Ukraine Updates: Russia cuts off gas to Poland and Bulgaria, European prices rise


What is happening in Ukraine today and how are countries around the world responding? Read live updates on Vladimir Putin and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

LVIV, Ukraine — Gas prices in Europe have soared by as much as 24 percent after Gazprom announced it would suspend deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria from Wednesday because it has not received any payments from them since April 1. Dutch benchmark futures are trading at one point around 125 euros per megawatt hour.

Fatih Birol, executive director of the Paris-based International Energy Agency, tweeted Wednesday morning that his organization “stands firm with Poland.”

“Gazprom’s decision to completely cut off gas supplies to Poland is yet another sign of Russia’s politicization of existing agreements and will only accelerate European efforts to move away from Russian energy supplies,” he wrote.

The increase comes even as the weather turns warmer in Europe, reducing demand for natural gas to heat homes and businesses.

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MOSCOW — Russian state-controlled natural gas giant Gazprom says it has cut gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria after they refused to pay for shipments in rubles.

He warned that if they divert gas destined for other European customers, deliveries to Europe will be reduced to that amount.

The move follows Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order to switch payments for Russian gas supplied to Europe to rubles.

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BEIJING – Drone company DJI Technology Co. said it will temporarily suspend business activities in Russia and Ukraine to ensure its products are not used during hostilities.

“DJI is internally re-evaluating compliance requirements in various jurisdictions. Pending the current review, DJI will temporarily suspend all commercial activities in Russia and Ukraine,” the company said in a statement.

The declaration makes it one of the few Chinese companies to have publicly withdrawn from Russia. While many Western brands and companies have withdrawn from the Russian market in protest of its invasion of Ukraine, many Chinese companies have continued to operate in the country. China continues to refrain from directly criticizing Russia for the war.

The suspension comes more than a month after Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov wrote an open letter calling on DJI to block sales of its drones in Russia, claiming Russians were using “DJI products”. in the Ukraine to navigate their missiles to kill. civilians.”

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POKROVSK, Ukraine — As Russian forces intensify their bombardment in eastern Ukraine, more people are fleeing their homes in search of safety.

In Pokrovsk, a city in the Donetsk region, people lined up Tuesday to board a train heading to the far west of the country along the border with Hungary and Slovakia. One person was put on the train in a wheelchair and another on a stretcher.

The passengers took cats, dogs, some bags and boxes, and the memory of those who did not flee in time.

“We were in the basement, but my daughter did not survive and she got shrapnel on the doorstep” during Monday’s shelling, Mykola Kharchenko, 74, said. “We had to bury her in the garden near the pear tree.”

He said his village, Vremivka, about 70 kilometers (40 miles) from Pokrovsk, was under heavy fire for four days and everything was destroyed. With tears in his eyes, Kharchenko said that he somehow held his own at home, but once he arrived at the train station he fell apart.

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UNITED NATIONS — The UN says Secretary-General António Guterres and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed in principle that the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross should participate in the evacuation of civilians from a besieged steel plant in the Ukrainian city , in southeastern Ukraine. Mariupol.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that during their one-on-one meeting on Tuesday, Guterres and Putin “discussed proposals for humanitarian assistance and evacuation of civilians from conflict zones, specifically in relation to the situation in Mariupol.”

The sprawling Azovstal steel plant has been almost completely destroyed by Russian attacks, but it is the last pocket of organized Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol.

Some 2,000 soldiers and 1,000 civilians are said to be hiding in bunkers below the wrecked structure.

Dujarric said that following the principle of the Guterres-Putin agreement, talks will be held with the UN humanitarian office and the Russian Defense Ministry on the evacuation.

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WASHINGTON — The State Department says American diplomats have begun returning to Ukraine by taking day trips to temporary offices in the western city of Lviv from neighboring Poland.

The department said the first group of diplomats crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border and traveled to Lviv on Tuesday morning before returning to Poland later that day.

The step came just two days after Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Ukrainian leaders during a secretly shrouded visit to kyiv that the United States would begin re-staffing its diplomatic facilities in Ukraine this week.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said the agency has expedited its review of the reopening of the US embassy in kyiv, which was closed shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. He said that operations at the embassy would resume as soon as possible depending on the security situation. in the capital.

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