February 28, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Shell said on Monday it plans to exit its equity partnerships with Russian state energy giant Gazprom in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

According to a statement, Shell intends to exit its joint ventures with Gazprom and related entities, including its 27.5% stake in the Sakhalin-II liquefied natural gas facility, its 50% stake in the Salym Petroleum Development and the Gydan energy venture. The company will also end its involvement in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, the statement added.

“Our decision to exit is one we take with conviction,” he said adding that “We cannot — and we will not — stand by. Our immediate focus is the safety of our people in Ukraine and supporting our people in Russia. In discussion with governments around the world, we will also work through the detailed business implications, including the importance of secure energy supplies to Europe and other markets, in compliance with relevant sanctions.”

At the end of 2021, Shell had around $3 billion in non-current assets in these ventures in Russia, according to the company.

“We expect that the decision to start the process of exiting joint ventures with Gazprom and related entities will impact the book value of Shell’s Russia assets and lead to impairments,” said Shell in the statement.

The UK foreign office has advised against all travel to Russia, according to updated travel guidance published Monday. 

The foreign office said they have updated their guidance due to "the lack of available flight options to return to the UK, and the increased volatility in the Russian economy."

British nationals already in Russia should "be aware that it may not be possible to fly directly to the UK, or via EU countries," and they are advised to amend travel plans accordingly, the advisory added.

The number of canceled flights to and from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport rank the highest worldwide as western governments continue closing airspace to Russian aircraft.  

One in every five departing and arriving flights from Sheremetyevo have been canceled as of 12:30 p.m. ET Monday, according to data on flight tracking site FlightAware. The airport is the largest in Russia, according to its website.

Russian carrier Aeroflot has canceled one-quarter of its Monday flight schedule and delayed another 10% of flights, FlightAware said.

Europe and Canada have banned Russian flights from entering their airspace, leaving some aircraft to take circuitous routes. 

Late Sunday, Aeroflot Flight 111 from Miami to Moscow “violated the prohibition put in place” by Canadian aviation officials.

“We are launching a review of the conduct of Aeroflot and the independent air navigation service provider, NAVCAN, leading up to this violation,” Transport Canada tweeted. “We will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action and other measures to prevent future violations."

Aeroflot has now canceled the same flight scheduled for Tuesday.

On Friday, Delta Air Lines announced it was ending its codeshare booking partnership with Aeroflot. Delta said it would re-accommodate passengers on the handful of flights impacted by the move.

Russian national football teams and club teams have been suspended from competition until further notice by global football governing body FIFA and European football governing body UEFA. 

Shortly after this joint announcement, UEFA said it has ended its partnership with the Russian state-owned energy company, Gazprom, across all competitions, effective immediately.

UEFA made the announcement on Monday, saying, "The decision covers all existing agreements including the UEFA Champions League, UEFA national team competitions and UEFA EURO 2024."

The mayor of the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolayiv has written on Facebook, urging civilians to come out and “resist” as a “significant” amount of Russian armor is reported to be headed towards them. 

Sirens are reportedly going off in the city.

Twitter will now label all content that contains links to Russian state media and will demote that content algorithmically, the company said, as tech platforms have come under greater pressure to respond to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 

The move goes beyond previous steps that Twitter has taken in years past to label Russian state media accounts on the platform.

Since the invasion began, the "overwhelming majority" of Russian state media content appearing on Twitter has been shared by individuals, not the state media organizations' own accounts, the company said. Over the past week, individuals have shared more than 45,000 tweets per day containing media from Russian state outlets. 

Monday's change will mean that any link shared by a user to a Russian state media organization's website will automatically receive a label, warning viewers that the tweet "links to a Russia state-affiliated media website."

Content from state media outlets of other countries will also receive the same treatment "in the coming weeks," Kennedy added.

More context: Twitter has not permitted advertising by state-run media outlets since 2019, and the company suspended all ads in Ukraine and Russia last week amid the unfolding crisis to prioritize public safety information. 

The move follows requests by government leaders for tech giants to clamp down on pro-Russian propaganda, including by applying algorithmic controls that limit the amplification and recommendation of Russian-backed media.

See how other social media companies are responding to Russia's invasion here.

On Sunday, Russia’s close ally Belarus held a referendum, the result of which – in theory – opens the door for the former Soviet republic to host nuclear weaponry. 

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, newly independent states in addition to Russia appeared on the map with nuclear weapons stationed on their territory: Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

The prospect of three new countries armed with nuclear weapons alarmed world leaders, and with the signing of the Budapest Memorandum in 1994, the three agreed to give up their nuclear arsenals in exchange for security guarantees.

The vote in a referendum to approve a new constitution allows Belarus to shed its non-nuclear status. But does that mean it can acquire nuclear weapons? After all, the country does not have a weapons complex for designing, building or testing nuclear weaponry. 

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko seems to be hinting at something else: stationing Russian warheads on Belarusian soil. 

Addressing journalists at a polling station in Minsk on Sunday, Lukashenko said he could ask his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to “return the nuclear weapons” Belarus formally gave up when his country signed up to the Budapest Memorandum.

Poland and Lithuania do not possess nuclear weapons.

It’s unclear what plans Russia may have, in practice. But it’s worth noting that, days before Russia started its invasion of Ukraine, Lukashenko sat in the Kremlin situation center with Putin to observe nuclear drills, watching the launch of a series of missiles at different test ranges. 

There are several layers of irony in the nuclear rhetoric over Belarus. In stating his case for the invasion of Ukraine, Putin has made a baseless claim about supposed Ukrainian aspirations to acquire nuclear weaponry, something the Kremlin leader cast as an existential threat. 

And it’s worth remembering that Ukraine gave up its own nuclear stockpile in exchange for security guarantees to its territorial integrity from several countries – including Russia – that Putin has now broken.

The Biden administration wants to “reduce the rhetoric and deescalate” after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his country’s deterrence forces – which include nuclear arms – be placed on high alert, the White House said Monday. 

“We've seen this pattern from President Putin over the course of the last several months and even before then, where he manufactures the threat in order to justify a greater aggressive action,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told MSNBC.

“The Russians – President Putin included as the leader of Russia – have committed to taking steps to reduce nuclear threats," she added. “Everybody knows that that is not a war that can be won." 

Psaki said the US has its “own preparations” and “own ability and capacity to defend the United States,” but has not changed alert levels. 

The administration is also doubling down on the decision not to use US troops to create a no-fly zone in Ukraine, calling it “not a good idea” and "not something the President wants to do."

The implementation of a no-fly zone by the US military “would essentially mean the US military would be shooting down planes, Russian planes," Psaki said. “That is definitely escalatory that would potentially put us into a place where we're in a military conflict with Russia.

US President Joe Biden will talk about the situation in Ukraine during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, she confirmed.

Biden would talk about “the fact that the President has built a coalition of countries around the world to stand up to Russian aggression, to stand up to President Putin, to put in place crippling sanctions, that will be a part of what people will hear in the speech. That wouldn't have been the case three months ago,” she said. 

“If we look back at history,” she continued, “President Obama gave a speech during the worst financial crisis of our lifetime. President Bush gave a speech shortly after the worst terrorist attack on our homeland ever. It's always about expressing how you're going to lead the country.” 

She said there would be new policy proposals in the speech.

Several large detonations were heard around 6:40 p.m. local time Monday to the east of the Kyiv's city center.

They were the largest explosions heard Monday.

They were followed by sirens going off across the city.