One of Europe's biggest steel works damaged in Ukraine's Mariupol

 Azovstal is part of the Metinvest group, which is controlled by Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov

One of Europe’s biggest iron and steel works, Azovstal, has been badly damaged as Russian forces lay siege to the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, officials said Sunday. “One of the biggest metallurgic plants in #Europe destroyed. The economic losses for #Ukraine are huge. The environment is devastated,” tweeted Ukrainian lawmaker Lesia Vasylenko. Vasylenko posted a video of explosions on an industrial site, with thick columns of grey and black smoke rising from the buildings. One of her colleagues, wrote on Facebook that Russian forces “had practically destroyed the factory”.

“We will return to the city, rebuild the enterprise and revive it,” Azovstal’s director general Enver Tskitishvili wrote on messaging app Telegram, without specifying the extent of the damage. He said that when the invasion began on February 24, the factory had taken measures to reduce the environmental damage in the event of being hit. Azovstal is part of the Metinvest group, which is controlled by Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov.

Ukraine crisis: Exodus of firms from Russia reversing 30 years' investment

 Foreign energy majors have been pouring in money since the 1990s

Russia Ukraine Conflict: The invasion of Ukraine is causing a mass exodus of companies from Russia, reversing three decades of investment by Western and other foreign businesses there following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The list of those cutting ties or reviewing their operations is growing by the hour as foreign governments ratchet up sanctions against Russia, close airspace to its aircraft and lock some banks out of the SWIFT money messaging system. With the ruble plunging and the U.S. banning transactions with the Russian central bank, operating in Russia has become deeply problematic. Some companies have concluded that the risks, both reputational and financial, are too great to continue.

For some companies, the decision to exit Russia is the conclusion of decades of lucrative, if sometimes fraught, investments. Foreign energy majors have been pouring money in since the 1990s. Russia’s largest foreign investor, BP Plc, led the way with its surprising announcement on Sunday that it would exit its 20 per cent stake in state-controlled Rosneft, a move that could result in a $25 billion write-off and cut its global oil and gas production by a third…Read More

Russian attack on Ukraine possible any day, diplomacy still an option: US

 As Russia masses more than 100,000 troops near the border, Moscow has said it is not planning an invasion but could take unspecified military action if its security demands are not met

Russian President Vladimir Putin could order an attack on Ukraine within days or weeks, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan warned on Sunday, as Washington and its European allies continued efforts to offer Putin a diplomatic way out of the crisis.

“We are in the window. Any day now, Russia could take military action against Ukraine, or it could be a couple of weeks from now, or Russia could choose to take the diplomatic path instead,” Sullivan told the “Fox News Sunday” program. Sullivan made the comments in television interviews after two U.S. officials on Saturday said Russia, which seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, has in place about 70% of the combat power it believes it would need for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

As Russia masses more than 100,000 troops near the border, Moscow has said it is not planning an invasion but could take unspecified military action if its security demands are not met. Those include a promise that NATO will never admit Ukraine, a demand the United States and the 30-nation Western security alliance have called unacceptable. U.S. President Joe Biden spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, the White House said. That call came ahead of a visit by Macron to Moscow on Monday, the culmination of days of French contacts with Russia and Ukraine to try to de-escalate tensions….Read More