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Good morning. As the six-month mark of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine approaches this week, a senior Russian diplomat has informed the Financial Times that Moscow sees no chance of a diplomatic resolution to end the war and expects an extended battle.
Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s everlasting consultant to the UN in Geneva, stated the UN ought to be enjoying an even bigger function in makes an attempt to end the battle and accused the US and different Nato nations of urgent Ukraine to stroll away from negotiations. There could be no direct talks between Putin and Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he added.
“Now, I do not see any possibility for diplomatic contacts,” Gatilov stated. “And the more the conflict goes on, the more difficult it will be to have a diplomatic solution.”
His remarks, regardless of a flurry of shuttle diplomacy in current weeks, marked a blow to negotiators who had hoped {that a} current settlement on grain exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports may type the idea for a broader deal.
The UN had grow to be mired in “politicisation” as a result of of the war and that had “damaged the authority of the UN and its organisations”, Gatilov argued, making it unable to act successfully as a mediator.
He additionally accused western nations of utilizing the battle “as a tool of isolation of Russia . . . damaging our position, economically, politically”.
Thank you for studying FirstFT Europe/Africa. Have an important week — Gary
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4. Germany’s accounting regulator says auditors ‘too close’ to purchasers BaFin’s head of accounting regulation Thorsten Pötzsch has lashed out at German auditors, accusing them of being “too close” to purchasers and calling for extra “professional scepticism” within the wake of Wirecard’s collapse, in his first interview after an overhaul of the nation’s accounting supervision.
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The day forward
Corporate earnings Ampol releases first-half outcomes, whereas Zoom Video Communications publishes second-quarter outcomes.
European Economic Association The EEA’s annual conference begins at Milan’s Bocconi University.
Russia’s Flag Day The nation celebrates its National Flag Day. Offices will stay open.
Former F1 boss goes to court docket Bernie Ecclestone is due to seem earlier than Westminster magistrates’ court docket charged with “fraud by false representation” for allegedly failing to declare abroad belongings believed to be value greater than £400mn.
What else we’re studying
Why workers are being despatched to bond with nature According to a current international survey, most employees are unable to clarify their very own corporations’ local weather commitments. Could environmental retreats — from sleeping within the woods to hugging timber — resolve the disconnect?
UK authorities’s favorite diagnostics agency faces its subsequent take a look at Randox, one of the so-called winners of the pandemic, made tons of of tens of millions from authorities contracts for Covid-19 diagnostics checks. Now, it’s utilizing that windfall to broaden its well being clinics in an effort to bolster preventive care and provides folks management over their very own well being checks.
Soaring fertiliser costs threaten to spark Africa meals disaster The value of nitrogen-based fertilisers has hit file highs consistent with pure gasoline prices within the wake of the war in Ukraine. Growers have reduce utilization in response, threatening to cut back meals manufacturing and deepen a world meals disaster and elevating the prospect of social unrest on the continent.
Why Biden is taking over non-public equity The affect of buyout teams on US trade has by no means been better. But the antitrust panorama is altering after years of lenient coverage, with regulatory businesses underneath President Joe Biden’s administration in search of to crack down on non-public equity and forestall it from “rolling up” huge chunks of American enterprise.
WeWork founder Adam Neumann’s VC-fuelled comeback After WeWork soared in valuation, crashed and have become a cautionary story, its mercurial founder is again with a brand new start-up, Flow, which he claims can disrupt the property trade. Andreessen Horowitz is betting he’s proper, to the tune of $350mn.
Travel
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