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The situation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has deteriorated rapidly to the point of becoming “very alarming”, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Mariano Grossi warned the Security Council today, in a meeting requested by the Russian Federation and marked by resounding calls to allow the Agency’s technical experts to visit the area to address mounting safety concerns.

“These military actions near such a large nuclear facility could lead to very serious consequences,” Mr. Grossi said, stressing that the Agency has been in frequent contact with both Ukraine and the Russian Federation to ensure it has the clearest picture possible of the evolving circumstances.

Providing an overview of events, he said that, on 5 August, the Zaporizhzhia plant — Europe’s largest — was subjected to shelling, resulting in several explosions near the electrical switchboard, and causing a power shutdown.  One reactor unit was disconnected from the electrical grid, triggering its emergency protection system and setting generators into operation to ensure power supply.  There was also shelling in a nitrogen-oxygen station.  While firefighters extinguished the blaze, he said repairs must be assessed and evaluated.

While IAEA experts’ preliminary assessment indicated that there is no immediate threat to nuclear safety as a result of the shelling or other military actions, “this could change at any moment”, he said. […]

Ruchira Kambo (India) said that, since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, her country has consistently called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and an end to violence.  She called on both sides to return to the path of diplomacy and dialogue, affirming India’s support for all diplomatic efforts to end the conflict. Läs artikel

Satellittbilder bekrefter at flere russiske fly gikk tapt i eksplosjonene på Sakhi-flybasen på den annekterte Krim-halvøya. Russland benekter dette. Russland hevder eksplosjonene skyldes et uhell, men vestlige analytikere sier at det er usannsynlig. Ukraina har ikke tatt på seg ansvaret for angrepet, selv om anonyme tjenestemenn er blitt sitert på at det var Ukraina som sto bak.

Ifølge Ukraina ble minst ni fly ødelagt. Satellittbilder viser helt tydelig at minst sju jagerfly er blåst i været og at det trolig er skader på flere fly.

Dersom det viser seg å være et ukrainsk angrep som rammet flybasen, kan det være en betydelig eskalering av krigen. Det vil i så fall være det første store ukrainske angrepet på Krim og basen som brukes til angrep i Sør-Ukraina.

Den amerikanske tankesmia Institute for the study of war skriver at det fortsatt ikke er mulig å fastslå hva som førte til eksplosjonene. De skriver at satellittbildene viser flere kratre, som kan skyldes raketter eller eksplosjoner utført av spesialstyrker eller sabotører. Läs artikel

Givarkonferensen i Köpenhamn till förmån för Ukraina har under dagen samlat in motsvarande omkring 15 miljarder svenska kronor.

– Ukrainas strid är vår strid, säger Danmarks försvarsminister Morten Bødskov efteråt. […]

Målet är att trappa upp stödet bland annat genom direktproduktion av vapen till Ukraina. Här har Polen, Tjeckien och Slovakien räckt upp handen och sagt sig vara redo att utöka sin produktion av artillerisystem, ammunition och annan utrustning.

Om även svensk vapenindustri kommer att påverkas av den nya inriktningen av Ukrainastödet kunde försvarsminister Peter Hultqvist (S) inte kommentera närmare.

– Jag utesluter ingenting. Vi är inne i en process där vi tittar på de möjligheter som finns. […]

Sverige gjorde inte några nya utfästelser i samband med givarkonferensen.

– Jag har deltagit i mötet för att informera mig om situationen och de olika projekten. Sedan får vi fortsätta att diskutera ekonomin, sade Hultqvist. Läs artikel

Big western companies are pulling out of Novatek’s grand Arctic LNG 2 project. Turkish companies, among them Karpowership, appear ready to take their place.

Novatek’s large liquified natural gas projects in the area all heavily depend on Western technology, and a full halt in developments now threaten the latest project, the Arctic LNG 2. Novatek will not be able to complete the project as planned following the exit of Baker Hughes, as well as Saipem and Technip. But help might be on its way from Putin-friendly Turkey.

Karpowership, the Turkish manufacturer of so-called powerships, is reported to be in talks with Novatek over the construction of a 300-400 MW floating power station that can provide the first of the project’s three trains with energy.

According to Kommersant, Novatek has little choice but to contract the Turkish company. There are simply no other available options in the market. Läs artikel

[…] As Harvard University’s William Overholt put it: “Pelosi accomplished much in Taiwan. She stimulated cyberattacks, got thousands of businesses banned from exporting to China, shut down important cross-Strait communications tool Weibo, elicited mainland military exercises and stimulated an imminent temporary blockade.”

Ms Pelosi undermined US President Joe Biden and made him seem weak, after he said the military didn’t want her to go but she went anyway. This does not demonstrate coherent American strength on the issue, especially since Mr Biden is the leader of the Democrats, the party to which they both belong. […]

The Shanghai Communique of 1972, which is the foundation of diplomatic relations between the two countries, states it plainly: “The United States acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States Government does not challenge that position.”

It may not have done then, but Mr Biden has come as close as possible to trashing the “One China” stance with his repeated assertions that the US would defend Taiwan if it came to war, even once comparing America’s relations with the island to those with its treaty partners in Nato. This is recklessness in the extreme. However much outsiders may have sympathy for the people of Taiwan, there is no legal basis for independence, and when the nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek retreated there in 1949 after being defeated by the communists in China’s civil war, he certainly didn’t think he was going to a different country.

Hawks like Mr Colby believe the answer is for the US to increase defence spending drastically. Many in the region that would be directly affected by conflict believe, on the other hand, that it has never been more crucial to reaffirm the “One China” policy. It was noticeable that in their statements following Ms Pelosi’s visit, nearly every member of the Association of South-East Asian Nations stressed their commitment to that position, which maintains there is but one China, whatever the current circumstances happen to be. Läs artikel

 Russia told the United States on Monday it would not allow its weapons to be inspected under the START nuclear arms control treaty for the time being because of travel restrictions imposed by Washington and its allies.

Inspection conditions proposed by Washington created ”unilateral advantages for the United States and effectively deprive the Russian Federation of the right to conduct inspections on American territory,” the Moscow foreign ministry said in a statement. Läs artikel

[…] Kiev remains afloat due to abundant Western aid. President Volodymyr Zelensky has pushed the West for active military intervention, so far unsuccessfully. His latest gambit is to urge the Biden administration to declare Moscow a state sponsor of terrorism.

There is just one problem with the idea: Russia is not a state sponsor of terrorism.

Of course, the Putin regime is evil, having brutally invaded its neighbor. There was no justification for Russia’s aggression, though allied violations of multiple security assurances and expansion of NATO to Russia’s border help explain his decision. Moscow is a criminal actor. However, that does not mean it is a terrorist state.

Zelensky’s desire to get as much for his country from the West is understandable. In a comparable situation, any American president should do the same. Indeed, when seeking independence the American colonists assiduously lobbied the French monarchy for aid, which turned out to be critical for their victory. (Ironically, Paris’s war with Great Britain ultimately was disastrous for France, bleeding the monarchy financially and thereby contributing to the subsequent French Revolution. More evidence that no good deed goes unpunished, which Washington should bear in mind today.) […]

The most obvious reason not to put Moscow on the list is to stop misusing a designation originally meant to apply to what most people would understand as terrorism. The practice of terrorism was recognized as a special horror and believed to warrant unique treatment. The label loses its meaning when applied for reasons other than a country’s having sponsored terrorism. It would be better to simply abolish the practice of naming countries state sponsors of terror than to continue diluting the label. Läs artikel

Nu är det bara sju länder kvar i försvarsalliansen Nato som inte har skrivit under ratificeringen av Sverige och Finlands natoansökan.

Ann Linde som var på besök i Jönköping under onsdagen berättar hur diskussionerna med Turkiet går inför deras godkännande och att hon fortsatt står fast vid sitt uttalande om att släppa fri den fängslade oppositionsledaren Selahattin Demirtas.

”Det är ju så att alla 30 länderna måste ratificera, man har varit osäker på Turkiet om Sverige menar allvar när det gäller att bekämpa terrorismen, därför krävde dem ett avtal om mer samarbete i terroristbekämpning”, säger utrikesminister Ann Linde. Läs artikel