BERLIN (AP) — Germany-based chemicals maker BASF says it is taking some 7.3 billion euros ($7.9 billion) in write-downs related to the exit from Russia of its Wintershall Dea gas and oil subsidiary.

Wintershall Dea said late Tuesday that it “intends to fully exit Russia in an orderly manner complying with all applicable laws and regulations.” The unit’s CEO, Mario Mehren, said in a statement that “continuing to operate in Russia is not tenable.”

“Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine is incompatible with our values and has destroyed cooperation between Russia and Europe,” he added. He also pointed to restrictions imposed by the Russian government on the operations of Western countries and “external interferences in our joint venture operations.”

Parent company BASF said in its preliminary 2022 earnings statement that it was taking charges on its holding in Wintershall Dea totaling about 7.3 billion euros, 5.4 billion euros of them in the fourth quarter of last year.

It said that is expected to push it to a full-year net loss of nearly 1.38 billion euros, compared with a profit of more than 5.5 billion euros in 2021.

BASF said that “the Russian participations of Wintershall Dea have been re-evaluated and write-downs on the European gas transportation business have been made, including a complete write-down on the participation in Nord Stream AG.”

Wintershall Dea has a 15.5% stake in the operator of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline that runs under the Baltic Sea, which is majority-owned by Russia’s Gazprom.

The pipeline transported natural gas from Russia to Germany until the end of August. Russia hasn’t supplied any gas to Germany, one of the countries giving military and other help to Ukraine in the war, since then.

Undersea explosions damaged Nord Stream 1 in September. Investigators have described them as an act of sabotage, but have not said who they think might be responsible.

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DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The world is in a “sorry state” because of myriad “interlinked” challenges including climate change and Russia’s war in Ukraine that are “piling up like cars in a chain reaction crash,” the U.N. chief said at the World Economic Forum’s meeting Wednesday.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivered his gloomy message on the second day of the elite gathering of world leaders and corporate executives in the Swiss ski resort of Davos. Sessions took a grim turn when news broke of a helicopter crash in Ukraine that killed 18 people, including Ukraine’s interior minister and other officials.

Forum President Borge Brende requested 15 seconds of silence and Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska dabbed teary eyes, calling it “another very sad day,” then telling attendees that “we can also change this negative situation for the better.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was scheduled to address the conclave by video link as the Ukrainian delegation that includes his wife pushes for more aid, including weapons, from international allies to fight Russia. Speaking shortly before Zelenskyy is German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is facing pressure to send tanks to help Ukraine and is the only leader to attend Davos from the Group of 7 biggest economies.

Guterres said the widest levels of geopolitical division and mistrust in generations are undermining efforts to tackle global problems, which also include widening inequality, a cost-of-living crisis sparked by soaring inflation and an energy crunch, lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, supply-chain disruptions and more.

He singled out climate change as an “existential challenge,” and said a global commitment to limit the Earth’s temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius “is nearly going up in smoke.”

Guterres, who has been one of the most outspoken world figures on climate change, referenced a recent study that found scientists at Exxon Mobil made remarkably accurate predictions about the effects of climate change as far back as the 1970s, even as the company publicly doubted that warming was real.

“We learned last week that certain fossil fuel producers were fully aware in the 1970s that their core product was baking our planet,” he said in his speech. “Some in Big Oil peddled the big lie.”

Critics have questioned the impact of the four-day meeting where politicians, CEOs and other leaders discuss the world’s problems — and make deals on the sidelines — but where concrete action is harder to measure. Environmentalists, for example, slam the carbon-spewing private jets that ferry in bigwigs to an event that prioritizes the battle against climate change.

On the second day, government officials, corporate titans, academics and activists were attending dozens of panel sessions on topics covering the metaverse, environmental greenwashing and artificial intelligence.

Ukraine has taken center stage as the anniversary of the war nears, with Zelenska pressing attendees to do more to help her country at a time when Russia’s invasion is leaving children dying and the world struggling with food insecurity.

The crash added more tragedy after a Russian missile strike hit an apartment building over the weekend in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, killing dozens of people in one of the deadliest single attacks in months.

But Ukraine is gaining additional international support: Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Tuesday that the Netherlands plans to “join” the U.S. and Germany’s efforts to train and arm Ukraine with advanced Patriot defense systems.

The German government has faced mounting pressure to make another significant step forward in military aid to Ukraine by agreeing to deliver Leopard 2 battle tanks. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is scheduled to visit Berlin this week and then host a meeting of allies at Ramstein Air Base in western Germany.

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AP journalists Masha Macpherson and David Keyton in Davos and Kelvin Chan in London contributed.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the World Economic Forum meeting at https://apnews.com/hub/world-economic-forum.