The sanctioned oil tankers have transported over $24 billion in cargo since 2024, according to Downing Street. The U.K. has now sanctioned more shadow fleet vessels than any other country.
Washington and its partners are considering additional sanctions if the parties do not observe a ceasefire, with political and technical negotiations between Europe and the U.S. intensifying since last week, Reuters' source said.
The Kyiv Independent’s contributor Ignatius Ivlev-Yorke spent a day with a mobile team from the State Emergency Service in Nikopol in the south of Ukraine as they responded to relentless drone, artillery, and mortar strikes from Russian forces just across the Dnipro River. Nikopol is located across from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Enerhodar.
Peter Szijjarto's announcement came after Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) allegedly dismantled a Hungarian military intelligence network operating in Zakarpattia Oblast.
Moscow and Washington discuss the potential resumption of Russian gas supplies to Europe, among other issues related to the peaceful settlement of Russia's war in Ukraine, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov confirmed to the Russian state-run Interfax news agency.
"This is a historic decision, as weapons for Ukraine will be purchased at the expense of the proceeds from frozen Russian assets through the European Peace Fund," Denys Shmyhal said.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa attends the Business Forum at Lancaster House on Nov. 23, 2022 in London. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
South Africa denied U.S. accusations that it had supplied Russia with weapons and ammunition, Reuters reported on May 12.
The Financial Times reported on May 11 that U.S. officials were "confident" that "weapons and ammunition were loaded onto the Lady R, a Russian vessel under sanctions that docked at Simon’s Town naval dockyard near Cape Town in December."
Authorities in one of South Africa's major export and tourism hubs told Reuters that it would make "zero economic sense" to aid Russia given its trade relationship with the U.S. and the inevitable sanctions that would follow.
According to Reuters, South African officials, when pressed for comment, did not answer if an unapproved shipment had left South Africa.
Clayson Monyela, a spokeperson for South Africa’s department of international relations and cooperation, planned to speak to the U.S. ambassador to South Africa, while Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor planned talk to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Reuters wrote.
This news is the latest scandal involving South Africa, Russia, and the ongoing war in Ukraine.
On April 30, South Africa's Sunday Times reported that South African officials were trying to persuade Russian dictator Vladimir Putin not to come to South Africa for a BRICS summit in August due to the International Criminal Court's warrant for his arrest.
South Africa, as one of the 123 countries party to the Rome Statute, would be obliged to execute arrest warrants issued by the ICC.
On April 25, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa walked back on public statements he'd made considering withdrawing from the ICC due to its "unfair treatment" of other countries.
The office said the statement was a "communication error" that the African National Congress (ANC) made during a media briefing.
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