And the blood of the innocent continues to flow.
Session nr 2 of March 17, 2024 –English translation - original in French.
Location: Mezzaverde in Belgium
Comments from Wivine in and after the Reporterre article.
Survey —
Mines and metals.
Raw
materials
A
hidden issue of the war in Ukraine.
Article
from Reporterre – French independent Ecology Media
December 9, 2022.
https://reporterre.net/Un-enjeu-cache-de-la-guerre-en-Ukraine-les-matieres-premieres
The monopolization of raw
materials buried under Ukrainian soil is at the root of a conflict where the
voices of national and industrial powers take precedence over those of the
Ukrainians.
Titanium, oil, iron, gas,
manganese... Control of fossil resources and minerals buried in Ukrainian
territory is at the heart of the conflict. And takes priority over the
environment and the interests of the populations.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine,
begun in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea and Donbass, is the sad projection
of the new national identity shaped by Vladimir Putin since his coming to
power, militarist, expansionist and anti-Western.
Galia Ackerman brilliantly
described in Le Régiment immortel
(ed. Premier Parallčle, 2019) this policy which
cemented Russian society around a nostalgic messianism of Great Russia, of
which Ukraine would be an integral part.
Note
Wivine: I think this is a Western subjective
view that has crept in here, in which some important details from the near past
of Western policy in Ukraine have been left out to label Russia as the
aggressor, that is to say “the bad one”. However, this does not change the
facts. It changes the perception of citizens, who tend to view everything and
everyone in terms of “good and bad” or “we are the good guys and the others are
the bad guys. Whatever good people do is always acceptable.”
It’s an old trick,
which still works today, of stirring up hatred within us towards our fellow
human beings. I studied psychology at the University of Brussels over 50 years
ago. At that time, tests were already being carried out on students to see how
people made judgments about others. How to manipulate people's opinions. That’s
why I can recognize it so well and it’s easier for me to avoid the trap of “I’m
the good guy and the other is the bad guy who needs to be punished.”
I am also Belgian,
Flemish on my father's side. For years I had to observe how the Flemish were
opposed to the Walloons through politics and media. From then on, I had
problems with my Walloon friends who felt attacked – and also with my Flemish
friends when I wanted to defend the Walloons. It was a terrible time for me. It
has calmed down now, but has not completely disappeared. When I travel to other
countries, even outside Europe, and I am asked which country I come from, I
answer Belgium. So comes the 2nd question: from the north or the south? I
answer from the north. I then receive a disdainful look and the friendly
conversation stops immediately. Because at one point, the media gave a negative
image of the Flemish people throughout the world. Even in Belize it was in the
newspapers and these people don't even know where Belgium is.
Can you imagine
what that feels like? Coming from a population stigmatized around the world for
the interests of political and financial groups that don't even care about others?
We cannot defend ourselves against this. How much blood is still being shed
around the world for these reasons? Read on and I hope everyone understands
that hatred and defamation are ways of pitting one population against another,
so wars and terrorist movements continue to exist. There are regions in the
world where peace agreements can seemingly never be reached and where violence
is justified to obscure the true goals of those who hold financial and
political power with very long term ideological, political and financial goals.
Keep reading –
geopolitics is an interesting topic that I have been following for over 10
years. If there is a conflict somewhere, I immediately investigate what is in
the ground! Even water supply can be a strategic objective for certain
countries and regions.
But this conflict is also a clash
for metals, oil and gas which has continued to intensify since 2014. Because
the rapprochement of Ukrainian government with Western powers has enabled the
United States and the European Union to plan the extraction of raw materials
from this richly endowed country. A casus belli (reason for war) for Moscow.
Reconciliation between Ukraine
and the West, loss of access and control of raw materials: it was too much for
Vladimir Putin's Russia.
In 2010, large deposits of shale
gas were discovered in Ukraine. The largest is located in Yuzivska
in the Kharkiv region, in the east of the country. Its reserves would
correspond to a third of Ukraine's annual gas consumption.
In 2013, permits were awarded to
the American companies Shell and Chevron.
Against a backdrop of corruption:
the Minister of Resources at the time, Mykola Zlochevsky, was also president of
Burisma Holdings, one of the largest private gas companies in Ukraine. This
group, known to be close to Joe Biden, recruited his son Hunter Biden to its
board of directors in 2014.
The gigantic Yuzivska
extraction project triggered opposition from residents of the region, who
mobilized against the water pollution that would result from hydraulic
fracturing, a technique banned in France. But this campaign, affirms the
Ukrainian strategic communications center, was exploited by Russia, usually
completely indifferent to environmental issues: this country would have largely
supported the movement “Shale gas is the death of Donbass”.
The largest
gas reserves in Europe
Indeed, while Ukraine lives under
the dependence of the Russian company Gazprom, it has the largest gas reserves
in Europe after Russia. The exploitation of these reserves would have allowed
it not only to become more autonomous, but also to allow American companies
to export its gas to Europe to the detriment of Gazprom (Russia).
A similar scenario took place off
the coast of Crimea during the same period. Following the discovery of
significant oil and gas deposits in the Black Sea, Exxon Mobil, Shell and
Chevron obtained exploration permits in 2012.
At the end of November 2013,
Ukraine also signed an agreement with EDF and the Italian ENI for the
exploitation of hydrocarbons in the east of Crimea aimed at producing 3 million
tons of oil per year. All these projects were either abandoned or put on hold
by the annexation of Crimea in 2014, notes Maksym Bugriy,
Ukrainian analyst.
According to Robert Muggah of the Canadian strategic analysis firm SecDev, the 2014 conquests allowed Russia to control half
of Ukraine's conventional oil, 72% of its natural gas, and most of its coal production
and reserves. The latter are located in Donbass, once one of the main coal
production sites of the USSR (Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics) and the birthplace of Stakhanov, the coal miner who
became the legendary figure of the Soviet worker.
A strategic
basement
Since the invasion launched in
February 2022, Russia has taken possession of 41 coal mines, around fifty gas
and oil sites and around ten strategic mining deposits, according to SecDev.
Indeed, it is also a battle for
metals that is being played out in Ukraine. The country's subsoil contains
considerable deposits estimated by Ukrainian geological services at a value of
7,500 billion dollars. Ukraine is ranked fifth in the world for its reserves of
iron, graphite and manganese — two critical elements for the production of
electric batteries.
It is also the sixth largest
producer of titanium in the world, a strategic metal for aeronautical
production, and contains significant deposits of lithium, copper, cobalt and
rare earths, used in the energy sector as well as in electronics and defense.
This is why the European Union
concluded a partnership with Ukraine in July 2021 for strategic metals and
batteries, a cooperation initiated and gradually strengthened since 2014 (after the Maidan coup and the
impeachment of the democratically elected president who preferred good
relations with Russia), after Poroshenko's pro-Western government came to
power.
This partnership responds to the
desire of the European Union - and more broadly of NATO - to secure supplies of
raw materials for its industry in the face of Chinese and Russian monopolies.
In theory, these are “transition” metals; in practice, the aim is much broader.
It would, for example, ensure
imports of
-titanium, decisive for Airbus
and Safran;
- zirconium, three-quarters of
which is used for nuclear power;
- scandium, a by-product of
titanium metallurgy used in fuel cells and ultralight alloys in aeronautics; or
- molybdenum, used in
superalloys, screens and electronic chips.
- For the manufacture of
semiconductors, the American industry is also 90% dependent on ultrapure
quality neon produced in Odessa using gas from steelworks.
Prior to this partnership,
Ukraine committed to privatizing its mines and its metallurgical industry, to
collaborating with the European (EuroGeoSurveys) and
American (USGS) geological services and to producing an “Investment Atlas” in
English cataloging available critical metal deposits. According to Ukraine
Invest, it identified 8,761 deposits in 2021.
In 2016 the Ukrainian government
began selling its mining permits through electronic auctions.
Between 2018 and 2021, the number
of permits awarded increased from 150 to 377 and the number of electronic
auctions from 10 to 160.
In 2019, Metinvest, the
metallurgical company of Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's richest man, partnered with
Swiss-based giant Glencore to exploit one of the country's main iron deposits,
at Shymanivske, not far from Zaporizhia.
Battle for
resources
In 2021,
- the Austrian company European
Lithium obtained the country's lithium deposits, including that of Shevchenkivske, located in Donbass.
- Graphite mines in the Mykolayev region, in the south of the country, have been
allocated to the Australian company Volt Resources.
- After the invasion of Crimea,
the Russian giant*** DF was divested of its
titanium mines,
(***Wivine note: DF Group is an
international group of companies whose major investments are concentrated in
nitrogen, titanium and gas activities. They owned the operation of a Titanium
mine in Crimea. The founder of DF Group is Dmitry Firtash, a prominent Ukrainian
businessman, philanthropist and gas investor. It is not a Russian group.)
- while the country's other
deposits are now exploited by the Ukrainian-American company (Ukraine + USA)
Velta Resources.
These deposits
are as strategic for NATO countries as they are for Russia.
For Olivia Lazard, of the Carnegie
Institute, “its intention is clearly to access the same resources that
Europe needs to apply its climate law”.
Russia is already the 2nd world
producer of aluminum and the 1st world exporter of nickel, used for batteries.
It also dominates the palladium market used in particular for the production of
fuel cells.
The dependence
of Western buyers on these raw materials is such that
the London Metal Exchange has abandoned its ban on the sale of Russian metals (ban following sanctions against Russia).
According to Olivia Lazard,
Moscow is seeking to carve out a place for itself in new energy markets while
strengthening its status as a major exporting power. This is why the offensive
in Ukraine should be placed in the broader context of the maneuvers of the
Wagner group, a mercenary company informally linked to the Kremlin, whose owner
also runs extraction companies like Lobaye Invest,
now present in African countries. richly endowed with mineral resources such as
Mozambique, Madagascar, the Central African Republic and Mali.
The Russian aggression against
Ukraine therefore also has as a backdrop this clash over the supply of critical
materials, the first victim of which is the Ukrainian population.
Geopolitical
clashes and extractive projects relegate the Ukrainian population far to the
background.
On November 16, 2022, in
Brussels, the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Denys Shmyhal, and the Minister of
Natural Resources, Ruslan Strilets, participated in
the 'Raw Materials Week' held in Brussels in the presence of Maroš
Šefčovič, European Commissioner and initiator of the metals
partnership with Ukraine.
The latter recalled on this
occasion the terms of the partnership: “It will help Ukraine to integrate the
EU, and it represents for the European Union an essential element in
consolidating our supply of raw materials and our geostrategic status. »
Despite the bombings, Minister
Ruslan Strilets assured that the reform of the
(Ukrainian) Mining Code was almost complete and that the office which issues
permits was operational, "at the service of investors who will come
forward after the war, and even before Ukrainian victory.”
Jürgen Rigterink, vice-president
of the European Development Bank, said that it was the main investor in
the country, to the tune of 19 billion euros, funds thanks to which “Ukraine
could become a resource superpower ".
What
independence from European interests?
Ukraine dreams of independence,
and this is why a majority of Ukrainians supported its rapprochement with the
EU. But what room for maneuver will remain for the country's leaders when it is
necessary to repay the tens of billions of euros in loans taken out from the
EBRD, the World Bank, the United States and the European countries which
covet its natural resources natural?
“We will not only rebuild
Ukraine, but we will rebuild it better, greener,” assured Maroš
Šefčovič to Ukrainian ministers on November 16, 2022.
But can one rebuild Ukraine
“greener” by making the country the mining paradise of European industry? When
we know that mining is the most polluting industrial sector and the largest
producer of waste in the world.
What do the
Ukrainian people think?
Since 2004, residents of the
Mariupol region in Donbass have opposed the exploitation of the Azov rare earth
and zirconium deposit due to the risks of radioactive pollution and have twice
obtained the interruption of the issuance of a permit. The last auction of the
deposit in January 2021 triggered large protests in the Manhoush and Nikolske districts.
Once the war is over, won't
Ukrainians have the unpleasant surprise of discovering that while they were
trying to survive Russian assaults and bombings, their regions were sold to
mining and gas companies?
End.
Note
Wivine:
These are for sure
the reasons that the blood of innocents has continued to flow throughout the
world for hundreds of years!
Who are the good ones? Who are
the Bad Ones?
There are certainly
other ways to get along and share resources without having to steal them,
without shedding blood by pitting populations against each other, by keeping
entire countries in poverty without any hope of improvement.
People feel it
intuitively, something moves in their hearts and they regain hope. Heads of
State have risen and more will rise throughout the world with much higher
insight, morals and ethics. A new generation, a different youth has been born
who will change the face of the world.
The time of the
righteous has arrived, the die is cast and the wheel turns unerringly towards
happiness, inner and outer peace.
END.
MEZZA VERDE GROUP.