had a very good conversation.”

    Crucially, Berlin — which has traditionally been more reluctant when it comes to confronting the U.S. in trade disputes — is indeed backing the French push. Scholz agrees that the EU will need to roll out countermeasures similar to the U.S. scheme if Washington refuses to address key concerns voiced by Berlin and Paris, according to people familiar with the chancellor’s thinking.

    Scholz is not a big fan of Macron’s wording of a “Buy European Act” as it evokes the nearly 90-year-old “Buy American Act,” which is often criticized for being protectionist because it favors American companies. But the chancellor shares Macron’s concerns about unfair competitive advantages, the people said.

    Earlier this month, Scholz said publicly that Europe will have to discuss the Inflation Reduction Act with the U.S. “in great depth.”

    In a blow to Germany’s industrial core, chemical giant BASF announced plans Wednesday to reduce its business activities and jobs in Germany, with company chief Martin Brudermüller citing heightened gas prices — which he criticized for being six times as high as in the U.S. — as well as increasing EU regulation as the reason.

    “The decisions of a successful company like BASF show that we need to improve the overall attractiveness of Germany as a business location,” German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said in a tweet, vowing to take various measures such as “tax relief for private investments.”

    Before bringing out the big guns, though, Scholz and Macron want to try to reach a negotiated solution with Washington. This should be done via a new “EU-U.S. Taskforce on the Inflation Reduction Act” that was established during a meeting between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Mike Pyle on Tuesday.

    The taskforce of EU and U.S. officials will meet via videoconference toward the end of next week, underlining the seriousness of the European push.

    On top of that, EU trade ministers will gather for an informal meeting in Prague next Monday, with U.S. trade envoy Katherine Tai planning to attend to discuss the tensions.

    In Brussels, the Commission is also looking with concern at Macron’s wording of a “Buy European Act,” which evokes protectionist tendencies that the EU institution has long sought to fight.

    “Every measure we take needs to be in line with the World Trade Organization rules,” a Commission official said, adding that Europe and the U.S. should resolve differences via talks and “not descend into tit-for-tat trade war measures as we experienced them under [former U.S. President Donald] Trump.”

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    Hans von der Burchard and Clea Caulcutt

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  • Emmanuel Macron calls for ‘Buy European Act’ to protect regional carmakers

    Emmanuel Macron calls for ‘Buy European Act’ to protect regional carmakers

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    PARIS — Emmanuel Macron called for a “Buy European Act” on Wednesday to protect carmakers on the Continent in the face of competition from China and in response to the United States’ own controversial scheme to incentivize domestic production.

    Speaking on TV channel France 2, the French president criticized the European Union as being “too open” on the topic of state subsidies for electric cars as it seeks to accelerate its transition to greener energy sources.

    “We need a Buy European Act like the Americans, we need to reserve [our subsidies] for our European manufacturers,” Macron said. “You have China that is protecting its industry, the U.S. that is protecting its industry and Europe that is an open house.”

    France has been leading the charge against Washington’s recent Inflation Reduction Act, which includes tax incentives for U.S. consumers to “Buy American” when it comes to choosing an electric car. The European Union, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia have all complained at the World Trade Organization that this measure violates international trade rules by unfairly discriminating against foreign manufacturers.

    French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire also recently slammed the U.S. scheme as “jeopardizing the level playing field” and raising the risk of a “new trade war.”

    Macron said in the TV interview he had discussed an EU response to U.S. trade barriers during a lunch with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the Elysée Palace earlier on Wednesday. However, it was unclear whether the two leaders share the same view on exactly what steps to take.

    “[Scholz and I] have a real convergence to move forward on the topic, we had a very good conversation,” Macron said.

    Relations between the French president and his German counterpart have been fraught amid disagreements over energy, defense and the economy. But discontent over the U.S. legislation appears to be an area where they converge, given both their countries host major carmakers like Renault and Mercedes-Benz.

    According to an adviser to the French presidency, the two leaders agreed to push the European Commission to prepare a response to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act.  

    Giorgio Leali contributed reporting.

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  • The awkward lunch: Macron prepares to snub Scholz in Paris

    The awkward lunch: Macron prepares to snub Scholz in Paris

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    BERLIN/PARIS — Relations are now so icy between Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz, the leaders of the EU’s two economic powerhouses, that they are even struggling to agree on whether to be seen together in front of the press.

    As the French president and German chancellor prepared for a tête-à-tête in Paris on Wednesday, Berlin announced that they would make a joint appearance in front of the cameras, which is normally the driest of routine diplomatic courtesies after bilateral meetings.

    But on Tuesday evening, a statement from the French Elysée Palace contradicted the German announcement, saying there was no press conference planned.

    If confirmed, it would be quite a snub for Scholz, who’s traveling with an entire press corps to Paris, and from there continuing to Athens for another state visit. Denying a press conference to a visiting leader is a political tactic that’s generally applied to deliver a rebuke, as was recently done by Scholz when Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán visited Berlin.

    “Presumably, there has so far been a lack of contact and exchange between the respective new government teams of Scholz and Macron,” said Sandra Weeser from Germany’s liberal Free Democratic Party, who sits on the board of the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly. “So, we are certainly also at the beginning of new interpersonal political relations, for which trust must first be built.”

    The tussle over a media show is just the latest episode of a deepening row between the EU’s two biggest powers.

    In recent weeks, Scholz and Macron have clashed over how to tackle the energy crisis, how to overcome Europe’s impotence on defense and the best approach to dealing with China.

    Last week, those tensions spilled into public when a planned Franco-German Cabinet meeting in the French town of Fontainebleau was postponed to January amid major differences on the text of a joint declaration, as well as conflicting holiday plans of some German ministers. Disagreement between the two governments was also broadly visible at last week’s EU summit in Brussels.

    As Scholz and Macron meet in Paris on Wednesday for a “working lunch,” which has been hastily set up as a downgraded replacement for the scrapped Cabinet meeting, politicians and officials across Europe will be closely watching to see whether the bloc’s two heavyweights can find a way back to much-needed unity. The war in Ukraine and the inflation and energy crisis have strained European alliances, just when they are most needed.

    French officials complain that Berlin isn’t sufficiently treating them as a close partner. For example, the French claim they weren’t briefed in advance of Germany’s domestic €200 billion energy price relief package — and they have made sure their counterparts in Berlin are aware of their frustration.

    “In my talks with French parliamentarians, it has become clear that people in Paris want more and closer coordination with Germany,” said Chantal Kopf, a lawmaker from the Greens, one of the three parties in Germany’s ruling coalition, and a board member of the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly.

    “So far, this cooperation has always worked well in times of crisis — think, for example, of the recovery fund during the coronavirus crisis — and now the French also rightly want the responses to the current energy crisis, or how to deal with China, to be closely coordinated,” Kopf said.

    Late last month, Paris felt snubbed by Berlin when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz found no time to speak to French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne | Jens Schlueter/AFP via Getty Images

    A similar conclusion is being drawn by Weeser from the FDP, another coalition partner in the Berlin government. “Paris is irritated by Germany’s go-it-alone on the gas price brake and the lack of support for joint European defense technology projects,” she said. At the same time, she accused the French government of having until recently dragged its feet on a new pipeline connection between the Iberian peninsula and Northern Europe.

    Unprecedented tensions

    Most recently, the French government was irritated by the news that Scholz plans to visit Beijing next week to meet Xi Jinping in what would be the first visit by a foreign leader since the Chinese president got a norm-breaking third term. Germany and China also plan their own show when it comes to planned government consultations in January.

    The thinking at the Elysée is that it would have been better if Macron and Scholz had visited China together — and preferably a bit later rather than straight after China’s Communist Party congress where Xi secured another mandate. According to one French official, a visit shortly after the congress would “legitimize” Xi’s third term and be “too politically costly.”

    Germany and France’s uncoordinated approach to China contrasts with Xi’s last visit to Europe in 2019 when he was welcomed by Macron, who had also invited former Chancellor Angela Merkel and former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to Paris to show European unity.

    Macron has refrained from directly criticizing a controversial Hamburg port deal with Chinese company Cosco, which Scholz is pushing ahead of his Beijing trip. But the French president last week questioned the wisdom of letting China invest in “essential infrastructure” and warned that Europe had been “naive” toward Chinese purchases in the past “because we thought Europe was an open supermarket.”

    Jean-Louis Thiériot, vice president of the defense committee in the French National Assembly, said Germany was increasingly focusing on defense in Eastern Europe at the expense of joint German-French projects. For example, Berlin inked a deal with 13 NATO members, many of them on the Northern and Eastern European flank, to jointly acquire an air and missile defense shield — much to the annoyance of France.

    “The situation is unprecedented,” Thiériot said. “Tensions are now getting worse and quickly. In the last couple of months, Germany decided to end work on the [Franco-German] Tiger helicopter, dropped joint navy patrols … And the signature of the air defense shield is a deathblow [to the defense relationship],” he said.

    Germany’s massive investment through a €100 billion military upgrade fund, as well as Scholz’s commitment to the NATO goal of putting 2 percent of GDP toward defense spending, will likely raise the annual defense budget to above €80 billion and means Berlin will be on course to outgun France’s €44 billion defense budget.

    Sick note

    Last week’s suspension of the joint Franco-German Cabinet meeting wasn’t by far the first clash between Berlin and Paris when it comes to high-level meetings.

    Back in August, the question was whether Scholz and Macron would meet in Ludwigsburg on September 9 for the 60th anniversary of a famous speech by former French President Charles de Gaulle in the palatial southwestern German town. But despite the highly symbolic nature of that ceremony, the leaders’ meeting never happened — with officials presenting conflicting accounts of why that was the case, from appointment conflicts to alleged disagreements over who should shoulder the costs.

    French President Emmanuel Macron has refrained from directly criticizing a controversial Hamburg port deal with Chinese company Cosco | Pool photo by Aurelien Morissard/AFP via Getty Images

    Late last month, Paris felt snubbed by Berlin when Scholz found no time to speak to French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne: A meeting between both leaders in Berlin had been canceled because the chancellor had tested positive for coronavirus. But several French officials told POLITICO that a subsequently arranged videoconference was also canceled, allegedly because the Germans told Borne’s office that Scholz felt too sick.

    Paris was even more surprised — and annoyed — when Scholz then appeared the same day via video at a press conference, in which he didn’t seem to be quite so sick, but instead confidently announced his €200 billion energy relief package. The French say they weren’t even briefed beforehand. A German spokesperson could not be reached for a comment on the incident.

    Yannick Bury, a lawmaker from Germany’s center-right opposition who focuses on Franco-German relations, said Scholz must use his visit to Paris to start rebuilding ties with Macron. “It’s important that France receives a clear signal that Germany has a great interest in a close and trusting exchange,” Bury said. “Trust has been broken.”

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    Hans von der Burchard and Clea Caulcutt

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  • Germany to massively expand electric car charging network

    Germany to massively expand electric car charging network

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    BERLIN (AP) — Germany wants to massively expand the country’s charging network for electric cars, spending 6.3 billion euros ($6.17 billion) over the next three years as it expects more and more drivers to turn away from combustion cars to more climate-friendly vehicles.

    The country’s transportation minister on Wednesday presented a “master plan” for improving the charging infrastructure that had been passed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’ cabinet earlier in the day.

    “We are not just any automotive location, but a leading one in the world. And that’s why it’s important to us that what we’re preparing succeeds well,” Volker Wissing told reporters in Berlin. “We need a forward-looking expansion of the nationwide charging infrastructure that meets demand and is user-friendly.”

    The share of electric vehicles in Germany grew 24.8% year-on-year to a total share of 14.6% of all newly registered automobiles, according to figures released by the country’s Federal Office for Motor Vehicles.

    There are around 70,000 charging points in the country but only 11,000 of those are fast-chargers, the ministry said.

    That is not enough to sufficiently fulfill the current needs, and it will be even less so as the number of electric cars grows quickly. There is also a big difference in availability of charging points between big cities and rural areas, where it is even harder to find charging stations.

    The German government’s goal is to have 1 million publicly accessible charging points in the country by 2030.

    In order to boost the number of charging points, the federal government will, among other initiatives provide real estate, especially along highways, where new charging stations can be built. Private owners of electric cars will be offered subsidized plans to install solar energy panels at their homes to charge their cars overnight.

    Electric charging is also supposed to get more user-friendly with new digital offers showing drivers where they can charge their cars on the road or being able to check online how much the different charging points demand, the minister said.

    Another issue the government wants to tackle is getting the country’s electric grid ready for the increased demand as more people turn to electric cars.

    “We are expecting an exponential increase in registered vehicles with battery electric drive in the next few years and must prepare accordingly,” the minister said.

    Switching Germans from combustion-engine automobiles to electric cars plays a key role in achieving the government’s climate targets set for the transport sector.

    The transformation to electric cars has also been boosted by a mix of regulatory pressure, tax breaks, improving battery range, and a wider range of vehicles to purchase.

    Europe in general is leading the push into battery-powered cars as electric vehicles enter the mainstream and has promised to phase out internal combustion cars by 2035.

    But availability of charging points is a problem not just in Germany but almost everywhere across the continent.

    “Not only is there an insufficient number of electric charging points along the road networks in most European Union countries, but the vast majority of these do not charge quickly enough,” the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said.

    Or as the German minister said: “Electric mobility will only find acceptance if charging is as easy as refueling is today.”

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  • China’s Xi tightens grip on power, gets unprecedented third term

    China’s Xi tightens grip on power, gets unprecedented third term

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    Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Sunday secured an unprecedented third term as general secretary of China’s Communist Party, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

    The appointment comes after a week-long party congress during which the 69-year-old leader tightened his grip over the country, making him possibly the world’s most powerful individual, according to some analysts. And it paves the way for him to get another five-year term as the country’s president at the annual legislative session in March and to continue his confrontational line with the West.

    Beijing has grown increasingly aggressive on both the military and economic fronts while cozying up to a warmongering Russia.

    At 69, Xi has has surpassed the informal retirement age of 68 and could be in a position for life-long rule. In 2018, Xi scrapped the presidential two-term limit, allowing him to rule indefinitely.

    In a dramatic scene on Saturday during the highly choreographed meeting, former Chinese President Hu Jintao was unexpectedly escorted out of the closing ceremony of the Communist party congress, in what was seen by some as a sign of Hu deterring health and by others as a symbolic scene of Xi’s strengthened powers.

    Xi also retained his title as head of the military.

    He appointed to the party’s Politburo Standing Committee, China’s top governing body, officials who analysts say are his proteges and allies. Among them they mention for example Wang Huning, described as the ideologue who has shaped Xi’s nationalist views; Cai Qi, whose ties with Xi go back over two decades; and Ding Xuexiang, a close Xi aide who often travels with the president.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a congratulatory message to Xi on his third term, the Kremlin said. Putin told the Chinese president that he looked forward to further developing the “comprehensive relationship and strategic alliance between our two states.”

    German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is planning a trip to China next month and is set to be the first Western leader to greet Xi as the newly re-appointed leader. EU leaders at a meeting on Friday discussed the bloc’s line over China.

    While Scholz insisted that the EU must remain a beacon of global trade, even with China, others such as outgoing Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said that many leaders during the discussion stressed that “we must not repeat the fact that we have been indifferent, indulgent, superficial in our relations with Russia.”

    And they also stressed that “those that look like business ties … are part of an overall direction of the Chinese system, so they must be treated as such,” Draghi added.

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    Jacopo Barigazzi

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  • Allies blast Scholz over Chinese investment in German port

    Allies blast Scholz over Chinese investment in German port

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    BERLIN — Lawmakers from two of Germany’s governing parties on Thursday slammed plans for Chinese shipping company Cosco to take a major stake in the operator of the country’s biggest container terminal, warning that they pose a national security risk.

    Public broadcaster NDR reported that Chancellor Olaf Scholz has asked officials to find a compromise that would allow the investment to happen, after several ministries initially rejected it on the grounds that Cosco, already the port’s biggest customer, could get too much leverage.

    Neither the ministries nor Scholz’s office immediately responded to requests for comment. But lawmakers from the Green party and the Free Democrats, which formed a coalition last year with Scholz’ Social Democrats, criticized the plan.

    “Our critical infrastructure must not become a plaything for the geopolitical interests of others,” Green party lawmaker Marcel Emmerich said. Citing a past government decision by one of Scholz’s fellow Social Democrats to let Russia buy German natural gas storage facilities, he accused the chancellor of wanting to “flog off parts of the port of Hamburg to China, whatever it takes.”

    The pro-business Free Democrats likewise expressed opposition to the deal.

    “The Chinese Communist Party must not have access to our country’s critical infrastructure,” the party’s general secretary, Bijan Djir-Sarai, told German news agency dpa. “That would be a mistake and a risk.”

    “China is an importing trading partner but also a systemic rival,” he was quoted as saying. “We should act accordingly.”

    Another Free Democrat lawmaker, Reinhard Houben, told news portal t-online that the chancellery should respect the decision by six ministries opposing the sale.

    The government dispute over Germany’s stance toward Chinese investments comes days after Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Berlin must avoid repeating with China the mistakes it made with Russia over recent years, leading to a dependence on Russian energy imports.

    German intelligence agencies also warned this week of China’s rising might and how it could become a risk for Germany, particularly because of the strong economic and scientific ties between the two countries.

    In a hearing with lawmakers, the head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, Thomas Haldenwang, made a comparison with the current geopolitical turmoil over the war in Ukraine, saying that “Russia is the storm, China is climate change.”

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  • Kyiv calls for air defenses as Putin brings his Syria tactics to Ukraine

    Kyiv calls for air defenses as Putin brings his Syria tactics to Ukraine

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    Russian President Vladimir Putin turned back to his bloody, destructive playbook from Syria with a barrage of rocket attacks against civilian targets across Ukraine on Monday, ramping up pressure on Western allies to supply Kyiv with the air defenses it has long sought.

    Monday’s rush-hour bombardment on the streets of Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia and other regions came as little surprise, given that Putin had already signaled his willingness to switch to ever more brutal tactics by appointing Sergey Surovikin, the general who oversaw Russian forces in Syria on-and-off from 2017 to 2020, as commander of his struggling war effort in Ukraine.

    In a speech at an emergency meeting of his National Security Council on Monday, Putin claimed the strikes came in response to this weekend’s attack on the Kerch Bridge linking illegally occupied Crimea to Russia. Putin said Russia had deployed “high-precision, long-range weapons from the air, sea and land” to deliver “massive attacks on targets of Ukraine’s energy, military command and communications facilities.” He added that Russia would continue to dole out retribution if Ukraine continued to strike so-called “Russian” territory.

    Ukraine’s defense ministry said 75 missiles were launched, 41 of which were shot down.

    Moscow’s claims to precision attacks on strategic targets seemed to mask the fact that the aim was clearly to kill civilians, as the missiles struck the Shevchenkivskyi district in the heart of Kyiv during peak morning traffic. Pictures and footage taken by reporters and from security cameras show cars on fire; a crater beside a children’s playground in the Shevchenko Park and a pedestrian bridge destroyed.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram that Russia appeared to have two targets in its assault: energy facilities throughout the country — and Ukrainians going about their daily lives.

    “They want panic and chaos,” Zelenskyy said, in a video that appeared to have been shot on his cell phone on the streets of Kyiv. Monday’s attacks came at a time “especially chosen to cause as much damage as possible … Why such strikes exactly? The enemy wants us to be afraid, wants to make people run. But we can only run forward — and we demonstrate this on the battlefield. It will continue to be so.”

    Zelenskyy also renewed his appeals to the West to provide Ukraine with additional air defenses. Kyiv has been seeking this additional firepower for weeks, arguing that Russia is likely to try to knock out Ukraine’s energy and industrial infrastructure over the winter, and it has been disappointed by the slow response.

    In tweets, Zelenskyy said he had spoken with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in the wake of the strikes on the capital and other cities. With Macron, Zelenskyy said: “We discussed the strengthening of our air defense, the need for a tough European and international reaction, as well as increased pressure on the Russian Federation.”

    Those discussions on air defense batteries are now likely to loom large at the U.S.-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group — also known as the Ramstein format — where senior defense officials from across the globe will gather in Brussels later this week.

    Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Monday: “The best response to Russian missile terror is the supply of anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems to Ukraine — protect the sky over Ukraine! This will protect our cities and our people. This will protect the future of Europe. Evil must be punished.”

    The butcher of Syria takes over

    Surovikin was only announced as the new Russian commander for Ukraine on Saturday.

    The 55-year-old general, who before his promotion had been charged with leading Russia’s Southern Military District and Russian troops in Syria, has long been an infamous figure with a reputation for being ruthless.

    He was linked to the violent suppression of the anti-Soviet 1990 Dushanbe riots in Tajikistan, and was reportedly imprisoned (before being freed without charge) after soldiers under his command killed three protesters in Moscow during the failed coup against then Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in August 1991. In 1995, Surovikin received a suspended sentence (which was later overturned) for participating in the illegal arms trade. Surovikin also played a role in Russia’s second Chechen war, commanding the 42nd Guards Motorized Rifle Division.

    But Surovikin is best known — and most feared — for his command of Russian forces in Syria, where Moscow intervened to prop up Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental organization, listed Surovikin as one of the commanders “who may bear command responsibility” for human rights violations during the 2019-2020 offensive in Syria’s Idlib province, when Syrian and Russian forces launched dozens of air and ground attacks on civilian targets and infrastructure, striking homes, schools, health care facilities and markets.

    It was not the first time Russian forces were accused of war crimes in Syria. The Kremlin’s troops, working with Syrians, undertook a month-long bombing campaign of opposition-controlled territory in Aleppo in 2016, killing hundreds of civilians, including 90 children, with indiscriminate airstrikes, cluster munitions and incendiary weapons hitting civilian targets including medical facilities.

    Now, with Russian forces on the back foot in Ukraine and Putin’s full-throated rhetoric out of step with the situation on the ground in his war, Surovikin appears to be turning to his old tactic of inflicting massive damage on civilians in an attempt to turn the tide of the war.

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    Zoya Sheftalovich

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  • Germany secures more gas shipments as Scholz visits Gulf

    Germany secures more gas shipments as Scholz visits Gulf

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    BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz planted a tree at a mangrove park in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, a token nod to environmentalism during a two-day visit to the Gulf region focused mainly on securing new fossil fuel supplies and forging fresh alliances against Russia.

    Germany is trying to wean itself off energy imports from Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine, while avoiding an energy shortage in the coming winter months.

    To do so, the German government has sought out new natural gas suppliers while also installing terminals to bring the fuel into the country by ship.

    After visiting the Jubail Mangrove Park in Abu Dhabi, Scholz met with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to sign an accord on energy cooperation and discuss the country’s hosting of next year’s U.N. climate talks.

    German utility company RWE announced Sunday that it will receive a first shipment of liquefied natural gas from the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company this year. In a separate deal, RWE will partner with UAE-based Masdar to explore further offshore wind energy projects, the company said.

    From Abu Dhabi Scholz flew to Qatar to meet the emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and discuss bilateral relations, regional issues such as tensions with Iran and the Gulf nation’s upcoming hosting of soccer’s World Cup.

    Speaking to reporters in Doha, Scholz acknowledged that there had been progress on improving conditions for foreign workers involved in the construction of the venues for the tournament, but left open whether he would attend any of the games himself.

    The German leader’s first stop Saturday was Saudi Arabia, where he met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

    Human rights groups criticized the meeting because of Prince Mohammed’s alleged involvement in the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

    Scholz told reporters after the meeting that he had discussed “all the questions around civil and human rights” with the prince, but declined to elaborate.

    German officials noted ahead of the trip that Scholz is one of several Western leaders to meet with the Saudi crown prince in recent months, including U.S. President Joe Biden, former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron.

    German officials said all energy agreements will take into account the country’s plans to become carbon neutral by 2045, requiring a shift from natural gas to hydrogen produced with renewable energy in the coming decades.

    Saudi Arabia, which has vast regions suitable for cheap solar power generation, is seen as a particularly suitable supplier of hydrogen, they said.

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    Follow all AP stories about the impact of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.

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    Follow all AP stories about climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environmental.

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