Russian energy giant Gazprom said on Wednesday it had stopped gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland for failing to pay for gas in rubles, the Kremlin’s toughest response yet to Western sanctions over the Ukraine conflict.
It was the first time Russia had cut off gas supplies to European customers since Moscow launched its invasion on February 24.
“Gazprom has completely suspended gas supplies to Bulgargaz and PGNiG PGN.WA due to the absence of ruble payments,” Gazprom said in a statement, referring to the Polish and Bulgarian gas companies.
The Polish state-owned company PGNiG PGN.WA confirmed that its supplies from Gazprom had been cut off, but said it was still supplying its own customers as needed.
“Cutting off gas supply is a breach of contract and PGNiG reserves the right to seek compensation and will use all available contractual and legal means to do so,” the company said.
Poland and Bulgaria, both NATO and EU members, had previously said Russia would stop supplying them with gas on Wednesday.
Gazprom’s supplies cover about 50 percent of Poland’s consumption. Poland said it did not need to draw on reserves and its gas storage was 76 percent full.
The chief executive of Bulgarian gas network operator Bulgartransgaz had told Reuters that supplies to Bulgaria were still flowing. Hungary and Austria also said gas supplies were normal.
Russia’s energy exports have largely continued since the war began, an exception to sanctions that have otherwise cut off Moscow from much of its trade with the West.
‘Europe’s gas blackmail’
Ukraine accused Russia of blackmailing Europe for energy in a bid to bend its allies as the fighting entered its third month. Moscow has demanded that European countries pay for gas in rubles. Buyers say this violates contracts that require payment in euros.
Andriy Yermak, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, said Russia was “beginning to blackmail Europe for gas.”
“Russia is trying to break the unity of our allies,” Yermak said.
Bulgaria, which is almost entirely dependent on Russian gas imports, said the proposed new payment scheme violated its agreement with Gazprom. It has held talks to import liquefied natural gas through neighboring Turkey and Greece.
In a show of diplomacy, UN Secretary-General António Guterres made a trip to Moscow, where he spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to push for safe passage for civilians from Mariupol. Before the visit, Lavrov warned countries not to underestimate the threat of nuclear war amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 2:03
Since a Russian invasion force was repelled outside kyiv last month, Moscow has refocused its operation in eastern Ukraine, launching a new offensive from several directions to fully capture two provinces known as Donbas.
Russia advances in eastern Ukraine
The Ukrainian general staff recognized that Russia had made gains in several areas of the east, capturing the outskirts of the towns of Velyka Komyshuvakha and Zavody on one front, and the settlements of Zarichne and Novoshtokivske in the Donetsk region.
He said an assault on Azovstal, a steel factory where Ukrainian defenders are holding out in the ruins of Mariupol port, was continuing.
In the south, Ukraine said it had attacked Snake Island, a Black Sea outpost occupied by Russia earlier in the war when the defenders became heroes to the Ukrainians for refusing a Russian demand to surrender with a obscenity.
Ukraine says that Russia is trying to organize a fake referendum in Kherson, the only regional capital it has occupied so far, to try to take it away from Ukraine.
Reported explosions in Moldova
There has also been growing concern that the conflict could spread to neighboring Moldova, where pro-Russian separatists in a small region occupied since the 1990s by Russian troops have reported several explosions in recent days.
The invasion of Ukraine has left thousands dead or injured, reduced towns and cities to rubble and forced more than 5 million people to flee abroad.
Moscow calls its actions a “special operation” to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists. Ukraine and the West call this a pretext for an unprovoked war to seize territory.
The United States and its allies have increasingly been supplying Ukraine with heavy weapons for the fight in the east. More than 40 countries met on Tuesday at a US air base in Germany to discuss the defense of Ukraine. Germany announced its first delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine, including Gepard light tanks equipped with anti-aircraft guns.
Explosions were heard in the early hours of Wednesday in three Russian provinces bordering Ukraine, authorities said, and an ammunition depot in Belgorod province caught fire. The regional governor said the fire near the village of Staraya Nelidovka was put out and no civilians were injured.
Russia this month accused Ukraine of attacking a fuel depot in Belgorod with helicopters and opening fire on several villages in the province. A massive fire also broke out this week at a fuel depot in nearby Bryansk. Ukraine does not confirm responsibility for the reported incidents on Russian territory.
British military intelligence said that Ukraine retained control over most of its airspace and that Russia failed to effectively destroy Ukraine’s air force or air defenses.
Ukrainian authorities on Tuesday dismantled a massive Soviet-era monument in central kyiv meant to symbolize friendship with Russia.
“Now we see what this ‘friendship’ is: the destruction of Ukrainian cities…killing tens of thousands of peaceful people,” kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said.
Reference-www.cbc.ca