Environment Secretary George Eustice has told Sky News the Government backs plans to potentially re-purpose land used to grow grain for biofuels.
Asked about US opposition to such a move, he stressed the plan would be “temporary” and said that the UK would work to get the Biden administration onside.
He said the US was also thinking about its own fuel supply, arguing their opposition to the PM’s green fuels plan is “misplaced” as he insisted it would only be a temporary change.
“It would temporarily increase the amount of wheat and maize on world markets and would therefore bring food prices down. So we’ve done the analysis on this.”
Boris Johnson wants G7 leaders to look at grain produced for biofuel, claiming the use of it to power vehicles may be reducing availability and pushing up food costs.
The Telegraph revealed yesterday Joe Biden will attempt to block Boris Johnson’s plan to move away from green fuels amid a transatlantic split over how to tackle the global cost of living crisis.
Follow the latest updates below.
08:25 AM
Boris back in cold water
Boris Johnson was up early for a swim in the Ferchensee lake near the Schloss Elmau hotel where G7 leaders are meeting in Germany.
The Prime Minister will use meetings on Monday to continue to press for more support for Ukraine and international efforts to release grain trapped by the Russian naval blockade.
08:06 AM
UK helping ensure stolen Ukrainian grain does not make it to market
Britain is providing technology to ensure that any wheat stolen from Ukraine by Russia does not make it to the global market, Britain’s environment minister George Eustice has said.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and blockade of its Black Sea ports has prevented the country, traditionally one of the world’s top food producers, from exporting much of the more than 20 million tonnes of grain stored in its silos.
Last week Turkey said it was investigating claims that Ukrainian grain had been stolen by Russia and shipped to countries including Turkey, but added the probes had not found any stolen shipments so far.
Russia has previously denied allegations that it has stolen Ukrainian grain.
“Russia, it appears, are stealing some wheat from those stores,” Mr Eustice, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, told Sky News.
“What the UK government is doing is making available the technology that we’ve got to be able to test the provenance of wheat. We’re working with other countries including Australia on this so that we can ensure that stolen Ukrainian wheat does not find a route to market.”
Mr Eustice said Britain was also looking at what it could do to help Ukraine repair its railways to get the wheat out of Ukraine via land.
07:48 AM
Ukraine today, in pictures
07:28 AM
Olaf Scholz still deciding whether to attend G20 summit if Putin attends
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said he will take a decision nearer to the time whether to attend the G20 summit in Indonesia in November if Russian President Vladimir Putin also attends.
Mr Scholz, speaking to German television from the G7 summit he is hosting in the Bavarian Alps, said it was important not to “torpedo” the G20 summit.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will address the G7 leaders on Monday on a video call.
07:08 AM
Latest MoD update
06:49 AM
Russia slips into default zone as payment deadline expires
Russia looked set for its first sovereign default in decades as some bondholders said they had not received overdue interest on Monday following the expiry of a key payment deadline a day earlier.
Russia has struggled to keep up payments on $40 billion of outstanding bonds since its invasion of Ukraine on Feb 24, as sweeping sanctions have effectively cut the country off from the global financial system and rendered its assets untouchable to many investors.
The Kremlin has repeatedly said there are no grounds for Russia to default but it is unable to send money to bondholders because of sanctions, accusing the West of trying to drive it into an artificial default.
Russia’s efforts to avoid what would be its first major default on international bonds since the Bolshevik revolution more than a century ago hit a insurmountable roadblock in late May when the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control effectively blocked Moscow from making payments.
06:33 AM
‘Crime not to help’: South Korean ex-SEAL has no Ukraine regrets
A former South Korean Navy SEAL turned YouTuber who risked jail time to leave Seoul and fight for Ukraine says it would have been a “crime” not to use his skills to help.
Ken Rhee, an ex-special warfare officer, signed up at the Ukrainian Embassy in Seoul the moment President Volodymyr Zelensky asked for global volunteers and was fighting on the front lines near Kyiv by early March.
To get there, he had to break South Korean law – Seoul banned its citizens from travelling to Ukraine, and Rhee, who was injured in a fall while leading a special operations patrol there, was met at the airport by 15 police officers on his return.
But the celebrity ex-soldier, who has a YouTube channel with 700,000 followers and documented much of his Ukraine experience on his popular Instagram account, says he has no regrets.
05:24 AM
Russian forces turn sights on Lysychansk in battle for eastern Ukraine
Russian forces were fighting on Monday to achieve one of their strategic objectives in Ukraine as Moscow-backed separatists said they were pushing into Lysychansk, the last major city still held by Ukrainian troops in eastern Luhansk province.
Lysychansk’s twin city of Sievierodonetsk fell on Saturday in a victory for Moscow’s campaign to seize the eastern provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk on behalf of pro-Russian separatists.
Tass news agency on Sunday quoted a separatist official as saying Moscow’s forces had entered Lysychansk from five directions and were isolating Ukrainian defenders. Reuters could not confirm the report.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said Russian forces were using artillery to try to cut off Lysychansk from the south but made no mention of separatists entering the city.
04:39 AM
In pictures: The latest from Ukraine
04:03 AM
Ukraine war pushes France to rethink coal power station closure
France has become the latest country to reconsider its energy options because of the war in Ukraine, announcing Sunday it was looking into reopening a recently closed coal-fired power station.
The energy transition ministry said it was considering reopening the station at Saint-Avold in eastern France this winter, “given the situation in Ukraine” and the effect it was having on the energy markets.
“We are keeping open the possibility of being able to put the Saint-Avold station back in action for a few hours more if we need it next winter,” said a ministry statement, confirming a report on RTL radio.
But France would still be producing less than one percent of its electricity through coal power, and no Russian coal would be used, the statement added.
03:16 AM
Zelensky to press G7 for more help as war rages
President Volodymyr Zelensky will urge world powers to step up their support for Ukraine when he addresses the G7 summit on Monday, as Kyiv reels from the first Russian strikes on the capital in weeks.
US President Joe Biden and his counterparts from the Group of Seven wealthy democracies, meeting in the Bavarian Alps, have stressed their unity in the face of Russia’s aggression – even as the global fallout worsens.
Mr Zelensky is set to join the leaders of the United States, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Canada via video link at 10:00 am (8am UK time).
In his daily address late Sunday, Mr Zelensky renewed his calls for more weapons and air defence systems to be delivered to Ukraine and for fresh sanctions against Russia by G7 nations.
“We need a powerful air defence – modern, fully effective. Which can ensure complete protection against these missiles. We talk about this every day with our partners. There are already some agreements. And partners need to move faster if they are really partners, not observers,” he said.
02:20 AM
Ukraine war could boost illegal drug production, says UN
The war in Ukraine could allow illegal drug production to flourish, while the opium market’s future hinges on the fate of crisis-wracked Afghanistan, the United Nations warned on Monday.
Previous experience from the Middle East and Southeast Asia suggests conflict zones can act as a “magnet” for making synthetic drugs, which can be manufactured anywhere, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in its annual report.
“This effect may be greater when the conflict area is near large consumer markets.”
The UNODC said the number of dismantled amphetamine laboratories in Ukraine rose from 17 in 2019 to 79 in 2020, the highest number of seized laboratories reported in any country in 2020.
Ukraine’s capacity to produce synthetic drugs could grow as the war continues, it added.
“You don’t have police going around and stopping laboratories” in conflict zones, UNODC expert Angela Me told AFP.
01:52 AM
Nato to pledge aid to Baltics and Ukraine, urge Turkey to let in Nordics
Nato leaders will urge Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to lift his veto over Finland and Sweden’s bid to join the military alliance when they meet for a three-day summit on Tuesday, as the West strives to send Russia and China a signal of resolve.
Taking place in the shadow of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Madrid gathering comes at a pivotal moment for the transatlantic bond after failures in Afghanistan and internal discord during the era of former US President Donald Trump, who threatened to pull Washington out of the nuclear alliance.
Negotiations among an often-fractious organisation are still under way, diplomats said, but leaders also hope to agree to provide more military aid to Ukraine, increase joint defence spending, cement a new resolve to tackle China’s military rise and put more troops on stand-by to defend the Baltics.
01:49 AM
Today’s Top Stories
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Joe Biden will on Monday attempt to block Boris Johnson’s plan to move away from green fuels amid a transatlantic split over how to tackle the global cost of living crisis
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Russian missile strikes have killed one person and wounded five others near the central Ukrainian city of Cherkasy
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Despite Boris Johnson’s blithe words about Western unity, the G7 face an enormous and frightening task in combatting Russia’s aggression
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Russian missiles hit an apartment block in central Kyiv for the first time since April on Sunday, hours after Vladimir Putin’s motorcade was seen speeding into the Kremlin late on Saturday night
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Boris Johnson has warned Emmanuel Macron that a peace deal with Russia would cause “enduring instability” and give Vladimir Putin licence to manipulate the world
