China's exports to Russia grow for the first time in five months in July
Chinese exports to Russia snapped four months of declines and grew robustly in July, while Russian shipments to China also held up well, official customs data showed.
Shipments to sanctions-hit Russia rose 22.2% in July from a year earlier in dollar terms, shaking off the decline of 17% in June and marking the first growth since March, according to Reuters calculations based on customs data released on Sunday.
Imports growth from Russia sustained an elevated pace at 49.3% in July, though slower than a 56% gain in June and a 79.6% rise in May.
Russia is a major source of oil, gas, coal and agricultural commodities for China.
Amid the ongoing Ukraine war, Russia was China's biggest oil supplier in May and June as Chinese buyers cashed in on lower-priced supplies.
Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, an intervention Moscow describes as a "special military operation".
China has refused to condemn Russia's actions and has criticized the sweeping Western sanctions on Moscow. Beijing also says that it has not provided military assistance to Russia or Ukraine, but that it would take "necessary measures" to protect the rights of its companies.
Reuters
UN chief demands international access to Ukraine nuclear plant after new attack
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Monday for international inspectors to be given access to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant after Ukraine and Russia traded accusations over the shelling of Europe's largest atomic plant at the weekend.
"Any attack to a nuclear plant is a suicidal thing," Guterres told a news conference in Japan, where he attended the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony on Saturday to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing.
Ukraine said renewed Russian shelling on Saturday had damaged three radiation sensors and hurt a worker at the Zaporizhzhia power plant, the second hit in consecutive days on the site.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russia of waging "nuclear terror" that warranted more international sanctions, this time on Moscow's nuclear sector.
"There is no such nation in the world that could feel safe when a terrorist state fires at a nuclear plant," Zelenskiy said in a televised address on Sunday.
Russian forces captured the plant in southeastern Ukraine in early March but it is still run by Ukrainian technicians.
The Russian-installed authority of the area said Ukrainian forces hit the site with a multiple rocket launcher, damaging administrative buildings and an area near a storage facility. The Russian embassy in Washington also released a statement itemising the damage.
"Ukrainian nationalists launched an artillery strike on the territory of the specified object on August 5. Two high-voltage power lines and a water pipeline were damaged as a result of the shelling.
Only thanks to the effective and timely actions of the Russian military in covering the nuclear power facility, its critical infrastructure was not affected," the embassy said.
Reuters could not verify either side's version.
Events at the Zaporizhzhia site - where Kyiv alleged that Russia hit a power line on Friday - have alarmed the world.
Guterres said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) needed access to the plant.
"We fully support the IAEA in all their efforts in relation to create the conditions of stabilisation of the plant," Guterres said.
IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi warned on Saturday that the latest attack "underlines the very real risk of a nuclear disaster".
Elsewhere, a deal to unblock Ukraine's food exports and ease global shortages gathered pace as another four ships sailed out of Ukrainian Black Sea ports while the first cargo vessel since Russia's Feb. 24 invasion docked.
The four outgoing ships had almost 170,000 tonnes of corn and other food. They were sailing under a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to try to help ease soaring global food prices that have resulted from the war.
Before Moscow's Feb. 24 invasion, which Russian President Vladimir Putin calls a "special military operation", Russia and Ukraine together accounted for nearly a third of global wheat exports. The disruption since then has threatened famine in some parts of the world.
Reuters
