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On a crisp North Carolina morning, an eastern pine forest is being clear cut in a precisely choreographed hydraulic ballet. Pincers grab 500-pound, 30-foot tree trunks, run them through trimmers and auto-cutters and then stack the nearly uniform logs onto flatbed trucks which take them to mills to be cut into construction boards. Grappling claws scoop up the remains of the harvestbranches, limbs and scrapsand drop them into open-topped dump trucks headed for one of 10 plants run by Enviva, to be chopped, dried, pulverized and pressed into two-inch wood pellets.

Jamel Toppin for Forbes

You could burn those pellets in your backyard grillif you could buy them, which you cant. Were already sold out, boasts John Keppler, Envivas cofounder and CEO. Earlier this year, the Bethesda, Maryland-based company locked in take-or-pay contracts to sell German and other European customers millions of tons of pellets over the next 15 years at upwards of $250 a ton, a record price that now yields gross margins of $43 a ton, up 14% over last year. The pellets fuel plants that might have previously relied on Russian coal or natural gas. In Europe, natural gas prices have jumped ten-fold in two years to the equivalent of $60 per thousand cubic feet (versus $8.25/mcf in America). Theres never been a better time to be in the pellet business, Keppler says.

While Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine has produced a windfall for Enviva, its no overnight success. Keppler, 50, has spent 15 years building it into the worlds largest producer of industrial grade pellets, with $1 billion in annual sales and a current stock market cap of $4.65 billion. The company still runs a net loss after depreciation and interest but expects EBITDA to more than double this year to $250 million. Keppler is aiming to build ten more plants over the next five years, doubling current annual output of 6.2 million tons of pellets. Every ton we produce is a ton of coal that stays in the ground, he says.

Many environmentalists doubt thats a good tradeoff. In fact, burning wood pellets emits more carbon dioxide for the same amount of energy than does coal. The pellets are considered green only because biomass is renewable. The catch? It takes decades for newly planted trees to sequester the carbon dioxide released by burning their predecessors. The best strategy to lower atmospheric CO2 levels is to preserve and expand forests, rather than destroy them and use trees as fuel, says climate change expert Robert Musil, CEO of the Rachel Carson Council.

Theres never been a better time to be in the pellet business.

The European Union Parliament, concerned by the loss of old growth forests amid rampant growth in pellet combustion, voted in September to reduce pellet subsidies and phase down the portion of wood-based fuel counted as renewable. While competing for a bigger piece of a potentially smaller pie in Europe, in America, Enviva is enthused by the new Inflation Reduction Act, which includes tax credits for burning pellets for electricity.

Keppler insists that Enviva never turns whole trees into pelletsexcept those knocked down by hurricanes. Instead, it buys scraps that used to get pulped into newsprint for now dead or shrunken newspapers. Enviva says it only works with landowners who replant treesnot those clearing land for development. If it doesnt go back to forest, we wont buy it, declares Lauren Killian, a 32-year-old sustainability forester at Enviva.

Keppler first became fascinated by renewable resources at 30. His career had been largely on hold for six years as he beat stage 4 Hodgkins lymphoma and he was recharging with an MBA at the University of Virginia. As a class project, he and a couple of B-school pals worked up a business plan for a rice milling plant that wanted to power its operations by burning high-silica husks of rice kernels in a specialized gasifier. After working a few years at other jobs (Keppler at AOL), they decided to give gasifier plants a go. After building plants in the Dominican Republic and Alabama, Keppler and Enviva President Thomas Meth branched into another variety of biomassa project to enable a Belgian lumber mill to power its main operations by pressing sawdust into pellets.

Then came their Eureka moment: instead of doing one-off projects, they could build a whole pellet business based around more than 50 million acres of pine forests stretching from Virginia through the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.

Jamel Toppin for Forbes

But they needed more capital. In 2010, Keppler and Meth turned to private equity shop Riverstone Holdings, which specializes in energy. With the new money, they bought a small pellet-making plant in Amory, Mississippi, which was already selling its output to Europe. They got it running 24/7, and tripled production. They sold and spun off those early gasification plant assets to focus on pellets. They tapped higher-risk capital (from investors like Jeffrey Ubben of Inclusive Capital) to finance new pellet plants and launched a master limited partnership to buy the plants once they were built.

Enviva became a publicly traded MLP in 2015 and this year converted to a traditional corporation in a bid to market itself as a pure environmental play for ESG investors. Riverstone and its investment funds still own 42% of the stock, which now trades at just under $70 and pays a generous dividend of $3.62 a share.

One lesson Keppler says he learned from Riverstone: dont turn a spade of dirt for a new plant until its output is fully contracted. He sees no problem inking enough orders to sell the output of the ten more mills he wants to build or finding a spot for each plant where theres already enough tree harvesting going on within 75 miles to keep it in wood scraps. Were symbiotic to that (harvesting) activity, were not driving any of it, he says.

Competitors are catching on. Last year, private equity giant Apollo Global invested in Estonian pellet maker Granuul (Europes biggest), which has acquired a handful of plants in the east Texas pine forests. Keppler says that with zero excess liquidity in world pellet supply, he welcomes new competition as affirmation that the business has a future. This is a monopsony, he says. Theres thousands of sellers (of wood scrap), very few buyers. For now.

More:
How Putin's Invasion Of Ukraine Produced A Windfall For Enviva's Wood Pellets Business - Forbes

Ukraine: Russian military command has suspended the sending of new units

The military command of the Russian federation has stopped sending new units into Ukraine following a dramatic Ukrainian counter-offensive that has reshaped the war and left Moscow reeling, the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine said Monday.

The military command of the Russian federation has suspended the sending of new, already formed units into the territory of Ukraine, officials said on the general staff Facebook page.

The current situation in the theatre of operations and distrust of the higher command forced a large number of volunteers to categorically refuse the prospect of service in combat conditions, the statement continued. The situation is affected by information about the actual number of dead, while losses from private military companies and those mobilised from temporarily occupied territories are not taken into account. The situation worsens due to the general attitude toward their own wounded. In particular, in Russian hospitals, diagnoses and the nature of combat injuries are deliberately simplified and no time is given for rehabilitation in order to quickly return servicemen to the combat zone.

This information could not be corroborated. The Kremlin has yet to respond.

Updated at 13.09EDT

Key events

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Thank you for reading todays Ukraine live blog. We will have more updates tomorrow. It is nearly 1am in Ukraine heres what has happened in the ongoing conflict today.

Since the beginning of September, Ukrainian forces have taken back 2,400 square miles of Russian-held territory, Reuters reports.

Russian troops have left behind stockpiles of ammunition and other supplies following Ukraines days long counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast, the Kyiv Independent reports.

The United States assesses that Russia has largely ceded its gains near Kharkiv and many retreating Russian soldiers have exited Ukraine, moving over the border back into Russia, a senior US military official said on Monday, Reuters reports.

The Ukrainian authorities have said they are capturing so many prisoners of war among Russian soldiers retreating from occupation of the north-eastern region that the country is running out of space to put them, the Associated Press reports.

The military command of the Russian federation has stopped sending new units into Ukraine following a dramatic Ukrainian counter-offensive that has reshaped the war and left Moscow reeling, the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine said Monday.

Municipal deputies from 18 districts of Moscow and St Petersburg have signed a public statement demanding that Vladimir Putin resign. We, the municipal deputies of Russia, believe that the actions of President Vladimir Putin harm the future of Russia and its citizens.

Updated at 18.06EDT

Ukraine is looking for tens of thousands of children in the countrys orphanage system who have been displaced by the months long war happening in the country, according to an in-depth investigation by Reuters.

The United Nations International Childrens Emergency Fund (UNICEF) says they have lost track of that at least 26,000 children who, instead of being moved within Ukraines orphanage system, were reunited with their parents and legal guardians once Russia invaded Ukraine in February. The United Nations worry that the lack record-keeping and follow-up by Ukrainian officials can put orphaned children at risk of violence, exploitation and human trafficking.

Ukraines National Social Service (NSS), tasked with overseeing childrens rights, said it had done everything possible to preserve the lives and health of children and prevent them from being left in the epicenter of hostilities. It said that support for families is provided by specialized social services, and that it was working to resolve problems, Reuters reports.

Read the rest of this investigation here.

Since the beginning of September, Ukrainian forces have taken back 2,400 square miles of Russian-held territory, Reuters reports.

Since the beginning of September and up to today, our fighters have liberated more than 6,000 square km (2,400 sq. miles) of the territory of Ukraine in the south and in the east, Zelenskiy said in his nightly video. The advances of our forces continue.

Updated at 16.51EDT

Russian troops have left behind stockpiles of ammunition and other supplies following Ukraines days long counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast, the Kyiv Independent reports.

More from the story:

Liberated Kharkiv Oblast residents from Zaliznychne told the Washington Post that Russians dropped their weapons on the ground when they fled, with some jumping onto stolen bicycles, trying to pass for locals.

Vehicular losses were also great. Many pictures of Kharkiv Oblast showed abandoned Russian assets ranging from main battle tanks to engineering vehicles, self-propelled mortars and supply trucks.

Analyst Jakub Janovsky estimated that Russia lost a total of 336 fighting vehicles in the country from Sept. 7-11. A full 102 vehicles were lost on Sept. 11 alone, most of them in Kharkiv Oblast.

Read the rest of Kyiv Independents reporting here.

Updated at 16.43EDT

Its just after 11 PM in Ukraine. I am Aben Clayton and will be taking over the blog for the next hour. The impact of recent counteroffensive operations seems to have swung the pendulum in favor of Ukrainian forces, though it remains unclear how much their gains will impact the ultimate trajectory of the more than six month conflict.

Other notable happenings from the war include:

The United States assesses that Russia has largely ceded its gains near Kharkiv and many retreating Russian soldiers have exited Ukraine, moving over the border back into Russia, a senior US military official said on Monday, Reuters reports.

The Ukrainian authorities have said they are capturing so many prisoners of war among Russian soldiers retreating from occupation of the north-eastern region that the country is running out of space to put them, the Associated Press reports.

The military command of the Russian federation has stopped sending new units into Ukraine following a dramatic Ukrainian counter-offensive that has reshaped the war and left Moscow reeling, the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine said Monday.

Municipal deputies from 18 districts of Moscow and St Petersburg have signed a public statement demanding that Vladimir Putin resign. We, the municipal deputies of Russia, believe that the actions of President V. V. Putin harm the future of Russia and its citizens.

The United States assesses that Russia has largely ceded its gains near Kharkiv and many retreating Russian soldiers have exited Ukraine, moving over the border back into Russia, a senior US military official said on Monday, Reuters reports.

Overall we assess the Ukrainians are making progress as they fight to liberate and reclaim territory in the south and east.

On the ground in the vicinity of Kharkiv we assess that Russian forces have largely ceded their gains to the Ukrainians and have withdrawn to the north and east. Many of these forces have moved over the border into Russia, the US military official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity, without offering a number.

Well bring more details on this shortly.

Heres another voice.

Updated at 16.02EDT

The Ukrainian authorities have said they are capturing so many prisoners of war among Russian soldiers retreating from occupation of the north-eastern region that the country is running out of space to put them, the Associated Press reports.

As Ukrainian troops retook a wide swath of territory from Russia on Monday, pushing all the way back to the north-eastern border in some places, it was not yet clear if the Ukrainian blitz could signal a turning point in the war.

Momentum has switched back and forth before, but rarely with such a big and sudden swing.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich did not specify the number of Russian prisoners but said the POWs would be exchanged for Ukrainian service members held by Moscow.

Military intelligence spokesman Andrey Yusov said the captured troops included significant numbers of Russian officers.

Ukraines deputy interior minister accused fleeing Russian forces of burning official documents and concealing bodies in an attempt to cover up rights violations in the areas they controlled until last week.

Here is some footage with subtitles (and a warning of blurred images of bodies) tweeted by the UKs Sky News from its reporter in Zaliznychne, which the channel explains is a rural village that was occupied after the Russian invasion and until three days ago.

Updated at 15.47EDT

Theres more detail from Ukraines advance to the Russian border, as reported by the Associated Press, quoting residents of the Kharkiv region.

The Russians were here in the morning. Then at noon, they suddenly started shouting wildly and began to run away, charging off in tanks and armored vehicles, Dmytro Hrushchenko, a resident of Zaliznychne, a small town near the eastern front line, said.

Oleh Syniehubov, the governor of Kharkiv region, said that in some areas of the front, our defenders reached the state border with the Russian Federation.

And a spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence said Russian troops were surrendering en masse as they understand the hopelessness of their situation.

Video taken by the Ukrainian military showed soldiers raising the Ukrainian flag over battle-damaged buildings. In one scene, a fighter wiped his boots on a Russian flag on the ground. Other videos showed Ukrainians inspecting the wreckage of Russian military vehicles, including tanks.

Efforts to disarm landmines were under way in the recaptured areas, along with a search for any remaining Russian troops, Ukrainian military officials said.

Updated at 14.56EDT

Heres the Guardians editorial on the counteroffensive in Ukraine: A stunning breakthrough that could be a game-changer for Kyiv.

Read more here:

It is 9pm in Ukraine.

The military command of the Russian federation has stopped sending new units into Ukraine following a dramatic Ukrainian counter-offensive that has reshaped the war and left Moscow reeling, the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine said Monday. This information could not be corroborated. The Kremlin has yet to respond.

Municipal deputies from 18 districts of Moscow and St Petersburg have signed a public statement demanding that Vladimir Putin resign. We, the municipal deputies of Russia, believe that the actions of President V. V. Putin harm the future of Russia and its citizens. We demand the resignation of Vladimir Putin from the post of President of the Russian Federation! read the statement published by Ksenia Torstrem, the municipal deputy of the Semenovsky district of St Petersburg.

Ukrainian forces have gained significant ground these past few days, particularly in the Kharkiv region. Today, it appears they continued to make great strides, reaching the border at one more location in the Kharkiv region: near the village of Ternova.

Meanwhile, just today, Russia launched five missile strikes, more than 10 airstrikes and more than 20 attacks from rocket systems on military and civilian targets in Ukraine, the general staff of the countrys armed forces said. After knocking out the power and water supply once again to the Kharkiv region with earlier missile strikes, Russian forces continued its offensive on the city, this time directing its shelling toward the residential Nemyshlyansky district.

Authorities found the bodies of four tortured civilians in the recently recaptured Kharkiv town of Zaliznychne, the Ukrainian prosecutor generals office said. The discovery is an echo of the war crimes uncovered after Ukrainian troops retook Bucha and other areas around Kyiv.

Russian soldiers engaged in mass looting as they fled Kharkiv oblast, the defence intelligence unit of Ukraines defence ministry said. Soldiers loaded generators, telephones and computers taken from Ukrainians into their cars. Rare cases of school robberies have been recorded, even horizontal bars and sports equipment were taken out of gyms.

Municipal deputies from 18 districts of Moscow and St Petersburg have signed a public statement demanding that Vladimir Putin resign.

We, the municipal deputies of Russia, believe that the actions of President V. V. Putin harm the future of Russia and its citizens. We demand the resignation of Vladimir Putin from the post of President of the Russian Federation! read the statement published by Ksenia Torstrem, the municipal deputy of the Semenovsky district of St Petersburg.

It is difficult to speak out publicly because of the repression. Therefore, we came up with such a concise text, Torstrem told the The Insider. Deputies are not yet forbidden to have an opinion. And it is also not forbidden to speak for the resignation of the president. He is not a monarch, but a hired worker, receives a salary from our taxes.

Our function is to represent the interests of the people, and we see that the people are not satisfied. And our people are the source of power according to the Constitution. I personally do not understand the motives of Vladimir Putins actions. I think you cant be in power for so long.

The rest is here:
Russia-Ukraine war: medics killed by Russian strike during evacuation of hospital, says Kharkiv governor as it happened - The Guardian

The war has become impossible to ignore in Belgorod, southern Russia, just miles from the border with Ukraine. Russian soldiers retreating from the Ukrainian counterattack now roam the streets. Air defences boom out overhead several times a day. The city is once again filled with refugees. And, at the border, Russian and Ukrainian soldiers stand within sight of each other.

Three Russian soldiers from Ossetia are wandering the unfamiliar streets past the grand Transfiguration Cathedral late one evening. They seem unsteady on their feet, perhaps drunk or tired. And theyre looking for a place to eat.

Since February, they say, they have fought in Ukraine as part of the invasion force. They were stationed in the village of Velyki Prokhody, just north of Kharkiv, when the urgent signal came to flee back to Russia last week.

What can we say? An order is an order. We didnt have a choice, says one wearing a hat emblazoned with a Z, a tactical symbol adopted as a patriotic emblem of war support in Russia.

As the Russian front in Kharkiv has collapsed and Ukrainians who have chosen the Russian side have fled for the border, a dark thought has crossed the minds of ordinary people here: that the war may cross into Russia.

Asked where they are headed next, the soldiers say they dont know. But its likely, they think, they will be sent back south to defend the border.

The following day, some 400 National Guard troops are reinforcing positions held by the Russian border guards. Even there, an activist who was present said, soldiers were soul-searching among themselves. Within eyeshot are Ukrainian troops on the other side in a tense standoff.

How the fuck did this happen? one border guard said to another, two people who were there recall.

In Belgorod, the signals of war and tension are on display, even if most people believe the conflict is unlikely to spill over. Oleg, a restaurateur originally from Ukraine wears a shirt emblazoned with the phrase Born in Kharkiv, and has bought plywood boards in case he needs to cover his restaurants windows.

His business partner, Denis, has built a bomb shelter in his backyard and evacuated his grandmother from a Russian-held town in east Ukraine now on the frontline of the conflict.

Denis says he hopes that tensions will recede. But they are also taking precautions. Nobody expects it to come here, says Oleg. But we have to be ready.

In Belgorods central market, soldiers are stocking up for the winter, signalling that Russias war may stretch for the coming months or even longer.

Where are the balaclavas? one yells out, rummaging through one of several stalls selling camouflage hats, jackets, thermal underwear and other cold-weather equipment.

Every day, dozens of the boys come, there are so many of them now [since the counteroffensive], says Marina, who sells camouflage items in the market. Everyone has these glum faces. It is more tense now.

I see them buying these things, and I wonder why they dont already have [them], she also says, adding that the troops are buying basic food and cooking implements that she expected would be supplied by the army.

An elderly woman in the market cries on one of their shoulders. Please, please help us, she sobs emotionally. Men walk up to clap the soldiers on the back. Overhead, an explosion is audible. Air defences, one man murmurs.

You feel [the war] here in a way you dont feel it in other cities, says Andrei Borzikh, a bankruptcy lawyer who has been crowdfunding thermal rifle scopes and other equipment for the Russian army. He carries a helmet and a bulletproof vest in his car. You hear it.

Ukraine has not given any indication that it intends to cross the border or do more than retake territory occupied by Russia. But the very idea of the Kremlins quick, victorious war boomeranging back across the border into Russia speaks to the realities of the defeat suffered by its forces in recent days.

Some miscalculations were made in any case maybe they were tactical, maybe they were strategic, says Borzikh. The fact that Russia thought it had come there for ever was clear.

Like other boosters of the Russian army, he says that the recent defeats should be attributed to western support for Ukraine. Russia is now in a conflict with a third of the world community, he says.

On a recent weekday, a security officer in blue fatigues holds a Kalashnikov rifle outside the red-brick Lycee No 9 on the central Narodny Bulvar. An hour earlier, reports had emerged that the city was holding planned evacuations of local schools and major shopping centres, apparently in case of shelling or bomb threats.

The governor of Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, reissued an order on Monday requiring local authorities to check their bomb shelters. Schools near the border have been temporarily closed. Online videos show volunteers cutting down trees to build fortifications in the forested areas south of the city.

People here now understand that the war is not going well. In a series of interviews, locals describe feeling shock in the early days of the war, followed by a rise in patriotic sentiment accompanied by pro-war symbols such as the popular Z plastered on cars and buildings.

Now many of those have disappeared as Belgorod settles in for a long conflict that has come far closer than they ever expected.

As in many Russian cities, there is barely any anti-war activism. Ilya Kostyukov, 19, an opposition activist and founder of the Belgorod Anti-War Committee, says he focuses on encouraging people who oppose the conflict to speak up, and that trying to convince supporters of the war to change their minds is pointless.

Asked about direct consequences of the war for people in Belgorod, he points to the arrival of refugees and a recent blackout caused by an explosion hitting a nearby power station.

Soldiers had also been growing rowdy at the karaoke cafe where he works behind the bar. Fights break out regularly, he says. One group of soldiers refused to pay their bill and then pulled a pistol on a bouncer.

But largely, he says, apathy reigns in Belgorod. For us, it feels like no one cares until it touches them personally. Until someone brings a coffin to your home, nobody cares.

Some families are split by the border. Irina, a travel agent, lives with her daughter in their native Belgorod. But her ex-husband and father of her child lives in Kharkiv.

Our child is split between two countries, she says in a tense voice. Absolutely equally. No matter what happens.

Two weeks ago, she says, her ex-husband told her that he had been called up into army service by Ukraine. He was ready to serve because he felt it was his patriotic duty. She is terrified hell be killed.

I lost my mind a bit and said some really unpleasant things, she says of their most recent conversation. Anything can happen. I wanted to save the father of my child.

He is a citizen of Ukraine and he is fulfilling his duty for his country and trying to fulfil his duty to his family.

In the evenings, Yulia Nemchinova, a volunteer who delivers aid to people recently arrived in Belgorod from Ukraine, goes to a small shipping container in the industrial sector that she calls the warehouse. Inside, there are crackers and biscuits, nappies, tampons, tea and coffee and dozens of other products that wont spoil in the heat or cold.

On her phone, she has a spread- sheet of nearly 1,200 entries from families who have arrived, requesting basic goods. She estimates that 6,000 people are in need. One apartment alone had nearly two dozen people in it, she says. Belgorod is overflowing.

Nearly 85% of recent arrivals from Ukraine want to stay close to the border, she says. This had led many to decline going into government refugee camps along the border that would later see them sent further into Russia.

There is a sense, even among Putin supporters, that Russia is losing hearts and minds in Ukraine.

At a centre for aid distribution, Ukrainians with openly pro-Kremlin views ask why they havent been warned about the counteroffensive or received more aid from the government after arriving in Russia.

We feel homeless and like nobody needs us, says one woman with pro-Russian views who fled occupied Kupiansk, a town that was recently retaken by the Ukrainian army.

As promised to all those fleeing the war into Russia, she received 10,000 roubles (143) from the government. We got our 10,000 roubles, but my house was there, and Ive thrown everything away and become homeless, she says.

One Russia-based activist who regularly travelled into occupied Ukrainian territory in order to evacuate people says he was stunned by the lack of investment in infrastructure there. He recalls the feeling of witnessing an apocalypse while standing at an empty crossroads in Kupiansk.

He brought 3.5 tonnes of food and medicine to an orphanage where children had stayed behind. In other places, they simply travelled through small villages to bring food and medicine to local people, often elderly, who had stayed behind.

In Vovchansk, he says, there was no light or electricity for several months. I think thats one of the failures of the Russian army that they didnt bring enough benefits. So people welcomed the arrival of Ukrainian troops, he says.

Here is the original post:
They wont invade, will they? Fears rise in Russian city that Ukraine war could cross border - The Guardian

Ukraine is facing a battle to persuade its western allies, including the UK, to back its proposal for any peace settlement with Moscow to include multibillion reparations by Russia, in part using seized Russian state and oligarch assets.

Ukraine is lobbying the UN general assembly to adopt a resolution that will become the basis for the creation of an international compensation mechanism that could lead to the seizure of as much as $300bn (260bn) of Russian state assets overseas.

The US Department of Justice said in June the US and its allies have frozen $30bn of Russian elite assets and $300bn of Russian central bank assets held overseas.

Ukraines deputy justice minister, Iryna Mudra, was in London last week to discuss the issue with the Foreign Office after lobbying the Council of Europes council of ministers in Strasbourg alongside Olena Zelenska, the wife of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

A former banker, Mudra has been at the helm of the detailed legal and political discussions on reparations, holding talks in Germany, Paris and Brussels and with the US treasury assistant secretary, Elizabeth Rosenberg.

At the end of the last meeting in Strasbourg the Council of Europe ministers backed the principle of reparations, but issued a lukewarm statement about Ukraines specific proposals, saying it noted with interest the Ukrainian proposals to establish a comprehensive international compensation mechanism, including, as a first step, an international register of damage. The US treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, has said reparations would be unlawful under current US law.

But Ukraine has become increasingly ambitious that any definition of a military victory must include Russian agreement to reparations, a demand that Moscow would resist and complicate any peace negotiations. The issue is separate to establishing a legal mechanism to hold Russian leaders to account for war crimes.

Those close to the talks on reparations in London came away with an impression that British enthusiasm in principle for the plan is being weighed against the potential legal and property rights issues involved.

It is argued that if Russian central bank assets are appropriated, as opposed simply to being frozen as at present, any western assets held overseas could also become prey to seizure.

State property is protected abroad under the doctrine of state immunity, a principle endorsed in UN articles in 2011, which provides a foreign state with immunity from the jurisdiction of domestic courts, at least in respect of non-commercial activities.

In May, in conjunction with Columbia law school, Ukraine set up an International Claims and Reparations Project including the British barrister Alison Macdonald, the former state department legal adviser Jeremy Sharpe and two Columbia professors, Lori Damrosch and Patrick Pearsall.

They claim there is precedent for seizure of Russian state assets historically, pointing to compensation claims made against Iraq after the invasion of Kuwait, compensation paid by Iran to the US over the embassy hostage crisis, and the recent US seizure of Afghan central bank assets.

Ukraine accepts that at present Russian state assets overseas enjoy sovereign immunity, but believes this can be changed through national legislation, as has occurred in Canada. It says a second process is required to seize assets of Russian companies or oligarchs.

Yellens claim that the US does not have the current legal authority to seize Russian assets is partly because the US is not engaged in armed hostilities with Russia, and the US does not contest Russias lawful ownership of the assets.

Others say the US could deploy the Trading with Enemy Act or the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Reparations have been backed in a joint statement issued by the finance ministers of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia. Liz Truss as foreign secretary expressed support for the idea in principle, but has not repeated the proposal recently.

UK and European sanctions legislation allows states to freeze assets of the Russian central bank and some oligarchs, but does not provide for the permanent seizure, let alone their unilateral transfer to a fund to rebuild Ukraine.

The rest is here:
West wavers on Ukraine proposals to seize Russian assets as reparations - The Guardian

Kyiv, 19 September 2022

On 18 September, 400 000 doses of the Comirnaty mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 developed by Pfizer/BioNTech were delivered to Ukraine under the framework of the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) Facility. The vaccines will be distributed throughout 23 regions in the country by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.

Together with our international partners, we continue to deliver vaccines against COVID-19 to Ukraine. With the approach of the autumn/winter period, it is especially important to protect yourself from COVID-19, because as the experience of past years shows, the incidence increases sharply at this time, said Dr Ihor Kuzin, Deputy Minister of Health and Chief State Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine.

Vaccination is an important priority during humanitarian emergencies, and one of UNICEF's key areas of work aimed at the protection and well-being of children and their parents. UNICEF will continue to help Ukraine provide access to immunization and adhere to a cold chain for vaccines, emphasized Mr Murat Sahin, United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) Representative in Ukraine.

Dr Jarno Habicht, WHO Representative in Ukraine, explained, WHO continues to support Ukraines health system through the delivery of vaccines via the COVAX Facility and has trained over 30 000 health workers on the safe and effective use of COVID-19 vaccines, including on the use of the Comirnaty Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

Dr Habicht added, WHO urges everybody, especially the elderly, people with chronic diseases and those belonging to at-risk groups, to get their primary vaccine series and boosters against COVID-19 and to protect themselves and others as we enter the autumn/winter period.

The Comirnaty vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech contains messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) molecules that encode the spike protein found on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. After the vaccine is administered, this mRNA enters the cells of the body and provides them with a kind of instruction on how to create this protein. The immune system recognizes that the protein does not belong to the person and produces antibodies against it. This is how the body learns to protect itself in the case of an encounter with a real SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The vaccine is approved for emergency use by WHO. In Ukraine, the Comirnaty vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech was registered for use on 22 February 2021.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, Ukraine has received COVID-19 vaccines for free through COVAX. COVAX is an international initiative that promotes access to effective and safe vaccines against COVID-19 for all countries. Deliveries on behalf of the initiative will continue to protect as many people as possible in Ukraine from the coronavirus disease.

All adults and children over the age of 12 can be vaccinated against COVID-19 in Ukraine. A booster dose can be taken by all people over the age of 18. The second booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine is available for all people over 60 years old in Ukraine, as well as to those aged 1859 with underlying medical conditions that increase the risk of a severe course of COVID-19.

The European Union, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (Gavi), UNICEF, the United Kingdom, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and WHO all continue to support Ukraine on COVID-19 vaccination. Future deliveries will ensure that as many people as possible receive protection.

The Comirnaty vaccine delivery was made possible thanks to financial support from USAID.

The rest is here:
400 000 doses of Comirnaty vaccine delivered to Ukraine under COVAX - World Health Organization