Turkey buys more non-Russian oil

 LONDON/MOSCOW, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Turkey's largest oil refineries are buying more non-Russian oil in response to the latest Western sanctions on Russia, two people with direct knowledge of the matter and several industry sources told Reuters.

Turkey is a major buyer of Russian crude along with China and India. Turkish refiners are now taking similar steps to those in India, a sign of the impact of U.S., European Union and UK efforts to clamp down on Russian oil sales used to fund the war in Ukraine.

One of the largest Turkish refineries, SOCAR Turkey Aegean Refinery (STAR), owned by Azeri company SOCAR, has recently bought four cargoes of crude from Iraq, Kazakhstan and other non-Russian producers for December arrival, according to the sources.

This amounts to 77,000 to 129,000 barrels per day (bpd) of non-Russian supply depending on cargo size based on Reuters calculations, and means SOCAR will be using less Russian crude.

Russian crude amounted to virtually all of the STAR refinery's crude intake in October and September of about 210,000 bpd, according to Kpler data.

One of the four cargoes is a Kazakh KEBCO shipment, two sources said, the same in quality as Russian Urals crude, but sourced from Kazakhstan. SOCAR's STAR refinery imported just one other cargo of the Kazakh grade this year, and none in 2024.

The other major Turkish refiner - Tupras (TUPRS.IS), opens new tab - is increasing purchases of non-Russian grades similar in quality to Russian Urals, for example Iraqi grades, two of the sources said, without giving further details.

The moves by the Turkish refiners to boost purchases of non-Russian crude due to the latest sanctions have not been previously reported.

Tupras, which owns two major refineries in Turkey, is also likely to completely phase out Russian crude imports at one of these plants soon so that it can maintain fuel exports to Europe without falling foul of the EU's incoming sanctions, two sources said. The company would continue processing Russian crude at the other refinery, they said.

SOCAR declined to comment. Tupras did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Tupras has already diversified its crude supply this year, buying its first-ever cargo from Brazil and is currently waiting to receive its second ever cargo of Angolan crude, a Mostarda cargo due to arrive in early November.

Turkey is set to receive 141,000 bpd of Iraqi crude in November, according to Kpler, up from 99,000 bpd in October and compared with around 80,000 bpd on average this year. December data is not yet available.

Turkey imported around 669,000 bpd of crude oil over January-October, data from Kpler show, of which 317,000 bpd, or 47%, was Russian.

That compares with 580,000 bpd of crude imports over the same period last year, of which 333,000 bpd was from Russia.

Reporting by Robert Harvey, Ahmad Ghaddar and Enes Tunagur in London, Reuters reporters in Moscow. Editing by Alex Lawler and Sharon Singleton

Russia uses missile in Ukraine that led Trump to quit nuclear treaty, Kyiv says

 

LONDON, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Russia has in recent months attacked Ukraine with a cruise missile whose secret development prompted Donald Trump to abandon a nuclear arms control pact with Moscow in his first term as U.S. president, Ukraine's foreign minister said.

Andrii Sybiha's comments are the first confirmation that Russia has used the ground-launched 9M729 missile in combat - in Ukraine or elsewhere.

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Russia has fired the missile at Ukraine 23 times since August, a second senior Ukrainian official told Reuters. Ukraine also recorded two launches of the 9M729 by Russia in 2022, the source said.

Russia's defence ministry did not immediately reply to a written request for comment.

ONE MISSILE FLEW 1,200 KM, SOURCE SAYS

The 9M729 led the United States to quit the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019. Washington said the missile was in breach of the treaty and could fly far beyond its limit of 500 km (310 miles) although Russia denied this.

The missile, which can carry a nuclear or conventional warhead, has a range of 2,500 km, according to the Missile Threat website produced at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

A military source said a 9M729 fired by Russia on October 5 flew over 1,200 km to its impact in Ukraine."Russia's use of the INF-banned 9M729 against Ukraine in the past months demonstrates (President Vladimir) Putin's disrespect to the United States and President Trump's diplomatic efforts to end Russia's war against Ukraine," Sybiha said in written remarks.

He told Reuters that Kyiv supported Trump's peace proposals and that Russia should face maximum pressure to push it to peace, saying that boosting Ukraine's long-range firepower would help persuade Moscow to end its war in Ukraine.

Ukraine has urged Washington to provide it with long-range Tomahawk missiles that were not banned under the INF because they were only sea-launched at the time. Russia says this would be a dangerous escalation.

'AN ISSUE FOR EUROPEAN SECURITY'

Use of the 9M729 expands Russia's arsenal of long-range weapons for striking Ukraine and fits a pattern of Moscow sending threatening signals towards Europe as Trump seeks a peace settlement, Western military analysts said.

"I think Putin is trying to ramp up pressure as part of the Ukraine negotiations," said William Alberque, a senior adjunct fellow at the Pacific Forum think tank, adding that the 9M729 was designed to hit targets in Europe.

Russia tested its nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile last week, and on Wednesday said it had tested a nuclear-powered torpedo named Poseidon.

The White House did not respond to specific questions about Russia's use of the 9M729. Trump ordered the U.S. military on Thursday to resume testing nuclear weapons, citing "other countries' testing programs".

After the U.S. withdrew from the INF treaty, which banned ground-launched missiles with a range of 500-5,500 km, Russia declared a moratorium on deploying intermediate-range missiles. The West said Russia had already deployed some 9M729 missiles.

On August 4, shortly before using the missiles in Ukraine, Russia said it would no longer limit where it deploys INF-range missiles that can carry nuclear warheads.

"If it's shown that Russia's using INF-range missiles, which could easily be nuclear, in Ukraine, then that is an issue for European security, not just Ukraine," said John Foreman, a former British defence attache to Moscow and Kyiv.

MISSILE FRAGMENTS

Ukraine's foreign ministry did not provide details or dates of the 9M729 strikes.

The senior official said they began on August 21 - less than a week after a Trump-Putin summit in Alaska.

Reuters reviewed images of debris after a Russian attack in which a residential building was hit and four people were killed in the Ukrainian village of Lapaiivka on October 5 - over 600 km from Russian territory.

The images showed that two missile fragments, including a tube containing cabling, were marked 9M729.

Jeffrey Lewis, Distinguished Scholar of Global Security at Middlebury College, reviewed the images with analysts.

He said the tube, engine and engine panelling were consistent with what he expected the 9M729 to look like and that the markings made a match even more likely.

FIRING FROM FURTHER BACK

Russia has various missiles that can reach across Ukraine, including the sea-launched Kalibr and air-launched Kh-101, but Lewis said the 9M729 offers something slightly different.

"This gives them slightly different attack axes, which is difficult for air defences, and it increases the pool of missiles that are available to the Russians," Lewis said.

The INF prohibited ground-launched missiles because the launchers are mobile and relatively easy to conceal.

Douglas Barrie, Senior Fellow for Military Aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Russia could use the 9M729 to conduct ground-launched strikes from safer locations deeper inside Russia.

Russia would also benefit from testing the system in a battlefield environment in Ukraine, though 23 uses would imply a military purpose, said Barrie.

Additional reporting by Jonathan Landay, Editing by Timothy Heritage