#War #Ukraine #Developments
Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:
– EU prepares Russian gas shutdown –
The European Commission is urging EU members to cut demand for natural gas by 15 percent in the coming months and give it the power to impose gas rationing in preparation for a winter without Russian gas or with a severely reduced supply.
“Russia uses energy as a weapon and therefore Europe must be ready in any case, whether it is a partial major disruption to Russian gas or a complete disruption,” says European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
In a draft plan seen by AFP, the Commission is asking member states to turn down heating and air conditioning in public and commercial buildings.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and the West responded with sanctions, Russia has started reducing its gas supplies to EU members including Germany and in the case of Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Poland set completely.
Europe is watching with interest as Russia will resume gas supplies via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline on Thursday when scheduled maintenance is due to be completed. German pipeline manager Gascade said he expects Russian gas supplies to resume at 40 percent of capacity.
The President of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, estimated on Twitter on Wednesday evening that delivery on Thursday could only be “around 30 percent” of capacity after the data was updated.
– Russia’s goals go beyond Donbass: Lavrov –
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said President Vladimir Putin’s plans for Ukraine went beyond the eastern Donbass region, which Moscow turned its focus to after failing to capture the capital Kyiv and second-biggest city Kharkiv.
In an interview with Russian state media, he says “it’s not just about the DNR and LNR,” referring to the two territories that make up the Donbass, but also the Russian-occupied southern Kherson region, the partially occupied southeastern one Zaporizhia region “and a number of other areas”.
He says Western arms shipments to Kyiv, including shipments of US medium-range multiple rocket launchers, have prompted Moscow to reconsider its goals.
“By professing dreams of conquering more Ukrainian land, (the) Russian foreign minister proves that Russia rejects diplomacy and focuses on war and terror,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on social media, urging “all partners to… Increased pressure on sanctions against Russia and accelerated arms deliveries to Ukraine.”
– Three dead in Kharkiv –
As Russian forces advance in the Donbass, they have continued to bombard Kharkiv, where three people were killed by shells on Wednesday.
Regional governor Oleg Synegubov said a 13-year-old boy was among the dead. AFP journalists see a shocked man kneeling over the body of a boy in a blue sweatshirt.
Elsewhere, two people were killed in artillery attacks on the southern town of Nikopol, near Zaporizhia.
– “No sense” in peace talks: Lavrov –
In the same interview, Lavrov also states that peace talks with Ukraine make no sense “in the current situation”.
He accuses Kyiv of “not wanting to discuss anything seriously.”
The two sides made some progress during talks in the first month of the conflict, but they stalled after the bodies of hundreds of civilians massacred in areas occupied by Russian forces were discovered.
– EU passes Russian gold embargo –
EU countries are targeting Russian gold exports and freezing assets at Russia’s largest bank Sberbank in a new round of sanctions imposed to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
The embargo on gold imports fulfills a decision by the world’s most industrialized nations at a G7 meeting in late June attended by EU members Germany, France and Italy.
The EU is also releasing assets in Russian banks linked to the food and fertilizer trade in response to Moscow’s claims that the sanctions are causing a food crisis.
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