Ukraine Update: Russia Asking China for Military Aid, U.S. Says
By Bloomberg News
Mar 13, 2022, 10:27 AM – Updated on Mar 14, 2022, 3:36 AM
Word Count: 3533

An aide to U.S. President Joe Biden warned Russia as air strikes shift further west toward Ukraine’s border with Poland, but said there’d been no change in the calculus around a no-fly zone. A strike at a military range and training center about 35 kilometers from Poland killed dozens on Sunday. Fighting continued on the outskirts of Kyiv, where Russian forces may be attempting to encircle the capital. Air strikes continued on Mykolaiv on the Black Sea, killing an estimated nine civilians.

Held talks with President @AndrzejDuda and Prime Minister @KirilPetkov. Informed on the course of ’s defense, the crimes of the Russian aggressor. We appreciate the assistance provided and the support of for ’s integration.

— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 13, 2022
The European Union is discussing sanctioning the owner of Chelsea Football Club, Roman Abramovich, along with more than a dozen others.

Key Developments
Qatar’s Foreign Minister to Visit Moscow Over Iran, Ukraine
Satellite Images of Russian Tanks Fail to Penetrate Fog of War
Mariupol’s Steel Mills Are a War Zone as Staff Huddle in Bunkers
Companies Leaving Russia Don’t Know If and When They’ll Return
Major Ukrainian Food Exporter Flips to Feed a Nation at War
How War in Ukraine Is Tearing Apart the Global Food System
All times CET:

Stocks, U.S. Futures Rise as Oil Falls (2:25 a.m.)
Asian stocks and U.S. equity futures climbed Monday, while Treasures fell, as traders weighed inflation risks from commodity-supply disruptions caused by war and braced for a Federal Reserve interest rates hike this week.

Japanese shares rose along with S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 and European contracts, providing some respite from selloffs spurred by Russia’s invasion. Investors were parsing efforts at diplomacy to tackle the conflict, as well as comments from a U.S. official that Russia asked China for military ​equipment.

Treasuries extended a rout, taking the five-year U.S. yield above 2% for the first time since May 2019.

Ukraine Envoy Calls China-Russia Ties ‘Toxic’ (2:17 a.m.)
Ukraine’s ambassador to Japan said China’s response to any Russian request for military assistance was an important question. Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg Television, Sergiy Korsunsky added that China’s ties with Russia would have “toxic” consequences for its image and economy, and said he hoped China would be “smart enough” to understand that.

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Power Line Restored at Chernobyl Site (10:15 p.m.)
Ukraine says it restored a power line to the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant on Sunday, four days after grid electricity to the Russian-controlled site was lost, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement.

The outage forced radioactive waste management sites and other operations at the site of the 1986 reactor disaster to run on generators, raising concern about safety.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian regulators say repairs and maintenance of safety equipment at Chernobyl have halted as the 211 technical personnel and guards suffer from exhaustion after being stuck there since the day before Russian forces entered the site on Feb. 24, according to the IAEA.

Russia Asking China for Military Aid, U.S. Official Says (9 p.m.)
The U.S. official did not specify what kind of equipment Moscow had requested. Russia currently sells far more arms to China than it buys, although Beijing’s rapid modernization of its military has seen it producing more advanced weapons in recent years.

The official declined to say how the administration knows these details. White House spokespeople declined to comment.

It’s unclear if China would respond positively to any such request. Beijing has stopped short of condemning Russia for its actions in Ukraine but also called repeatedly for negotiations toward a cease-fire and a resolution of the conflict. When Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, China stayed officially neutral.

Beijing usually takes the view that such actions by other countries are their own affairs as long as it does not impinge on its own interests. Providing Russia with weapons specifically to use against Ukraine would risk that veneer of neutrality, in a year when President Xi Jinping is eager for stability at home as he seeks an unprecedented third term.

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EU Discussing Sanctions on Chelsea’s Abramovich (8:31 p.m.)
The EU is discussing sanctioning the owner of Chelsea Football Club, Roman Abramovich, along with more than a dozen other prominent Russians, according to documents seen by Bloomberg and people familiar with the matter.

The list — which still needs to be approved by EU governments and could change before that happens — also includes Tigran Khudaverdyan, the executive director and deputy CEO of Yandex NV, a Russian internet search engine, and Victor Rashnikov, who owns Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel PJSC, one of Russia’s biggest steelmakers.

Diplomats aim to finalize the sanctions package, which includes limits on trade in luxury goods and steel, as early as Monday.

Latvia Calls for U.S. Troops in Baltics (7:30 p.m.)
Latvian President Egils Levits called for a permanent U.S. troop presence in the Baltics, calling it a test of American leadership.

“We should defend our way of life, our democracies,” he said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

NATO has four multinational battalion-size units in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland on a rotating basis. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week the U.S. hasn’t decided whether to permanently base troops in the Baltics.

EL-Erian Says War Effect to Spur U.S. Inflation Higher (6:17 p.m.)
Allianz SE’s Mohamed El-Erian said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the economic fallout from Russia’s invasion is likely to include a further pickup in U.S. inflation, estimating that the rate will peak at “very close or above 10%” before retreating.

El-Erian also is president of Queens’ College, Cambridge, and a Bloomberg contributor.

IMF Head Says Russian Default No Longer ‘Improbable Event’ (5:05 p.m.)
A Russian sovereign default is no longer improbable, though it’s unlikely to trigger a global financial crisis, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said.

“In terms of servicing debt obligations, I can say that no longer we think of Russian default as improbable event,” Georgieva said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program.

Day Two of COP26 Climate Change Talks World Leader’s Summit
Kristalina Georgieva
No Change to Calculus on No-Fly Zone, Sullivan Says (4:19 p.m.)
The U.S. hasn’t changed its calculus about a no-fly zone, despite the Russian strike on a military training facility near the Polish border or efforts to try to destroy supply lines, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“What we will do is increase and intensify our efforts to supply the Ukrainian defenders with the weapons and security assistance they need to defend themselves,” he said, adding that the U.S. is coordinating with allies on additional spending on military assistance.

Russia said Saturday that it considers convoys of Western military aid “legitimate targets.”

U.S. Journalist Killed in Shooting Near Kyiv (4:09 p.m.)
An American journalist and filmmaker was shot and killed Sunday covering the war in Ukraine in what may be the first foreign journalist killed in the conflict, according to multiple media and government reports. Brent Renaud, an award-winning filmmaker who’d covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, was shot in Irpin, north of the capital of Kyiv.

“My friend is Brent Renaud and he’s been shot and left behind.”

From a hospital bed, Juan Arredondo described his eye-witness account of the attack that killed U.S. journalist Brent Renaud on Sunday while covering the war in Ukraine https://t.co/oVrhBqLQdt pic.twitter.com/8XQAKr4oaG

— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) March 13, 2022
Senior U.S. and China Officials to Meet Monday on Ukraine (3:49 p.m.)
Talks in Rome will be the first high-level, in-person talks since the war started. The Biden administration is seeking to enlist China to use its influence on Russia, its ally, to end the crisis. So far Beijing has declined to condemn Moscow for its actions, even as it calls for negotiations to sustain a cease-fire.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will meet with China’s top diplomat and Politburo member Yang Jiechi in an effort to “maintain open lines of communication,” according to an NSC statement. The impact on regional and global security from the war will be on the agenda, according to a person familiar with the conversation.

U.S. Warns China on Aid to Sanctions-Hit Russia (2:51 p.m.)
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on CNN that the U.S. has warned China against helping Russia evade sanctions and is watching the extent to which it provides “material support or economic support” to Russia.

“We will not stand by and allow any country to compensate Russia for its losses from the economic sanctions,” Sullivan said. Large-scale sanctions evasion or providing support that allows Russia to “backfill” will have “consequences,” he said, without elaborating.

U.K. to Streamline Ukrainian Refugee Intake After Criticism
In-person visa applications will be scrapped in favor of online ones. Local authorities will receive 10,000 pounds ($13,000) per refugee to cover costs, while households that commit to hosting Ukrainians for at least six months will get 350 pounds a month, cabinet member Michael Gove told BBC TV.

The government is also considering using the assets of sanctioned Russians to help meet the cost of supporting Ukrainian refugees in the U.K.

Lviv Provides Stopover And Shelter For Ukrainians Fleeing Russian Attack
Children cram on a bus heading for the border with Poland on March 13.
Lviv Mayor Calls on U.S. Peers to Help (2:35 p.m.)
The mayor of Lviv in far western Ukraine addressed U.S. mayors on Sunday, urging them to push for more aid to Ukraine and a no fly zone.

“If you continue influencing your government, if you continue providing assistance, it will accelerate our victory,” Mayor Andriy Ivanovych Sadovyi told the National League of Cities’ conference in Washington. He said the world is witnessing a contest between autocracy and democracy.

Sadovyi called for a no-fly zone over Ukraine, a move U.S. policymakers have ruled out because it would put NATO forces in direct confrontation with Russia. His remarks were followed by a standing ovation among city leaders from across the U.S.

Russian Negotiator Says Talks Could Lead to Documents (2:51 p.m.)
The respective delegations have made some progress in talks to stop the war, according to Leonid Slutsky, a senior Russian lawmaker and one of his country’s negotiators, the Interfax news agency reported.

“According to my personal expectations, this progress can elevate in a few coming days into a mutual position of both delegations and signing of documents,” Slutsky said. He didn’t elaborate on what documents may emerge; there have been a variety of ideas put forward on the potential grounds for a cease-fire, even as Russia’s bombardment of Ukraine expands westward.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, Mykailo Podolyak, said on Telegram that Russia has advanced from making ultimatums to listening carefully. “There is a dialogue,” he said.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman picked up on cautious optimism. “We are seeing some signs of a willingness to have real serious negotiations,” Sherman said Sunday on Fox News.

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Biden Aide Warns Russia on NATO Encroachment (2:12 p.m.)
Even inadvertent Russian fire onto NATO territory would trigger a response by the military alliance, said White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said.

Sullivan spoke as Russia in the past few days has bombed targets increasingly close to Ukraine’s border with NATO member Poland, including a military training facility that had been used by NATO in the past.

“All I will say is if Russia attacks, fires upon, takes a shot at NATO territory, the NATO alliance would respond to that,” Sullivan told CBS’s “Face the Nation” when asked about how the alliance would view an “errant shot” on a member country.

Ukraine Continues Mass Evacuations (1:45 p.m.)
Ukraine opened ten humanitarian corridors on Sunday, some to evacuate people from dangerous locations around Kyiv and six in Ukraine’s east, including the a route into besieged Mariupol. Evacuation from Velyka Dymerka to Brovary in the Kyiv region was successfully completed, officials said.

Almost 125,000 people have been moved to safety via the humanitarian corridors so far, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in video statement. “Mariupol is key task today. Our humanitarian convoy is two hours from Mariupol, only 80 kilometers,” he said. A convoy with 100,000 tonnes of food, water and medications is on the way to Mariupol.

Audio today from an MSF staff member in the besieged city of Mariupol:

“There is no drinking water and any medication for more than 1 week…Another big problem is no [mobile phone] connection….people don’t know what’s happening all over Ukraine.”https://t.co/x4aBQ50RfJ pic.twitter.com/aQfFyOI3gC

— Doctors w/o Borders (@MSF_USA) March 12, 2022
Russia Says Half of Foreign Reserves Frozen (1:09 p.m.)
Russia has lost access to almost half of its foreign exchange reserves, according to Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. The U.S., European Union and U.K. have imposed sanctions on Russia’s central bank over the Ukraine invasion.

“The total volume of our reserves is about $640 billion and there are about $300 billion in such condition that we can’t use them now,” Siluanov told state television in an interview that aired Sunday. “We see what pressure Western countries put on China” to limit our access to reserves in yuan, he added.

Second Mayor in Ukraine’s Southeast Said to be Kidnapped (12:20 p.m.)
The mayor of the town of Dniprorudne in Zaporizhzhia region, Yevhen Maveyev, was kidnapped by Russian forces early on Sunday, according to a Facebook post by the head of the Zaporizhzhia regional administration, Oleksandr Starukh.

EU High Representative Josep Borrell condemned the two abductions in a Twitter post.

The EU strongly condemns the kidnapping of the mayors of Melitopol and Dniprorudne by Russian armed forces.

It is yet another attack on democratic institutions in #Ukraine and an attempt to establish illegitimate alternative government structures in a sovereign country.

— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) March 13, 2022
Czechs Ask EU for Help in Refugee Crisis 12:07 a.m.)
The Czech Republic asked the European Union for financial and material help as the country’s capacity for accepting Ukrainian refugees is at its limit, said Prime Minister Petr Fiala.

“We have here more than 200,000 refugees and more are to come,” Fiala said. The nation of 10.7 million people asked European authorities to provide mobile humanitarian centers that could accommodate tens of thousand of people. Refugee aid programs should allow the country to tap into EU money, Fiala said.

Russia Looks to Install Leaders After Abducting Melitopol Mayor (10:53 a.m.)
Russia is seeking to install a new leader and a “committee of chosen ones” in the southeastern city of Melitopol after abducting its mayor, Ivan Federov, on Friday.

Local lawmaker Halyna Danylchenko posted a video saying the committee would take charge. Other local officials, including the city’s current elected council, have refused to collaborate with Russian forces and residents have protested the occupation, chanting “Melitopol is Ukraine.”

Ukraine has said separately that Moscow plans a sham “referendum” in the occupied southern city of Kherson in a bid to show that residents want to break away from Ukraine. Western intelligence warned before the war that Moscow would try to install puppet administrations if it invaded.

Following 2014 playbook, Russians now desperately try to organize a sham ‘referendum’ for a fake ‘people’s republic’ in Kherson. Given zero popular support, it will be fully staged. Severe sanctions against Russia must follow if they proceed. Kherson is & will always be Ukraine.

— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) March 12, 2022
Anti-War Protesters Detained Across Russia (10:40 a.m.)
About 100 people have been detained Sunday at anti-war protests in 17 cities around Russia, according monitoring group OVD-Info. The largest number was in Yekaterinburg, where 24 people were seized by police.

Jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny called on Russians to come out against the war in the main squares of dozens cities. The protests are considered illegal by Russian authorities, who’ve detained over 13,000 people nationwide since the attack began. Most of the arrests have taken place in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where demonstrations are planned later on Sunday.

Ukraine Warns Potential Collaborators (10:40 a.m.)
Ukraine’s government will criminally prosecute those who collaborate with Russian occupiers by participating with sham local authorities, said President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff.

“Any initiatives in the occupied cities in the south of Ukraine, in Kherson, Kakhovka, Henichesk, aimed at holding ‘referendums,’ fictitious sessions of local councils, distributing passports, are absolutely useless,” Mykailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter.

Any initiatives in the occupied cities in the south of , in Kherson, Kakhovka, Henichesk, aimed at holding “referendums”, fictitious sessions of local councils, distributing passports, are absolutely useless. Russian troops will leave , collaborators will be prosecuted.

— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) March 13, 2022
Poland Says Close to 1.7 Million Have Crossed Border (10:04 a.m.)
A total of 1.675 million people have crossed into Poland from Ukraine since Feb. 24, including 79,800 on Saturday and another 16,800 early Sunday, border authorities said. President Andrzej Duda said as many as 2.5 million may end up fleeing to Poland, where most refugees are being supported by volunteers.

Good night, #Europe.

Evacuation train from #Poltava to #Lviv.
People drove for 17 hours with the curtains down not to become living targets for the Russian army. Sadly, this is just one of many tragic stories of forced evacuations of Ukrainians.#StopRussia #StopPutin pic.twitter.com/rj0D29ntqb

— Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (@ua_parliament) March 12, 2022
Russian Missiles Strike Military Range Near Poland (9:16 a.m.)
Russia is targeting additional sites in far western Ukraine, close to the border of NATO member Poland, it what’s likely to become a new provocation for the U.S. and NATO allies.

Dozens of missiles hit the Yaroviv military training center in the Lviv region, regional officials said, killing at least 35 people and wounding 134, Lviv region governor Maksym Kozytskyi said on Telegram. The facility is within an hour’s drive of the Polish border. The U.S. has regularly sent military instructors there since 2015 and it’s also hosted NATO drills at times, the Associated Press reported.

The bombing follows strikes on other targets in western Ukraine a day earlier. Some 10 cruise missiles were directed at airfields in Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk, to the north and south of Lviv, respectively, officials said.

NATO Chief Rejects ‘Absurd’ Russia Claims (9:00 a.m.)
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that the suffering in Ukraine is likely to get worse in the short term.

NATO Ministers of Defence Summit
Jens Stoltenberg
“The coming days are likely to bring even greater hardship,” the NATO chief said. He rejected “absurd claims” by Russia about chemical and biological weapons laboratories in Ukraine, and warned Moscow against attacking Ukraine with weapons of mass destruction “under this web of lies.”

In Germany, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht is fleshing out plans to quickly raise the army’s combat readiness. Germany can no longer afford “overambitious dream projects,” she said in an opinion piece for Die Welt. The focus will now be “on proven, mature products that are available on the market.”

Gazprom Says Transit Via Ukraine Continues (8:59 a.m.)
Russian natural gas supplies to Europe are continuing as usual, Tass reported Sunday, citing Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov.

The gas export monopoly is shipping gas via Ukraine and paying transit fees to the country, even after the Russian invasion began over two weeks ago.

Air Serbia to Reduce Moscow Flights After Criticism (8:48 a.m.)
Serbia’s flagship carrier will scale back flights to Moscow following criticism it ramped up its schedule after other European airlines halted service.

The Balkan country hasn’t joined international sanctions on Russia, although it backed United Nations resolutions condemning the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. Announcing the move on Sunday, President Aleksandar Vucic cited unspecified “harangues” against Serbia and allegations that Air Serbia was profiting by offering Russia travelers a rare loophole to fly into Western Europe via Belgrade.