Latest news about Russia and the war in Ukraine

The United States finished a A decisive exemption that allowed Moscow to pay off its foreign debt For foreign investors in US dollars through US and international banks, Likely to force Russia to default.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control had allowed dollar payments on a case-by-case basis, enabling Russia to service its foreign debt thus far, despite draining its accumulated foreign exchange reserves. The Office of Foreign Assets Control announced in a bulletin on Tuesday The exemption will expire at 12:01 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

Russia has a flood of debt-servicing deadlines coming this year, notably $400 million in interest payments due in late June.

Adam Solowsky, partner in Financial Industry Group at global law firm Reed Smith, told CNBC Friday that Moscow will likely argue that it has not defaulted because repayment has become impossible, despite the availability of funds.

Solovsky said the situation was entering “unknown territory” and that Russia and the United States were likely to discuss a period of “protracted litigation.”

Read more about this story here.

British retailer Marks and Spencer It announced it was pulling out of Russia, becoming the latest in a long line of companies to do so.

The food and apparel retailer halted shipments to Russia in March, and said on Wednesday it would exit its concession there, at a cost of 31 million pounds ($39 million).

In its latest earnings update, M&S said it started the current year 2022-23 from a lower profit base.

“The business is now in a much better position and has an encouraging start to the year. However, due to increased cost pressures and consumer uncertainty, we do not currently expect to progress from this lower earnings base in 2022-23,” she added.

– Holly Eliat

A senior official told CNBC that the EU should support Ukraine in its reconstruction, but said the degree to which the union would bear the bill for Ukraine’s eventual rebuilding is largely unknown.

“It has to be a European commitment, because Ukraine is in Europe and they want to enter the European Union and we consider them in our family so Europe cannot say that reconstruction is a matter of other global players,” Paolo Gentiloni, the European Commission’s economics commissioner, told CNBC on Wednesday.

“How are we going to deal with this issue? This is an open question, but it is not the question at the moment. The issue at the moment is Ukraine’s support because the fact that this resistance succeeds is crucial to our future,” he said.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine dominated the agenda of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as political and business leaders warned that the war already had far-reaching consequences for global food supplies and geopolitical stability.

– Holly Eliat

Liberal billionaire George Soros said, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine It can be considered the starting point of World War III.

At his annual dinner at the center of the World Economic Forum on Tuesday evening, Soros said the course of history has changed dramatically since the last event in Davos, Switzerland.

“Russia invaded Ukraine,” he told the audience. “This shook Europe to the core.”

“The European Union was created to prevent such a thing from happening. Even when the fighting stops, as it must in the end, the situation will not return to what it was before. Indeed, the Russian invasion may be the beginning of the third world war and our civilization may not survive it.”

Read the full story here: Soros says civilization may not survive Putin’s war in Ukraine, warns of global depression

– Matt Clinch

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia is using everything at its disposal to fight over four cities in the eastern Donbass region.

“The situation in Donbass now is very difficult,” Zelensky said in his nightly address to the nation. “Practically speaking, the entire force of the Russian army, no matter what they have left, is thrown into the attack there. Lyman, Popasna, Severodonetsk, Slavyansk – the occupiers want to destroy everything there.”

The Ukrainian army is resisting, Zelensky said, but “it will take much more time and effort for our people to overcome their advantage in the amount of equipment and weapons.”

He told the Ukrainians they should be proud that they had stopped Russia for three months in a war that many in Russia and the West expected would last three days.

– News agency

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that while the 30-member military alliance did not send troops to Ukraine, a Russian attack “on a NATO ally would result in a full response from the entire alliance”.

“This is deterrence. The purpose is not to provoke conflict but to prevent conflict and maintain peace,” Stoltenberg said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Stoltenberg said that since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, NATO has increased its military presence in the alliance’s eastern parts.

“Now we have 40,000 soldiers in command of NATO. We have more naval and air capabilities, especially in the eastern part of the alliance, and we have 100,000 soldiers on high alert,” he said. “This is to send a very clear message to Moscow and not leave room for miscalculation or misunderstanding,” he added.

– Amanda Macias