That’s new! Japan publicly denies it rejected the EU’s request to join the Russian-asset plan — Reuters.
Vice Finance Minister Mimura: Japan has acted for Ukraine from our national interest, noting Japan could one day face a similar threat in East Asia. 1/
Politico claimed Japan blocked the EU’s push for G7 backing to mirror Brussels’ plan to use proceeds from frozen Russian sovereign assets to fund Ukraine, and that Finance Minister Katayama opposed using Japan’s $30B in frozen Russian assets due to legal risks. 2/
Japan insists this account is incorrect.
Mimura: Katayama never said Japan wouldn’t participate, instead, she told G7 ministers that Tokyo is preparing concrete steps to support Ukraine. 3/
Witkoff, Kushner and Putin’s envoy chief Kirill Dmitriev now bargain with Russia like it’s 1995 again.
They pitch deals in energy, rare earths, Arctic drilling, even a Mars trip with SpaceX, while they fold these offers straight into “peace talks”, The Moscow Times reports. 1/
Dmitriev pushes one mission: pull U.S. money back into Russia. He waves profits in front of American negotiators and tells them Western firms “left billions on the table” after exiting in 2022.
Ukraine stays outside these talks. 2/
This returns us to two failed fantasies of the 1990s:
– business will “open” Russia;
– markets will “turn Russia democratic.”
Putin never played that game. He used the state to seize companies, feed his circle, and tighten control and war only hardened that system. 3/
The EU plans to end all Russian gas imports by Sept 2027, but keeps buying fertiliser made from Russian gas, paying the Kremlin while it bombs Ukraine — The Economist.
Russia now supplies about one-third of fertiliser used by EU farmers, more than before the war. 1/
Before the full-scale invasion, Russia supplied 30% of fertilisers bought by EU farmers. Imports dipped in 2022, then rebounded: by Q2 2025 its share was a third.
In June alone the EU imported 1m tonnes of Russian fertiliser, the highest monthly figure in a decade. 2/
Nitrogen fertilisers are gas in another form: producers turn natural gas into ammonia, then into plant food.
So Europe can ban Russian gas at the border and still import cheap fertiliser made from it. Russia now makes about one-fifth of the world’s fertiliser output. 3/
FT: Russia planned terrorist attacks on flights from Europe to the United States.
European intelligences seized about 6 kg of explosives from the operatives — enough to carry out the deadliest aviation attack since September 11, 2001. 1/
The first stage of the operation were explosions at DHL logistics centers in Poland, Germany, and the UK in 2023-2024.
The next step was to be the bombing of aircraft on routes to the US. 2/
At least 20 defendants have already been identified in Lithuania and Poland. The organizer of the operation fled to Azerbaijan. 3X
US pressure on Zelenskyy has escalated sharply: according to two senior Ukrainian officials.
Washington is now pushing Kyiv to accept major territorial losses and other concessions in Trump’s peace plan — while Europeans tell Zelenskyy the opposite — Axios. 1/
The core dispute:
- Russia demands all of Donbas, including areas it doesn’t control.
- Ukraine demands binding US security guarantees.
Ukrainian officials say the latest US proposal got worse after Kushner and Witkoff’s 5-hour meeting with Putin in the Kremlin. 2/
Kyiv claims Kushner and Witkoff pushed for a yes on the call.
Ukrainian official: It felt like the US was trying to sell us the Russian desire to take the whole Donbas and wanted Zelenskyy to accept it over the phone. 3/