In this live blog you can read the most important developments surrounding the war in Ukraine.
Ukrainian Defense Minister: ‘Fewer deaths than in Turkey earthquake’
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksij Reznikov has given an indication of the magnitude of the losses on the Ukrainian side since the start of the war with Russia. Reznikov told Spanish newspaper La Razón that he “cannot give an exact figure, but I assure you it is lower than the death toll in the Turkey earthquake.” The earthquake in Turkey killed more than 50,000 people.
Ukraine has so far made no official statement on the number of dead and injured. Only estimates exist of the total number of Ukrainian casualties. Russia also does not provide figures on its own victims. According to Ukraine, an estimated 182,000 Russian soldiers were killed.
CBS: war in Ukraine has hardly any impact on Dutch oil consumption
The war in Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions against Russia have had little effect on oil consumption in the Netherlands. This has been established by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) on the basis of figures for 2022.
According to Statistics Netherlands, the refinery sector in our country processed almost as much oil last year as in 2021. The consumption of petrol, diesel and LPG (autogas) fell by only 1 percent. One of the reasons for the small decline is that sanctions on imports of Russian oil products only came into effect in December last year or February this year.
It is also true that Russian oil was simply replaced by oil from other countries. At the end of last year, for example, more oil came in from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kazakhstan to compensate for the loss of Russian oil.
Welcome
Welcome to this week’s live blog about developments in Ukraine. Last week’s blog can be read here.
