Show only key events Please enable JavaScript to use this feature Sweden will deliver 3 billion crowns (£242 million) worth of new military aid to Ukraine, its biggest defense hardware package to date that included an air defense system, Prime Minister Ulf Kristerson said. Reuters reports that previous arms contributions from Sweden, which has applied to join NATO along with neighboring Finland, have ranged from simple equipment such as helmets and body armor to rocket-propelled grenades and missiles. “It’s a bigger package of military support than all eight previous packages combined,” Kristersson told a news conference. “It’s the biggest we’ve done, and we’re following exactly Ukraine’s priority list of what they think they need right now.” Patrick Wintour The Guardian’s diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour reports from the G20 summit in Bali: Away from the headlines created by the missiles that landed in Poland, the G20 may have functioned behind the scenes at least as a venue for extending the vital agreement that allows Russian and Ukrainian wheat and fertilizer to be exported via the Black Sea, bringing relief to some of the poorest and hungriest countries in the world. The deal expired on Saturday. Russia is insisting on renewing the agreement signed in July, which it believes has been unfairly applied due to sanctions on Russian agricultural exports that remain in place. Russia had already briefly suspended the deal once. However, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking at a press conference in Bali, said he was confident the deal would be renewed, not just temporarily, but for a year. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan makes a statement during a press conference in Bali. Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Turkey jointly negotiated the initial Black Sea grain deal with the UN in July, and Erdogan said its existence allows grain to pass through the Russian naval blockade that had already allowed 11 billion tonnes of grain. Erdogan said he would hold further talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin once he returns to Turkey from the G20 summit. Russia has also secured an agreement that it will again be able to use a pipeline carrying ammonia, a key ingredient in nitrate fertilizer, through controlled Ukrainian territory before reaching a port near Odessa. Russia’s use of the pipeline was suspended following the Russian attack on Ukraine on February 24. The UN plan is for ammonia produced by the Russian fertilizer company Uralchem to be transported across the Russia-Ukraine border. The product will be purchased by US commodity trader Trammo before it is put into the pipeline, ensuring that no Russian grain is transported across Ukrainian territory. Uralchem is owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Dmitry Mazepin, making the transaction more complicated. The FT’s Ukraine correspondent Christopher Miller tweeted that he had spoken to Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, who said: We have nothing new to announce because we are waiting for the investigation to finish. We will update our statement after the investigation is complete. It is premature to comment until the investigation is complete. We saw the Biden statement. Miller also reports that there are currently air raid sirens and alerts “all over Ukraine right now.” Meanwhile, air raid sirens and alerts all over Ukraine right now, meaning Russian missiles are in the air. Yesterday Russia fired 100+ into Ukraine, destroying energy infrastructure and hitting residential buildings. At least one person was killed in Kyiv. pic.twitter.com/MqJ6xGDhW1 — Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) November 16, 2022 The village of Przewodów, where the explosion took place last night, is located in Poland, just over the border with Ukraine. Map of Poland, Ukraine and Belarus The scene of the explosion has been cordoned off by police as investigations continue. Police blocked off a street near where a rocket attack killed two people. Photo: Wojtek Radwański/AFP/Getty Images Here are some views sent over the news wires this morning of the damaged Antonivskyi Bridge over the Dnipro River. Retreating Russian forces blew it up as part of their retreat from the city of Kherson, a region of occupied Ukraine that the Russian Federation claims to have annexed. A view shows the ruined Antonivskyi Bridge over the Dnipro River. Photo: Reuters The Antonivskyi Bridge was one of the few viable crossings over the Dnipro to supply the northern part of Kherson Oblast from the occupied south. Photo: Reuters Oleksandr Syenkevych, mayor of Mykolaiv, posted on Telegram that there is an air alert in the area. In addition, journalist Mark MacKinnon reported air raid sirens sounding in the southern port city of Odessa.
Erdogan urges against provocation over Poland incident
Russian state news agency Tass reports that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is satisfied with Russia’s claim that it is not involved in the incident in Poland and that “insisting that the missiles were Russian-made will raise this issue.” Tass reports: “I have to respect the position of Russia, which has said that this is not its missile. For us, this is important,” Erdogan said, answering a question from Tass after the results of attending the G20 summit in Bali. The Turkish leader also called for a detailed investigation into the incident. In addition, Erdogan called US President Joe Biden’s statements that “they were not Russian-made missiles” important. “[German Chancellor Olaf] Scholz said they are in contact with each other, like six NATO countries. There was also the Biden statement. I think the insistence that the missiles were Russian made will cause this issue. We are trying as much as possible to put Russia and Ukraine on the same negotiating table. From this point of view, we believe that such a method as challenges is not correct. The path to peace is through dialogue,” the Turkish president added.
China urges “calm and restraint” over incident in Poland
All parties should “remain calm and exercise restraint under the current circumstances,” Reuters reported Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning as saying at a regular media briefing on Wednesday, commenting on the blast that killed two people in Poland. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, an aide to Ukraine’s president, warned on Telegram that emergency power cuts were possible today to stabilize supplies, following Russia’s barrage of attacks on energy infrastructure yesterday. Tymoshenko listed Volyn, Zhytomyr, Lviv, Sumy, Ternopil, Kharkiv and Khmelnytskyi regions as areas where utilities had not yet been fully restored to the entire population. While global attention is understandably focused on the response to the explosion in Poland, Ukraine continues to defend itself. Vitaliy Kim, governor of Mykolaiv reported on Telegram that during the night in his region Ukraine shot down 12 missiles and nine Shahed-136 kamikaze drones. He reported no casualties in the area.
