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The global energy landscape is being reshaped as Europe looks for new supplies and Russia pivots to Asia. 

By Damon Evans, April 22, 2022

Russia’s war in Ukraine has triggered a fundamental shift in its energy trading relationships with the rest of the world, particularly Western Europe. Signs of that realignment are already appearing as European leaders take action to cut their reliance on Russia for energy supplies. Crucially, this may speed up Russia’s energy pivot to China.

The European Union has laid out targets to slash its demand for Russian natural gas by two-thirds by the end of 2022 and eliminate this dependence before 2030. The plan relies on more imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from global markets, heat pumps and energy efficiency, as well as more low-emission power generation. LNG negates the need for pipelines by cooling natural gas to -162C at which point it reaches a liquid state, and can be stored and shipped, then turned back into gas.

Xi Nan, a gas and power expert at Norwegian-based consultancy Rystad Energy, said the proposed pivot is ambitious: Russia pumps enough gas into Europe every day to cover a third of the continent’s consumption.

It sent 155 billion cubic metres (cm) to Europe in 2021. Of that, a maximum 80 billion cm could be replaced by other gas sources, leaving a deficit of around 70 billion cm that would need to be filled by fuels such as coal, nuclear and renewables, said Nan.

The 80 billion cm is calculated based on maxing out LNG regasification capacity in Western Europe and increasing gas production on the continent. To put that in perspective, Europe would require new sources of LNG nearly equivalent to yearly deliveries to South Korea, the world’s third-largest buyer.

It is difficult for Europe and Russia to decouple their natural gas trade. “Both sides are tied physically by the pipelines into an exclusive supply chain with high replacement costs and the risk of legal arbitration,” Kaho Yu, principal Asia analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, a strategic risk intelligence company, told China Dialogue.

As a reference, it took Russia over 10 years to gradually lower its dependency on transit via Ukraine for gas flows to Europe, from 65% in 2011 to around 25% in 2021, said Yu. “It is equally difficult for Europe to immediately diversify away from Russian gas with alternative gas supplies or a renewables-based system,” he added.

No quick fix

For European countries wanting alternatives to Russian gas, global LNG markets are an obvious place to find supplies in the medium term, particularly from the US.

“The US has the gas resources, the infrastructure, and the construction capabilities to achieve a significant increase in LNG exports relatively quickly,” said Ed Crooks, vice chairman, Americas, at energy research firm Wood Mackenzie.

However, “it cannot be an answer to immediate shortages – US LNG export facilities are already running at full capacity – but in a few years it could make a significant contribution to reducing Europe’s dependence on Russian gas,” said Crooks.

Indeed, Europe’s gas supply crisis has already sucked the world dry of LNG, forcing up prices. Emerging Asian markets, such as Bangladesh and Pakistan, have felt the brunt of this with no relief in sight, said the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

“There simply isn’t available LNG capacity globally to supply Europe with gas,” said IEEFA analyst Bruce Robertson. As a result, Europe and energy-hungry Asia are competing for spot LNG cargoes, which has caused gas prices in Asia to rise multiple times from mid-2021 to date.

To help Europe overcome potential supply disruption, the US has been discussing with major global gas producers to distribute some production to European buyers, agreeing to supply an additional 15 billion cm to the EU this year.

However, there are limited options. “It is also difficult for Europe to compete with Asian LNG buyers who pay high gas prices of more than US$30/MMBtu, which is unbearable in Europe. Moreover, many of the LNG supplies are already locked in the Asian market with long-term agreements,” said Verisk’s Yu.

Qatar, the world’s biggest LNG exporter until last year, when the US took the crown, is massively expanding its production capacity from 77 million to 110 million tonnes per year by 2026. “Therein lies the rub. There are at least four European winters before and if any Qatari gas arrives,” said Robertson.

International LNG supply will remain tight for the foreseeable future. The European energy crisis has quickly become a global crisis, with countries from Asia to South America scrambling for cargoes.

“Whether Europe goes for partial or full replacement of Russian gas, a significant pivot will be very challenging in all scenarios,” Tony Regan, a gas and LNG consultant at NexantECA, told China Dialogue.

“Far more needs to be done, and this may include radical steps, such as bringing back online coal and nuclear power. Investment in renewables, as well as battery storage to back up wind and solar, will have to increase,” said Regan.

For now, the European Commission’s sanctions, which includes bans on new investment into the Russian energy sector, “still steers clear of the jugular: oil and gas purchases,” noted Rystad Energy. Still, Europe is determined to wind down its dependence on Russian energy this decade, which will eventually rob Vladimir Putin’s government of much-needed income. At current price levels, Russia earns around $400 million every day supplying piped gas to Europe, according to Rystad Energy.

The uncoordinated scramble by European countries to diversify gas supplies means “Europe’s gas crunch has become a crutch for the gas industry,” said Greig Aitken, research analyst at Global Energy Monitor (GEM).

“Only six months ago the window for gas expansion in Europe was clearly beginning to close due to EU climate targets demanding sharp cuts in emissions and gas consumption by 2030,” said Aitken.

GEM’s 2022 Europe Gas Tracker Report finds that European countries are now considering a 25% increase in gas import capacity to 160 billion cm per year through investments in LNG terminals and pipelines. The report warns against such investments, arguing that import capacity is more than adequate to offset Russian imports and that investments in gas infrastructure are “slower, costlier, and more environmentally damaging to the bloc’s security needs than accelerating the deployment of affordable renewable alternatives and demand-side reductions”.

Before the European Commission presents its full plan in May for weaning itself off Russian fossil fuels, “it has to get serious about establishing an EU-wide taskforce to reduce gas demand, propose measures to ensure that huge gas overreach is kept in check and that consumers are not hammered by even higher price arrangements in what is clearly a seller’s market,” said Aitken.

Russia’s pivot to China?

On the other side of the equation, Russia is also trying to reduce its dependence on its traditional European energy customers. And the natural alternative is China, the world’s biggest energy consumer. Russia is already China’s third-largest gas supplier and has been bolstering ties with China.

In early February, during the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, China and Russia announced another long-term gas supply deal for 10 billion cm per year via the Far East route, expected to start around 2024-25. This underscored how escalating tensions with the West had pushed forward Russia’s “Pivot to Asia”, a long-term strategy to diversify its resource exports to Asian countries, especially China, reported Verisk Maplecroft.

This will be on top of the existing 30-year Power of Siberia-1 (POS-1) contract for a yearly supply of 38 billion cm. “The new deal will eventually bring total piped gas supply from Russia to China to 48 billion cm/y. [Russian state-owned energy company] Gazprom supplied about 11 billion cm in 2021 via Power of Siberia-1 (POS-1), with a plan to reach full contract volumes in 2025,” said Anna Galtsova, a director at IHS Markit.

Moreover, Verisk expects Russia to speed up its pivot to Asia by pushing forward discussions for a new China–Russia gas pipeline – Power of Siberia-2 (POS-2), which would supply another 50 billion cm per year.

But for now, infrastructure constraints prevent Russia from replacing its European customers with Chinese customers.

Geographically, Russia–China gas infrastructure cannot divert piped gas from Europe to Asia as the fields supplying China are not linked to the pipelines exporting to Europe. Eventually, Russia may be able to connect its western and eastern pipeline systems, allowing it to reroute current European gas flows to Asia. However, while this is plausible, ”it is really hard to say how likely it is to happen,” said Rystad’s Nan.

Despite Putin pushing POS-2, Nan does not see it happening before 2030 as China will not want to increase geopolitical tensions, particularly with the US, which are already elevated.

Keun Wook Paik, author of Sino Russian Oil and Gas Cooperation, said it is difficult to predict when a breakthrough for POS-2 may happen. Still, the collapse of the Nord Stream 2  Russia–Germany gas pipeline, which Germany cancelled following the invasion of Ukraine, will force Gazprom to divert the gas to China as soon as possible.

International oil companies, such as BP and Shell, have announced they will divest their equity in Russian energy firms and upstream projects in response to the Ukraine invasion. Chinese national oil companies will face much less competition for Russian energy assets and will have the upper hand in negotiating terms and prices, said Yu.

However, Chinese companies are treading cautiously to avoid further straining relations with the US and EU, with Sinopec Group reported by Reuters to have paused talks over a major petrochemical investment in Russia.

The EU and China held a virtual summit on 1 April that opened up the possibility of dialogues later this year on both energy and food security, according to Wang Lutong, director general of European Affairs at China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In what will be another crucial year for climate negotiations, Europe’s response to the current energy crisis will be closely watched by China and other major emitters.

“The EU should reaffirm its climate goals and defuse any Chinese perception of the EU’s backtracking on the commitments on phasing out fossil fuels,” said Belinda Schäpe, climate and diplomacy researcher on EU–China relations at think tank E3G.

She added: “Both sides see climate as one of the last remaining spaces left to cooperate in,” although geopolitical and trade tensions are increasingly spilling over into the climate sphere and “cannot be isolated from the broader relationship”.

Recent talks in Geneva disappointed, making big wins at Kunming COP15 look unrealistic, but results can still be achieved, writes Li Shuo. 

By Li Shuo, April 25, 2022

In late March, biodiversity talks held in Geneva left everyone disappointed. Part of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) process, the talks did little to advance the documents that are supposed to lead a reversal of biodiversity loss, namely the Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. Instead, they produced only a set of draft resolutions riddled with bracketed text for further discussion.

Much remains to be decided in Kunming, at the CBD’s 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15). This highlights deep-lying challenges with the convention and the Kunming process. Hopes for a smooth conference in Kunming this August, with slam-dunk wins, no longer seem realistic.

Getting ready for the next step in the Kunming process requires us to be clear on where the problems lie. The failure in Geneva was not about a single meeting but the result of problems present since the start of the process. These include, but are not limited to: a focus on targets at the expense of implementation and funding; repetitive discussions on targets, resulting in texts on all targets ballooning in Geneva; and no discussions yet on important issues such as how to mobilise funds or set and report national targets.

Everyone needs to be clear: relying solely on countries to talk amongst themselves to solve problems, using the existing problematic methods, will cause discussions on many issues to fail. We need to add more ways of working into these multilateral negotiations to save the process. We propose a more practical three-step preparation to ensure success in Kunming.

First, Kunming urgently needs top–down leadership. China, as the Presidency of COP15, should work with other parties to set a baseline for COP15 outcomes. Specifically, this means identifying topics where a resolution must be agreed on, and the content and level of ambition of that resolution. This will create a list of questions that must be addressed, and the answers.

Take the issue of implementation mechanism, crucial for Kunming. Signatories must agree to submit national targets and implementation plans, matching up with the Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, within a year of COP15. Related to this, COP15 must produce Guidelines for National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans for their timely updates after Kunming. On finance, Kunming must complete the Strategy for Resource Mobilisation. If that is delayed past 2022, the Kunming process will retread the Aichi path: targets will be drawn up, with their actual fulfilment a mere afterthought.

Second, China should discuss that list of questions and answers with parties and take their opinions and ideas on board to improve it. This will produce a more developed and politically acceptable list. This part of the process will ensure everyone is aware of where the Kunming process stands, what challenges it faces, and forms reasonable expectations of the work remaining to be done at COP15. It will focus attention on the political issues which will determine success or failure, and build consensus on solutions prior to the conference. Talks on the essential issues will also help ministers focus on the most contentious issues and give technical officials clear directions, speeding up the bogged-down multilateral talks. Between now and August, we need bilateral and plurilateral talks, both formal and informal, at the ministerial and technical level.

Third, arrangements for COP15, including its dates, inclusiveness and COVID control measures, need to respond to participants’ concerns and be communicated in a timely manner. Once the many logistical issues surrounding COP15 are cleared up, the design of the negotiating process will be crucial to resolving sticky political problems. Urgent answers are needed on the timing and outcomes of the high-level conference; the order in which issues will be tackled; anticipated outcomes of the first week; and the use of different working models during it.

Given the large number of unresolved issues facing Kunming, continuing Geneva’s business-as-usual approach will just mean more slow progress. This risks delaying the discussion on national commitments, target monitoring and financial support – issues critical for the timely operation of the framework.

Overall, the global biodiversity community needs to be ready for the challenges Kunming presents and make good use of the time remaining. This three-point approach may not be flashy, but it will ensure the necessary tasks are completed. The critical thing now is to take the first step.

Li Shuo

As energy transitions and geopolitical shifts revive the nuclear debate, the need for permanent solutions for radioactive waste grows ever more urgent. Do new projects offer hope? 

By Jenny Johnson, April 27, 2022

There seems to be at least one thing everyone can agree on when it comes to nuclear power: dealing with the industry’s dangerous radioactive waste is an urgent global matter.

There is an enormous backlog of radioactive residues from nuclear reactors, known as high-level waste, in need of safe and permanent disposal. This presents a major challenge and inhibits social acceptance of the energy source at a time when the industry is presenting itself as essential to addressing the climate crisis, as well as energy security in a changing geopolitical landscape.

Though complex, nascent and resource-intensive, the development of deep geological storage sites for spent nuclear fuel and other wastes is currently seen by many as the future gold standard for disposal – and a boon to the industry in those countries that can boast progress in such approaches.

Finland, for example, is using the construction of ONKALO, a first-of-its-kind deep geological disposal site due to enter operation in 2025, as the basis for dramatically increasing the share of nuclear power in its energy mix. It claims these plans are responsible because it is sufficiently tackling one of the industry’s biggest challenges.

By contrast, the stalemate on creating such disposal sites in the United States – for now the world’s largest producer of nuclear energy – is hindering a further build-out of nuclear power, according to the nation’s panel on nuclear waste issues.

“The lack of progress on developing and operating a geological repository… impedes the associated potential benefits of having nuclear energy as part of a zero-carbon future for mitigation of climate change,” the US Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board wrote to Congress in April 2021.

While the promise of new technical solutions to the nuclear waste problem remains on the horizon, emerging issues, such as modern power plants producing even more radioactive waste, are further complicating storage and disposal prospects.

A push to expand nuclear power

Some consider nuclear power essential for decarbonising economies due to a few key factors.

Firstly, nuclear power plants’ emissions of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants are close to zero during the operating phase. Secondly, they provide baseload generation of electricity that operates when intermittent renewable energy sources like solar and wind are unable to. Finally, they support, rather than compete with, renewable energy sources, because the plants are uniquely adaptable to changing demand load.

The International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), the global agency supporting and advocating nuclear power, recently emphasised the last point using 2020 data from nuclear plants, when electricity demand fluctuated more than usual due to the pandemic.

“Flexible nuclear power plant operation – or, in some cases, complete short-term shutdowns – supported grid operator needs and demonstrated nuclear power’s ability to integrate into sustainable energy systems of the future,” the agency said in a report published in June 2021.

The IAEA predicts that nuclear generating capacity could double to 792 gigawatts by 2050, compared to 393 gigawatts in 2020, though this high-end scenario would require significant actions in order to be realised. Disposal, however, is an issue for the here and now, and one that will only grow more urgent, whether capacity reaches low-end or high-end projections.

Geological disposal remains gold standard

The international consensus is that high-level radioactive waste should be finally disposed of deep underground, in geological sites where it can remain sealed off from the surface and atmosphere well into the distant future, since spent nuclear fuel remains dangerously radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years.

Finland is the first country to have such a facility under construction which, as mentioned, is due to start storing waste in 2025, with trial runs beginning in 2023, according to Posiva, the company tasked by the Finnish government with handling final nuclear waste disposal.

Situated near the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant on Finland’s west coast, the ONKALO repository will be built to a depth of 400 to 430 metres into the bedrock. The project utilises a method of disposal developed in Sweden, called KBS-3V, which employs a multiple barrier system currently seen as the international standard.

The process of disposal begins with individual tubes of waste being collected into a larger assembly. Groups of these assemblies are then placed into cast iron canisters with a 5cm-thick copper exterior – to protect the inner from corrosion – and lowered deep into the underground portion of the facility. There, the canisters are moved to a tunnelled area, where they are placed vertically into individually drilled cavities in the bedrock, and surrounded by bentonite clay; this type of clay expands when exposed to water, thus further sealing the canisters in place. Once the area beneath each tunnel has reached capacity, they are backfilled with bentonite clay and sealed with concrete.

Much of this activity is to be carried out using remote-controlled equipment designed for the purpose.

Finland’s pioneering facility will be closely watched as a number of other countries progress in their own efforts towards geological disposal.

On 27 January, the Swedish government approved a plan from the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company to build a final geological disposal site in Forsmark, 140km north of Stockholm, and the site of a nuclear power plant. Building permits will need to be issued before construction can begin, but the site reportedly has official approval of the impacted municipalities.

In France, the Industrial Centre for Geological Disposal, or Cigeo, is a deep geological disposal facility proposed near the quiet northeastern village of Bure. The project is currently undergoing the second phase of public consultations, but has faced fierce opposition from anti-nuclear protestors. The project has been under consideration for 30 years, according to Andra, the national agency for radioactive waste management, and construction is currently slated for 2025.

Elsewhere, the United Kingdom, Canada and Switzerland are each in their final phases of site selection – a process dependent in part on public consultation and social acceptance.

Consent-based processes

Government and private sector efforts to engage local municipalities in consent-based siting processes focus on gaining the agreement of residents surrounding a proposed radioactive waste facility. Ideally, the process includes attempts by the government to be transparent, allow communities to weigh the potential opportunities and the risks of hosting such a site, and treat all people fairly.

Engaging the public “requires substantial amounts of time and the right skill sets”, officials and experts from Canada, Finland and Sweden told the US Government Accounting Office as part of a September 2021 report on nuclear waste, prepared for the country’s congress. Canada spent nearly 20 years, Finland 17 years and Sweden over 30 years in educating and engaging with the public, prior to selecting a permanent geological storage site, the report details.

In countries where consent-based processes are not a requirement, progress on geological disposal is being made – though the current timelines are not altogether different for reaching actual operation of disposal sites.

In 2021, China broke ground on an underground laboratory in Gansu province that scientists will use to study whether the site is suitable for the geological disposal of spent nuclear fuel. The lab will be situated 560 metres below the Gobi desert in granite bedrock. If the site is deemed appropriate following testing, the complex could be built in the 2040s and begin operating by 2050.

Meanwhile Russia is also currently constructing an underground research laboratory for similar purposes at a site it has preliminarily deemed suitable for geological storage near the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, in the centre of the country.

Alternatives to disposal

Given the time and cost required for construction, and the extreme complexity of geological disposal, some countries are pursuing medium-term solutions known as consolidated interim storage.

These large interim waste facilities are being designed to operate for many decades until geologic disposal becomes more widely available, while also concentrating storage to alleviate the risks associated with high-level waste being spread across numerous sites. Interim sites would have advanced capabilities and technologies for safely storing casks of waste. They would also be sited in areas considered to be at lower risk than the reactor sites where waste is usually held, away from coastlines and in geologically inactive, remote locations.

The United States is home to enormous volumes of spent nuclear fuel – 86,000 tonnes as of 2019 – currently in storage at nuclear power plants. Two private interim storage projects for spent nuclear fuel are being pursued in the country: Holtec’s HI-STORE facility in New Mexico, and Interim Storage Partners’ project in Texas. However, the country’s continuing lack of progress on a final disposal solution could preclude social acceptance of the interim sites.

“States will likely be more hesitant to accept a consolidated interim facility on their land, worrying that ‘interim’ will become long term if there is no final disposal site,” Matt Bowen of the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy wrote in January.

Storage and disposal safety concerns

A key emerging issue is the higher levels of radioactivity in contemporary fuels and whether this poses greater risks than legacy fuel.

The average amount of thermal energy generated per unit of fuel has increased from the early days of nuclear reactor operation, resulting in a higher “burnup” of spent nuclear fuel. Higher burnup reduces fuel costs for the industry, but it results in waste that is more radioactive and releases more heat as it decays than lower burnup fuels, as a July 2021 report to the US Congress by the US Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board explains.

“Extensive research on low burnup fuel has provided confidence that it can be stored for extended periods and transported,” the panel’s report says, but stresses that is not the case with high burnup fuels.

Changes to the chemical and physical characteristics of the fuel and its fuel rod assemblies at higher burnup levels are not well understood, according to the report. These different characteristics could increase corrosion and embrittlement of the cladding of storage casks, increase pressure build-up inside the cask or canister, and create other changes that could be particularly concerning during storage, transportation and disposal.

Another key outstanding question is the potentially serious risks posed by the possible need for repackaging waste that has sat in canisters for decades, for transportation or insertion into a geological disposal site.

The momentum toward a new era of nuclear energy is predicated in part on government and industry claims that new technological solutions to nuclear waste are forthcoming. But challenges remain in their realisation at the necessary scale. It is impossible to minimise the real and persistent challenges of existing and future radioactive waste management, which will ultimately shape the outlook of the industry moving forward.

Jenny Johnson

April 29, 2022 

CGTN's New Year's special music video "A Musical Toast to 2022" won a gold medal in the Performing Arts Special category.

CGTN has also been honored with two silver and three bronze awards in other categories. 

CGTN America's winners:

1. Amazon’s Pantanal Region Still Recovering From Devastating Fires (Bronze medal, Nature and Wildlife)
2. How India can stop its rape crisis (Bronze medal, Streaming Social Justice)
3. Tso’l Food: Los Angeles (Bronze medal, Culinary Program)
4. Forever Young (Finalist, Health/Medical Information)

Engaging film and television entries created by filmmakers and storytellers from more than 50 countries and regions were judged online by the jury. All entries in the 2022 competition were judged online and screened by NYF's TV and Film Awards Grand Jury of over 200 producers, directors, writers, and other creative media professionals from around the globe.

(Sources: China Report)

April 29, 2022 

China has launched a scientific expedition to Mount Qomolangma, known internationally as Everest, called the "Peak Mission," with more than 270 expedition members taking part.

It is being conducted at an altitude of 8,000 meters. Mount Qomolangma is not only the dream of mountaineering enthusiasts around the world but also an important landmark for international scientists to study climate change at the world's "third pole" – the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

Watch our coverage from the headquarters of the Qomolangma base camp in China's Tibet Autonomous Region. .

(Sources: China Report)

April 29, 2022 

After successfully hosting the Winter Olympics and Paralympics earlier this year, China will welcome another international sporting event in less than two months.

This time, the global attention will be drawn to Chengdu City, the capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, which will host the Universiade from June 26 to July 7 after a year of postponement due to the pandemic.

The tournament, set to gather young athletes from universities around the world, is themed "Chengdu Makes Dreams Come True".

(Sources: China Report)

April 29, 2022 

The Ministry of National Defense spokesperson Tan Kefei on Thursday accused the U.S. and Japan of fabricating the so-called "China space threat" and called for joint opposition to the U.S. maritime bullying.

China is committed to the peaceful use of outer space, actively advocates the prevention of weaponization and arms race in outer space, and promotes international cooperation in outer space, the spokesperson said when commenting on reports related to the so-called “space threat of China" in a press conference.

In other news: 

• China on Wednesday urged the U.S. to adhere to the one-China principle, warning that reneging on the commitment will push the Taiwan region into dangerous waters and bring unbearable costs to the U.S.
• China urges the U.S. to prudently and properly handle Taiwan-related issues and avoid inflaming tensions across the Taiwan Straits, said Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, at a press briefing in Beijing on Wednesday

April 29, 2022 

China on Wednesday "strongly denounced" the terrorist attack that took place in the Confucius Institute at Karachi University of Pakistan, urging thorough investigation and "severe punishment" for the terrorists.''

Three Chinese nationals were killed, with several casualties.

A video shows the suicide bomber outside the University of Karachi’s Chinese language center. The Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack.

"This was a deliberately planned suicide terrorist attack targeting Chinese nationals," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin during a regular press briefing.

China urged all countries to coordinate efforts to combat terrorism and safeguard global peace, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a daily news conference on Friday.

(Sources: China Report)

April 29, 2022 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday that no one wants to see the outbreak of World War III and that China supports the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine through diplomacy.

Wang said, "All parties should first support dialogue and negotiation to prevent the conflict from escalating, to avoid Europe and the world paying a greater price."

Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to lawmakers on Wednesday that the goals of the country's military operation in Ukraine will be achieved. Putin also warned that Russia will respond to any intervention. The Russian leader said that the military would not hesitate to use the most modern weaponry.

Catch up with the latest headlines: 

• U.S. President Joe Biden requested Congress to approve an additional $33 billion in new military funds for Ukraine, saying “we’re not attacking Russia; we’re helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression.”
• Ukrainian rescue workers on Friday recovered the body of a Radio Liberty producer from under the rubble of a building in Kyiv that was hit by a missile, the U.S. broadcaster said. The death was the first reported in Thursday's missile strike as the UN chief visited Kyiv
• A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the UK on Thursday expressed firm opposition to the remarks of British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss over China. Truss in a recent speech launched an unprovoked attack on China, criticizing it for not condemning Russia's action in Ukraine and claiming that if China did not play by "the rules," the West would unite to prevent its rise. 
• Russia declares nearly 600 Canadians including Trudeau as persona non grata
• Russia has raised the alarm over "acts of terrorism" in Moldova's Moscow-backed breakaway region of Transnistria after separatist authorities reported several attacks there this week
• Why the region of Transnistria is important?
• UN chief visits Ukrainian towns, Borodyanka and Bucha before meeting Zelenskyy
• Russia withdraws from UN’s World Tourism Organization
• Russia's temporary takeover of the Chernobyl site was "very, very dangerous" and raised radiation levels but they have now returned to normal, the head of the UN atomic watchdog said on Tuesday
• Beijing has slammed "concerns" of U.S. Indo-Pacific Commander John Aquilino regarding China's close ties with Russia, calling out Washington for its "inescapable responsibility" to the Ukraine crisis.

Russia-Ukraine conflict hits African agriculture, aquaculture
 

The World Food Programme recently warned that "2022 will be a catastrophic year of hunger, with an estimated 44 million people in 38 countries teetering on the brink of famine."

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict will bring inevitable risks to global food security.

Russia and Ukraine, known as the "granary of Europe," are key exporters of wheat, corn, barley, sunflower oil, and other grain products. They are also major global suppliers of agricultural fertilizers.

FYI: Global military spending reached an all-time high in 2021, passing $2 trillion, according to a report from a Swedish think-tank, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The increase was an 0.7% increase from the previous year’s data.

A new U.S. program is helping Ukrainian refugees stranded in Tijuana. Find out here.

For more exclusive content on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, subscribe to CGTN Now.

(Sources: China Report)