Meetings and team desire for Remington Motels, a Dallas-dependent lodge management business with a portfolio of far more than 110 houses, not only returned in 2022 but proved to be “better than ever,” CEO Sloan Dean stated all through a panel discussion at the American Lodging Financial investment Summit in Los Angeles. Dean talked over the company’s performance and ongoing techniques with BTN’s Angelique Platas. Edited excerpts follow.
BTN: Can you explain to me more about Remington Hotels’ restoration in meetings and the business sector? Why is Remington viewing this amount of restoration?
Sloan Dean: From April 1–Dec. 31, 2022, our team revenues eaten had been up 12.9 percent compared to 2019. It is really up about 10 {515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} in amount and about 2 {515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} in home evenings, [equating] to nearly a 13 percent achieve in comparison on a nominal basis to 2019—those figures have only accelerated likely into 2023. I just finished our January bookings, and about 30 percent of my revenues are team. We’re 70 p.c instruction and 30 p.c team, but in the month of January 2023 we are 171 per cent in excess of past 12 months. Obviously, omicron kicked up a calendar year in the past [and] we have acquired an simple Q1 equivalent, but as opposed to January 2020, our bookings are up 30 {515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}. Our full-yr 2023 group pace—what we have on the textbooks in comparison to 2019—is actually in advance. I believe you’re heading to listen to a whole lot of corporations converse about how Q4 this earlier year was an inflection level for group.
We are outperforming in team since there is a adjust in client habits. Transient organization vacation is down about 30 p.c compared to ’19, but corporate team is up. You have a ton far more organization offsites, a ton of companies have moved to distant perform. What has filled [much] of the hole is enterprise meetups or strategic offsites.
One of the things people today have not talked about is, since occupancy midweek is even now under 2019 degrees, you have additional availability. [Previously,] you would not just take as much group midweek simply because you experienced larger-rated small business transient. Additional of a corporation’s vacation spending budget is going to these team meetups instead of particular person journeys, so you have a lot more midweek team filling in the gaps.
In 2021, we acquired our staffing again to 2019 levels. If you genuinely want revenues to get back again more rapidly, you have to have revenue structured in a way to make that take place. Our group income business is actually at the exact staffing levels or larger at most each and every resort. Bringing personnel back speedier than our rivals lent to us changing a lot more team business enterprise. We also have instituted a number of types of technologies enhancements that assisted team conversion.
BTN: As a management enterprise, how do you interact in just the company industry? Do you take an energetic job in the request-for-proposal approach?
Dean: We use AI to fill in requests for proposals for teams, so our response charge is faster. We have viewed a increased conversion fee by applying that technologies. We have moved to digital contracts so we can shift faster—all of which led to our conversion amount in group heading up. Our response charge is faster than it really is at any time been, and our … staffing levels are as large as they at any time have been. Our group conversion amount from prospect to definite across the corporation is just shy of 11 percent, which is truly very substantial. We have been really intentional about determining channels and RFPs that are larger-conversion and obtaining a lot more specific concentration on those, and then making use of AI to reply to more of the channels that are low-conversion, wherever they are just sourcing hundreds [of] lodges, and in some instances frankly we also educated product sales men and women to just drop to take part. Revenue time is dollars. We have in excess of 300 folks in revenue as a organization. We want to make certain we improve their time. I feel RFP spam is a big part of income proficiency that doesn’t get dealt with in the marketplace.
BTN: How do you aid the brands in your portfolio in terms of responding to RFPs?
Dean: We’ve really targeted on obtaining the methods back again [and] only responding to RFPs that we imagine are significant likelihood to transform. [We bring] a little bit of a extra math/analytical solution to responding. We handle branded inns no in different ways than impartial. The only difference is the branded motels, you do occasionally get a team potential customers from their group product sales.
BTN: Do you negotiate separately on the degree with company consumers, or you negotiating on behalf of the manufacturer?
Dean: It’s personal. We have a couple wholesale agreements that are company-extensive. We’ve got group promoting contracts… that agreement at a grasp support level across the enterprise, but so considerably of team business is just local—95 {515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} furthermore of all team desire is localized.
BTN: How has transient RFP exercise been in your team of lodges and how was the year going into 2023?
Dean: It’s seriously been a blend of haves and have-nots. If you are in a non-tech sector or are non-publicly traded—you’re a small or midsized businesses—we’re anticipating them to boost quantity in 2023, and the pricing that we obtained was in essence what we budgeted. We preferred to get 5 p.c to 7 percent amount lift at least, and I imagine in most situations we were able to get that. In which there are issues are the Fortune 500s, tech consulting and major tech, exactly where you see the headlines of layoffs. Absent a number of lodges that we operate in San Francisco, we are not greatly concentrated in business transient tech accounts. But we have found them be pretty business on not accepting amount improves this yr.
We have gotten genuinely very good price development, and we assume small business transient to expand following calendar year. Business enterprise transient is the only phase that is however down for U.S. compared to ’19. It finished about 30 p.c down for 2022 in comparison to 2019. We are anticipating it to enhance 10 per cent subsequent yr [over] this calendar year.
BTN: Are you on the lookout for nearly anything various in your RFPs than you were in the previous? Is there everything that you’re searching to include or exclude?
Dean: No. Some businesses ask about [environmental social and governance] in the RFP. Nevertheless, your regular issues: They do not want you to increase their prices. They want adaptability all around cancellation—we’ve tried out to thrust 48-hour cancellation. They even now want 6 p.m. day-of-arrival, which is form of outdated-university. They nevertheless want guaranteed updates for some significant-frequency travelers. I would say which is all really common. It is getting to be additional popular for larger businesses to ask about your ESG, but I would say it truly is only about 10 {515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}. ESG drives very little to no booking habits with the exception of a few organizations that involve ESG goals to be accepted into their application.
BTN: As you search at your combine of small business going into 2023, what are you focusing on?
Dean: I assume whoever wins the group video game wins market place share—our intention is to be somewhat a lot more team [business] this calendar year. As a result why I imagine a strategic benefit of ours was ending January with group up vs . ‘19. I believe that insulates us some from threat of economic downturn.
The second factor is I think you will go on to see leisure energy. The majority of travel takes place with folks with $150,000-moreover in income level, and they are not likely to control their vacations throughout a shallow recession. Our expectation is leisure in ‘23 will be larger than it was in ‘22.
The massive aim [for business travel is] not letting our foot off the gasoline in fee. Our fee was up just about 10 p.c in January 2023 vs . 2019. That is how we get back again to profitability. We cannot sluggish down. I do consider in some cases the organization transient gets much too quite a few headlines. There were a few leisure [nights for every one business]. Now you will find four leisure for each and every just one business enterprise. Everyone seems to emphasis on the just one.
One turns 20 this 12 months, the other transported its very first auto soon soon after Globe War II. The previous desires to carry sustainable transportation to the masses, when the latter sells speed and extravagance to the world’s wealthiest. One’s autos quietly whir, and the other’s roar.
Tesla Inc. and Ferrari NV have tiny in widespread, and is not going to for a further several years. But in 1 of the several interviews he’s offered given that starting to be chief govt officer of the Italian supercar maker 17 months in the past, Ferrari Chief Government Officer Benedetto Vigna complimented the electrical automobile maker led by Elon Musk even though drawing distinct distinctions amongst their respective paths forward.
Talking at Ferrari’s Maranello headquarters, Vigna, 53, credited Tesla with accelerating transform inside an market steeped in motor cylinders. The government who pioneered sensors applied in billions of iPhones talked over how Ferrari will navigate the shift to batteries from combustion engines, the runaway good results of the brand’s most recent model line and the long term of luxury.
Right here are excerpts from the conversation that have been edited and condensed for length and clarity:
What have you discovered from Tesla?
The significant contribution that Tesla has made to the automotive industry? It was a wake-up contact. Factors used to transpire also slowly. Tesla shook up the field and accelerated processes and decisions. They were being more quickly and much more agile.
How special is Ferrari’s path towards electrification?
Electrification is a new way to deliver our prospects a unique driving working experience, and I’ve no doubt that our electrical powertrains will give clients the identical thrills of combustion engines. The place is how to extract the most effective emotion from the use of this technological know-how, supplying anything exceptional to the clientele.
Driving thrills is a mixture of elements: longitudinal acceleration, lateral acceleration, seem, gear-shifting and braking. This won’t adjust if the powertrain is electric powered.
Is Ferrari on keep track of with its electrification ideas?
Certainly, we’re entirely on track to unveil our first completely electric powered Ferrari in 2025. That implies it will go into the current market the next calendar year.
What will be the principal variations among an electrical Ferrari and other cars and trucks?
Properly, there are functional vehicles that have the objective of going men and women from stage A to place B, emitting zero carbon dioxide. You don’t treatment about its model what really matters is that it moves you. Separately, there are psychological cars and trucks that presents you a exceptional driving encounter, like Ferraris.
How do you take into account Tesla?
For me, it can be a useful auto. It’s intended to go from just one place to a different.
There is a notion Ferrari has been slower with respect to electrification than some competitors.
That is not correct. I just think a enterprise like us cannot impose any decision on clientele, and that is why we are going to keep featuring a blend of technological know-how for as very long as it really is feasible. That indicates inner combustion engines, hybrids and completely electric powered styles.
You happen to be heading electrical, but the extended-awaited Purosangue unveiled just a number of months back will only be powered by combustion engines. What was at the rear of this conclusion?
That displays there is even now area for a combine of technological innovation. We’ve filled the order book 4 occasions more quickly than our initial prepare. Still, I can reiterate that Purosangue’s contribution to our deliveries will not exceed 20 percent all through the model’s lifestyle cycle.
Can you notify us a lot more about the Purosangue buy guide?
The only issue I can inform you is that we are in line with other models, so we have orders placed for shipping likely nicely into 2024.
What are your sights on electrification?
Some regulators at a particular point made the decision that the group need to go into electric powered, correct or incorrect. And it is — this is going to materialize.
Electrification is just a single piece of the pie, and there’s indeed also a lot hoopla about it as effectively as on program and the discussion about the have to have to consolidate the supply chain. Most folks are wanting too considerably at the technologies itself, so you have individuals chatting about matters such as axial circulation, radial circulation and energy density, when the most vital point is the client’s notion.
What do you necessarily mean?
Electrifying cars and trucks is comparatively straightforward from technological place of perspective. The genuine place is how to extract the greatest emotion for the use of this know-how you want to supply to the driver. Technologies is just a resource, and I think you can find too a great deal income poured into this, and this is for the reason that there is certainly a deficiency of deep information.
What is the major threat you see for Ferrari?
I can not see any distinct danger for Ferrari. There is a risk for the luxurious market over-all, which is how will new generations react to luxury merchandise? Which is why I’m placing a lot of notice on sustainability, a accurate sustainability motion system. When I say that we want to be carbon neutral by the end of 2030, I suggest that by finish of 2030, I want to sharply slice emissions.
What would you like your legacy to be?
What I’d like to go away is a organization in which there is far more empowerment at all concentrations, that’s much more unified. I want decisions to be taken at all amounts. There is certainly this trend in Latin lifestyle organizations to hold out for the manager to notify the people what they have to do. Do it, entire cease.
How do you measure achievements?
It can be all about how promptly you recognize the ecosystem all around you and how rapidly you adapt and make decisions, partly with the brain and partly with the intestine. If you feel you require to wait to have the entire range of aspects to make the closing final decision, well, it’s much too late.
U.S. stocks shut Wednesday decreased as yet another bout of earnings success hit traders’ desks and Wall Road weighed the outlook for interest premiums following Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled extra hikes may well be essential than marketplaces are pricing in.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) declined 1.1{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}, although the Dow Jones Industrial Common (^DJ) drop roughly 200 points, or .6{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}. The technologies-weighty Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) tumbled 1.7{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}.
In distinct inventory moves, shares of Alphabet (GOOG) tanked 7.4{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} right after the Google mum or dad disclosed a batch of new AI-run features for its Search, Maps, and Lens apps and a presentation of the technology misfired.
The announcement came just one particular working day after Microsoft (MSFT) unveiled a new variation of its Bing look for engine jogging on a much more strong variation of OpenAI’s preferred ChatGPT purely natural language AI technological innovation. Shares of Microsoft shut down .3{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} following paring gains from previously in the working day.
Activision Blizzard (ATVI) shares were down 3.6{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} soon after the UK’s antitrust regulator raised competitors problems about Microsoft’s proposed $69 billion acquire of the “Connect with of Duty” maker.
Underneath Armour (UA) reversed an progress and slid 8.4{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} in the next 50 percent of the trading working day as investors’ emphasis shifted from the athletic apparel retailer lifting its income forecast to superior discounts and bloated inventories.
Uber’s (UBER) inventory climbed 5.5{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} following earnings for the final three months of 2022 beat anticipations and CEO Dara Khosrowshahi stated the firm was targeted on accomplishing profitability in 2023 as post-pandemic need for trip-hailing recovers.
Shares of Chipotle (CMG) sank 5{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} right after the burrito-maker’s earnings unhappy as bigger prices for tortillas, dairy, beans and rice, as very well as labor fees, ate into profitability.
CVS Health (CVS) shares rose just about 3.5{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} just after the pharmacy chain introduced it has agreed to buy Oak Avenue Well being in a $10.6 billion deal, marking its second major acquisition in the health-treatment area in the previous two several years.
WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 07: Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell speaks in an job interview with David Rubenstein. (Photo by Julia Nikhinson/Getty Pictures)
The moves Wednesday early morning arrive right after investors cheered remarks from Powell at a talking engagement in Washington, D.C., in which he embraced the presence of “disinflation” in the U.S. financial system. On Tuesday, the S&P 500 acquired 1.3{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}, the Dow .7{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}, and the Nasdaq 1.9{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}.
DataTrek’s Nicholas Colas notes that Powell’s opinions did not sway the market’s anticipations of the very likely path of financial coverage this 12 months. The rate-delicate two-12 months Treasury yields had been unchanged next the speech, Colas pointed out — at 4.46{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} even though federal money futures have been at at 4.50-4.75{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} — indicating policy charges around the coming 24 months could continue being exactly where they are now.
“[Yesterday] afternoon’s fairness current market rally demonstrates markets like Powell’s sluggish and constant, incoming information-centric strategy to financial coverage,” Colas reported. “He could have utilized Friday’s work opportunities report as an excuse to sign far more intense coverage action in March, but he did not.”
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Alexandra Semenova is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Abide by her on Twitter @alexandraandnyc
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Arming Ukraine ‘only path to peace’, says UK foreign secretary
Helping to arm Ukraine so it can defend itself against Russia is the swiftest path to achieving peace, British foreign secretary James Cleverly said in an article published on Sunday.
Writing in the Times of Malta ahead of a visit on Tuesday to the Mediterranean island, which assumed the presidency of the U.N. Security Council at the start of February, Cleverly wrote:
Like all authoritarian rulers, Putin responds only to strength in his opponents. He rejected Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s 10-point plan for peace last December. That is why the UK and Ukraine’s friends are doing all they can to bring Ukraine success on the battlefield. And it’s why I’m delighted that Germany and the US are joining the UK in sending tanks to the Ukrainians. Giving the Ukrainians the tools they need to finish the job is the swiftest – indeed the only – path to peace.
The war in Ukraine is expected to dominate the talks between Britain and Malta, a European Union member.
Key events
On speculation over the future of Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksii Reznikov, the Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh has tweeted this:
Ukrainian defence sources saying Oleksii Reznikov is not resigning despite swirl of speculation. Press conference due in Kyiv at 3pm
Russia is concentrating troops and military equipment to stage a decisive offensive around Bakhmut and the Luhansk region, the Institute for the Study of War think tank said, in a Feb 4 report.
ISW analysts said the sustained military effort to encircle Bakhmut has prevented Russia from assembling the troops needed to attack Zaporizhzhia from the east.
Ukrainian defence minister Oleksii Reznikov is likely to be dismissed from his ministerial post next week, Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported today citing government and military sources.
His likely replacement is understood to be Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency HUR, sources reportedly said.
“I have not had any conversations about my resignation from this position,” Reznikov reportedly told Ukrainska Pravda in a soon-to-be-published interview.
An unnamed source confirmed to the Kyiv Independent that Reznikov was very likely to be replaced in the very near future.
Reznikov could be appointed to a new post as justice minister, as “no one in the Presidential Office has any doubt” that Reznikov should stay in the government, according to the Ukrainska Pravda article.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov will likely be dismissed from his ministerial post next week, Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported on Feb. 5, citing government and military sources.https://t.co/B1n2aFvP57
According to the report, Denys Maliuska, the current justice minister, could be appointed as an ambassador to a Ukrainian diplomatic mission in Europe.
The report hasn’t provided information on who will head Ukraine’s military intelligence agency if Budanov is appointed as defence minister.
Reznikov, 56, has served as defence minister since Nov. 4, 2021, and has played an important role in the campaigning for and securing of Western military aid.
Arming Ukraine ‘only path to peace’, says UK foreign secretary
Helping to arm Ukraine so it can defend itself against Russia is the swiftest path to achieving peace, British foreign secretary James Cleverly said in an article published on Sunday.
Writing in the Times of Malta ahead of a visit on Tuesday to the Mediterranean island, which assumed the presidency of the U.N. Security Council at the start of February, Cleverly wrote:
Like all authoritarian rulers, Putin responds only to strength in his opponents. He rejected Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s 10-point plan for peace last December. That is why the UK and Ukraine’s friends are doing all they can to bring Ukraine success on the battlefield. And it’s why I’m delighted that Germany and the US are joining the UK in sending tanks to the Ukrainians. Giving the Ukrainians the tools they need to finish the job is the swiftest – indeed the only – path to peace.
The war in Ukraine is expected to dominate the talks between Britain and Malta, a European Union member.
Russian attacks were reported in seven out of Ukraine’s 25 regions over Feb. 4, hitting Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts with artillery and missiles.
According to the regional governors and officials, at least five civilians were killed and 12 injured, the Kyiv Independent reports.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has revoked the citizenship of several former influential politicians.
“Today, I signed the relevant documents to take another step to protect and cleanse our state from those on the side of the aggressor,” Zelenskiy said during his nightly video address on Saturday.
He would not list the names but said they had dual Russian citizenship.
According to Ukrainian state media, the list includes several top politicians from the office of Viktor Yanukovych, who served as Ukraine’s pro-Russian president from 2010 until he was removed from office in 2014.
The list included Dmytro Tabachnyk, a former minister of education and science, Andriy Klyuyev, a former deputy prime minister and head of Yanukovych’s administration, and Vitaliy Zakharchenko, a former interior minister, the RBC-Ukraine news agency reported.
Ukraine has stripped a number of people of their Ukrainian citizenship and has sanctioned hundreds of Russian and Belarusian individuals and firms since the start of the Russian invasion a year ago.
The head of Russia’s private Wagner militia said on Sunday that fierce fighting was ongoing in the northern parts of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which has been the focus of Russian forces’ attention for weeks.
Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the founder and head of the Wagner group, said Ukrainian forces were not retreating. Reuters reports.
Russian forces have been attempting to encircle and capture Bakhmut, a city in the eastern Donbas region, for weeks.
Prigozhin rejected reports in Russian media outlets that Ukrainian troops were abandoning Bakhmut. “Ukrainian forces are not retreating anywhere. They are fighting to the last,” he said in a statement published on his Telegram channel.
“Fierce battles are going on in the northern quarters for every street, every house, every stairwell,” he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said repeatedly in recent days that the situation around the city is tough.
Bakhmut has become “increasingly isolated”, according to the latest assessment by the UK Ministry of Defence.
On Friday, Zelenskiy vowed that his forces will fight for Bakhmut “for as long as we can”, but the situation there is becoming increasingly dire for Ukrainian forces.
If Russian forces manage to capture the city, which has been decimated by months of artillery shelling, it would be their most important strategic advance since last summer.
A formerIsraeli prime minister who served briefly as a mediator at the start of Russia’s war with Ukraine says he drew a promise from the Russian president not to kill his Ukrainian counterpart
Associated Press agency reports:
Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett became an unlikely intermediary in the war’s first weeks, becoming one of the few Western leaders to meet President Vladimir Putin during the war in a snap trip to Moscow last March.
While Bennett’s mediation efforts appear to have done little to end the bloodshed that continues until today, his remarks, in an interview posted online late Saturday, shed light on the backroom diplomacy and urgent efforts that were underway to try to bring the conflict to a speedy conclusion in its early days.
In the five-hour interview, which touched on numerous other subjects, Bennett says he asked Putin about whether he intended to kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
“I asked ‘what’s up with this? Are you planning to kill Zelenskiy?’ He said ‘I won’t kill Zelenskiy.’ I then said to him ‘I have to understand that you’re giving me your word that you won’t kill Zelenskiy.’ He said ‘I’m not going to kill Zelenskiy.’”
Bennett said he then called Zelenskiy to inform him of Putin’s pledge.
“‘Listen, I came out of a meeting, he’s not going to kill you.’ He asks, ‘are you sure?’ I said ’100{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} he won’t kill you.’”
Bennett said that during his mediation, Putin dropped his vow to seek Ukraine’s disarmament and Zelenskiy promised not to join NATO.
Bennet’s peacemaking efforts did not appear to take off and his time in power was short-lived, reports AP.
‘Putin did not threaten me or Germany,’ says Scholz
In the interview with Bild am Sonntag, Olaf Scholz said Vladimir Putin “has not made any threats against me or Germany” in his telephone conversations with the Russian president.
Former British prime minister Boris Johnson, speaking to the BBC for a documentary early this week, said the Russian leader had threatened him with a missile strike that would “only take a minute.” The Kremlin said Johnson was lying.
The German chancellor said the conversations he had with Putin made it clear they had very different views of the war in Ukraine, which Russia calls a “special military operation”.
“I make it very clear to Putin that Russia has sole responsibility for the war,” Scholz said.
“Russia has invaded its neighbour for no reason, in order to take parts of Ukraine or the whole country under its control.”
Because it was Germany’s view that Russia’s actions violated Europe’s peace framework, it was providing Ukraine with financial, humanitarian and military help, he said.
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said Ukraine’s president agreed that weapons supplied by the west will not be used to attack Russian territory.
“There is a consensus on this point,” Scholz said in an interview with the weekly Bild am Sonntag.
Ukraine’s western allies have pledged to arm it with precision rockets and missile systems, as well as tanks, as it tries to push back Russian troops in its east.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has compared the intervention of countries such as Germany with his nation’s struggle during the second world war.
But Scholz rejected the comparison.
“[Putin’s] words are part of a series of absurd historical comparisons that he uses to justify his attack on Ukraine,” he said. “But nothing justifies this war.
“Together with our allies, we are supplying battle tanks to Ukraine so that it can defend itself. We have carefully weighed each delivery of weapons, in close coordination with our allies, starting with America.”
Scholz said that such a consensus-based approach “avoids an escalation”.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz. Photograph: Christian Mang/Reuters
Ukrainian forces remained in control of the village of Bilohorivka, the Luhansk region governor, Serhiy Haidai, has said, adding that the situation there is tense, but under control.
“Information is being spread in the Russian Federation about the alleged capture of Bilohorivka and the removal of our people from there,” Haidai told the national broadcaster on Sunday.
“Our troops remain in their positions, nobody has captured Bilohorivka, nobody has entered there, there is no enemy there.”
Some Moscow-installed officials and pro-Russian military bloggers have recently claimed Russian advances in the direction of Bilohorivka, the last part of Luhansk – the northern part of the Donbas – held by Ukrainian forces.
“The situation at the front is tense, but controlled by Ukrainian forces,” Haidai said.
“The number of Russian attacks has … increased, but all of them have been repulsed by our troops, who remain in their positions.”
Reuters was not able to independently verify the report.
The embattled eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut has become “increasingly isolated”, according to the latest assessment by the UK Ministry of Defence.
“Over the last week, Russia has continued to make small advances in its attempt to encircle the Donbas town of Bakhmut,” the MoD tweeted on Sunday.
“The M03 and the H32 – the two main roads into the city for Ukrainian defenders – are likely now both threatened by direct fire, following the Russian advances.
“Earlier in the week, Wagner paramilitary forces highly likely seized a subordinate route which links Bakhmut to the town of Siversk.
“While multiple alternative cross-country supply routes remain available to Ukrainian forces, Bakhmut is increasingly isolated.”
Russian missile hits residential building in Kharkiv
Two Russian missiles hit the centre of Kharkiv in Ukraine’s north-east, with one of the missiles striking a residential building, Reuters reported the city’s mayor saying on Sunday.
“At this time, it’s known that there is a fire in one of the residential buildings and one injured person,” Ihor Terekhov said on the Telegram messaging platform.
The Kharkiv governor, Oleh Synehubov, said: ““A residential building in the city centre was hit. A fire broke out. So far, three victims are known: a 54-year-old woman and two men aged 51 and 55.”
He said the woman was hospitalised with shrapnel wounds.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the report.
Situation on eastern frontlines ‘very difficult now’, Zelenskiy says
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Saturday the situation on the frontlines in the east of the country was getting tougher and Russia was throwing more and more troops into battle.
The Kremlin has been pushing for a significant battlefield victory after months of setbacks, with Russian forces trying to close grip on the town of Bakhmut and fighting for control of a nearby major supply route for Ukrainian forces.
Russian troops are also trying to capture the coal mining city of Vuhledar, about 75 miles (120km) south-west of Bakhmut, in the eastern region of Donetsk.
“I’ve often had to say the situation at the front is tough, and is getting tougher, and it’s that time again … The invader is putting more and more of his forces into breaking down our defences,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
“It is very difficult now in Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Lyman and other directions,” he continued.
Ukrainian soldiers fire an anti-aircraft gun at a position near Bakhmut. Photograph: Sergey Shestak/EPA
Earlier in the day, the deputy defence minister, Hanna Malyar, wrote on Telegram that Russian efforts to break the defences in Bakhmut and Lyman had failed.
Lyman, which lies just to the north of Bakhmut, was liberated by Ukrainian forces in October.
“This week, the Russian occupation forces threw all their efforts into breaking through our defence and encircling Bakhmut, and launched a powerful offensive in the Lyman sector,” Malyar said. “But thanks to the resilience of our soldiers, they did not succeed.”
On Friday, Zelenskiy vowed that his forces will fight for Bakhmut “for as long as we can”, but the situation there is becoming increasingly dire for Ukrainian forces.
The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces has been reporting daily numerous combat clashes in the area and Moscow military bloggers have claimed a number of unverified Russian successes along the frontline.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s ongoing live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said the situation on the frontlines in the east of the country was getting tougher and Russia was throwing more and more troops into battle.
“I’ve often had to say the situation at the front is tough, and is getting tougher, and it’s that time again … The invader is putting more and more of his forces into breaking down our defences,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Saturday.
“It is very difficult now in Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Lyman and other directions,” he continued.
The Kremlin has been pushing for a significant battlefield victory after months of setbacks, with Russian forces trying to close grip on the town of Bakhmut and fighting for control of a nearby major supply route for Ukrainian forces.
More on that story soon.
In other developments:
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said Zelenskiy has agreed that weapons supplied by the west will not be used to attack Russian territory. “There is a consensus on this point,” Scholz told Bild am Sonntag. Scholz rejected Vladimir Putin’s comparison of the intervention of the west with Russia’s struggle during the second world war as “absurd”. “We have carefully weighed each delivery of weapons, in close coordination with our allies, starting with America,” he said, adding that such a consensus-based approach “avoids an escalation”.
The Ukrainian president has revoked the citizenship of several former influential politicians, in what he said was another step to “cleanse” the country of pro-Russian influences. Zelenskiy would not list the names, but said they had dual Russian citizenship. According to Ukrainian state media, the list includes several top politicians from the office of Viktor Yanukovych, who served as Ukraine’s pro-Russian president from 2010 until he was removed from office in 2014.
Portugal has become the latest country to say it will send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, the prime minister, António Costa, said. An inventory has been done of its stocks, with Lisbon asking Germany for parts to help repair them so they can be deployed to Ukraine.
Zelenskiy spoke to UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, on Saturday. The president said he had thanked Sunak for the training of Ukrainian troops so they will be able to use British Challenger tanks.
The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, has authorised the country to begin using seized Russian money to aid Ukraine, according to US media. The money would come from assets confiscated from Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev after his April indictment for alleged sanctions evasions, he added.
Ukraine has introduced emergency energy shutdowns in Odesa after a “technological accident” at a high-voltage electricity substation, which has previously been damaged by Russian attacks. Half a million people are without power and officials have warned repairs could take weeks. The government said it would appeal to Turkey for help and ordered the energy ministry’s stocks of high-power generators to be sent to the city.
Germany has collected evidence of war crimes in Ukraine, the country’s prosecutor general said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday, adding that he saw a need for a judicial process at international level. He said the amount of evidence was in the “three-digit” range.
More than 18.1m border crossings have taken place out of Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began in February 2022, according to data from the UN.
The bodies of killed British volunteers Christopher Parry and Andrew Bagshaw have been returned by Russian troops in a prisoner exchange. They were both killed in Ukraine last month. A total of 116 Ukrainian troops have come home after being captured, with 63 being sent back to Russia.
The number of Russian soldiers around the southern city of Mariupol has increased by about 10,000 to 15,000, according to an adviser to the city’s mayor. Petro Andriushchenko wrote on Telegram that it means the total amount of troops is now about 30,000. They are stationed in villages in the district.
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