Zelenskiy accuses Russia of using rising gas prices to terrorise Europe
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday said Russia was deliberately cutting supplies of natural gas to impose a “price terror” against Europe, and he called for more sanctions on Moscow, Reuters reports.
“Using Gazprom, Moscow is doing all it can to make this coming winter as harsh as possible for the European countries. Terror must be answered – impose sanctions,” he said in a late-night video address.
Meanwhile, a deal agreed by EU states to curb their gas use should yield enough gas savings to last through an average winter, if Russia were to fully cut supplies in July, the bloc’s energy chief Kadri Simson said.
The Kremlin said a repaired gas turbine for Nord Stream 1, Russia’s biggest gas pipeline to Europe, had not yet arrived after maintenance in Canada, and that a second turbine was showing defects.
Russian gas giant Gazprom has sharply increased pressure in the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline that delivers Russian gas to Europe without prior notice, the Ukrainian state pipeline operator company said.
Such pressure spikes could lead to emergencies including pipeline ruptures, according to the Ukrainian company.
The Guardian’s Jennifer Rankin reports from Brussels and has written an explainer tackling the question ‘How does the EU plan to cut gas usage by 15% this winter?’
EU member states have agreed a plan for gas savings to avoid a winter energy crisis, but loaded with exemptions. Said to be overwhelming consensus in favour, but one member state objected — Hungary.
— Jennifer Rankin (@JenniferMerode) July 26, 2022
Key events
First Russian train reaches Kaliningrad, governor says
The first train with sanctioned goods has arrived from Russia to Kaliningrad via Lithuania in the first such trip since the European Union said Lithuania must allow Russian goods across its territory, according to the regional governor.
Russian news agency Tass cited regional governor Anton Alikhanov as saying:
It is indeed the first train to have arrived after the EU decision … [it is] quite an important achievement.”
The train reportedly consisted of 60 freight cars with cement.
Wedged between Lithuania and fellow EU and Nato member Poland, Russia’s heavily militarised exclave of Kaliningrad depends on mainland Russia for a sizeable portion of its supplies. But these must transit through Lithuanian territory.
The region has found itself increasingly isolated since Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February.
Russia to pull out of International Space Station
Russia will pull out of the International Space Station after 2024 and focus on building its own orbiting outpost, the country’s new space chief has confirmed.
The announcement throws into question the future of the 24-year-old space station, with experts saying it would be extremely difficult to keep it running without the Russians.
Nasa and its partners had hoped to continue operating it until 2030.
“The decision to leave the station after 2024 has been made,” Yuri Borisov, head of Russian space agency, Roscosmos, said during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
He added: “I think that by that time we will start forming a Russian orbiting station.”
Nasa officials said they had yet to hear directly from their Russian counterparts on the matter. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson issued a statement saying that the agency was “committed to the safe operation” of the space station through 2030 and continues “to build future capabilities to assure our major presence in low-Earth orbit.”
US state department spokesman Ned Price called the announcement “an unfortunate development” given the “valuable professional collaboration our space agencies have had over the years.”
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the US is “exploring options” for dealing with a Russian withdrawal.
Summary
The time in Kyiv is around 1am on Wednesday July 27. Here is a round-up of the day’s top headlines:
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia was deliberately cutting supplies of natural gas to impose a “price terror” against Europe, and he called for more sanctions on Moscow. “Using Gazprom, Moscow is doing all it can to make this coming winter as harsh as possible for the European countries. Terror must be answered – impose sanctions,” he said.
- Despite damaging Western sanctions imposed on Moscow in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s economy appears to be weathering the storm better than expected as it benefits from high energy prices, the International Monetary Fund said. The IMF’s World Economic Outlook upgraded Russia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimate for this year by a remarkable 2.5%, although its economy is still expected to contract by 6%.
- EU member states have agreed to ration gas this winter, in an attempt to avoid an energy crisis generated by further Russian cuts to supply. Energy ministers from the 27 member states mostly backed a plan for a voluntary 15% reduction in gas usage over the winter, but added in several opt-outs for island nations and countries unconnected or little connected to the European gas network, which will blunt the overall effect.
- Russia’s defence ministry plans to hold strategic military exercises in the east of the country from 30 August to 5 September, news agencies reported on Tuesday. Interfax reported that the militaries of unspecified other countries will be taking part in the regular “Vostok” exercises, citing the defence ministry.
- A British citizen who video blogs pro-Kremlin material from Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine has been added to a UK government sanctions list. Graham Phillips, who has been accused of being a conduit for pro-Russian propaganda, is one of 42 new designations added to the UK’s Russia sanctions list.
- Boris Johnson has compared Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s leadership of Ukraine to the war-time exploits of Sir Winston Churchill. The British prime minister said he believed “Churchill would have cheered and probably have wept too” when the Ukrainian president insisted he needed “ammunition, not a ride” out of Kyiv when the Russian invasion was renewed in February.
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will hold a one-day visit to the Russian resort of Sochi on 5 August, his office has just announced. Reuters reports that no further details were immediately available, but it is anticipated that he would meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
- Worries over insurance are the biggest obstacle to grain ships leaving Ukraine’s Black Sea ports this week, exporters say. Questions remain over whether insurance companies will be willing to insure the vessels as they navigate the mined waters, while buyers are hesitant to make new orders given the risk of Russian attacks.
- A joint coordination centre (JCC) for Ukrainian grain exports under a UN-brokered deal will be opened in a ceremony in Istanbul on Wednesday, Turkey’s defence ministry said. Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations signed the accord last week to resume Ukraine’s grain exports, which had stalled after Russia’s invasion of its neighbour.
- The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it believes former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is in Moscow and did not rule out possible contact with him. “As far as we know, he is in Moscow,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked if the Kremlin was aware of reports that Schroeder had travelled to Moscow on Tuesday.
- Russia’s armed forces destroyed eight Ukrainian missile and artillery arms depots in the southern Mykolaiv region and in the eastern Donetsk region, the defence ministry said in its daily briefing on Tuesday. Ukrainian officials said earlier on Tuesday that Russia launched a “massive missile strike” against the south of the country overnight, including hits against infrastructure in the black sea port of Mykolaiv.
- A major fire broke out at an oil depot in the Budyonnovsky district of the Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine after Ukrainian troops shelled the province, according to local media reports. No casualties or injuries have been reported so far, but the occupying forces of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic issued photographs which showed train tank cars on fire.
Your United States blogger today now hands over the war news baton to Australia, where our colleagues will continue to bring you developments as they happen.
Russian forces continued to strike civilian infrastructure in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and the surrounding region in the country’s northeast, the Associated Press writes.
Kharkiv governor Oleh Syniehubov said the strikes on the city resumed around dawn Tuesday and damaged a car dealership.
The Russians deliberately target civilian infrastructure objects hospitals, schools, movie theaters. Everything is being fired at, even queues for humanitarian aid, so we’re urging people to avoid mass gatherings,” Syniehubov told Ukrainian television.
Here are some images from the region.
More damage.
Some of the people affected in the region.
More.
Sorting through rubble, where people were trapped.
More from the bombed Chuhuiv cultural centre.
Zelenskiy accuses Russia of using rising gas prices to terrorise Europe
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday said Russia was deliberately cutting supplies of natural gas to impose a “price terror” against Europe, and he called for more sanctions on Moscow, Reuters reports.
“Using Gazprom, Moscow is doing all it can to make this coming winter as harsh as possible for the European countries. Terror must be answered – impose sanctions,” he said in a late-night video address.
Meanwhile, a deal agreed by EU states to curb their gas use should yield enough gas savings to last through an average winter, if Russia were to fully cut supplies in July, the bloc’s energy chief Kadri Simson said.
The Kremlin said a repaired gas turbine for Nord Stream 1, Russia’s biggest gas pipeline to Europe, had not yet arrived after maintenance in Canada, and that a second turbine was showing defects.
Russian gas giant Gazprom has sharply increased pressure in the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline that delivers Russian gas to Europe without prior notice, the Ukrainian state pipeline operator company said.
Such pressure spikes could lead to emergencies including pipeline ruptures, according to the Ukrainian company.
The Guardian’s Jennifer Rankin reports from Brussels and has written an explainer tackling the question ‘How does the EU plan to cut gas usage by 15% this winter?’
EU member states have agreed a plan for gas savings to avoid a winter energy crisis, but loaded with exemptions. Said to be overwhelming consensus in favour, but one member state objected — Hungary.
— Jennifer Rankin (@JenniferMerode) July 26, 2022
Russian economy better than expected despite sanctions – IMF
Despite damaging Western sanctions imposed on Moscow in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s economy appears to be weathering the storm better than expected as it benefits from high energy prices, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday, Agence France Presse reports.
The sanctions were meant to sever Russia from the global financial system and choke off funds available to Moscow to finance the war.
But the IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook upgraded Russia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimate for this year by a remarkable 2.5%, although its economy is still expected to contract by 6%.
That’s still a fairly sizable recession in Russia in 2022,” IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas told AFP in an interview.
He explained a key reason that the downturn was not as bad as expected:
The Russian central bank and the Russian policymakers have been able to stave off a banking panic or financial meltdown when the sanctions were first imposed , [while rising energy prices are] providing an enormous amount of revenues to the Russian economy,” he said.
After starting the year below $80 a barrel, oil prices spiked to nearly $129 in March before easing back to under $105 on Tuesday for Brent, the key European benchmark, while natural gas prices are rising again and approaching their recent peak.
Major economies including the United States and China are slowing, the report said. But
Russia’s economy is estimated to have contracted during the second quarter by less than previously projected, with crude oil and non-energy exports holding up better than expected [but] there is no rebound [ahead]. In fact [IMF is] revising down the Russian growth in 2023,” he said, 1.2 points lower than the April forecast, for a contraction of 3.5%.
The penalties already in place, as well as new ones announced by Europe, mean:
The cumulative effect of the sanctions is also growing over time,” he said.
Gourinchas noted overall that the world may soon be on the edge of recession.
Appeal for IMF funds:
LONDON, July 26 (Reuters) – Ukraine aims to strike a deal for a $15-$20 billion programme with the International Monetary Fund before year-end to help shore up its war-torn economy, the country’s central bank governor Kyrylo Shevchenko told Reuters.
— Idrees Ali (@idreesali114) July 26, 2022
Ukraine’s Naftogaz has become the first Ukrainian government entity to default since Russia’s invasion of its smaller southern neighbour five months ago, after the state-owned energy firm failed to make payments due on international bonds before the expiry of a grace period on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
The company said in a statement that it had failed to get creditors’ support for a proposal to freeze payments on some of its bonds for two years which it had launched last week.
Naftogaz has not received consent from the cabinet of ministers of Ukraine to make the necessary payments. Certain events of default have or will occur as a result of the resolution and the resulting failure to pay,” the company said in a statement.
Naftogaz also said that it was working with relevant parties to launch a fresh proposal for debt treatments that had been drafted by the Cabinet.
While some details are yet unclear (and a lot of finger pointing is ongoing), Naftogaz says that the default endangers the company’s ability to raise funds necessary for the purchase of imports of gas for the heating seasons 2022/23. That’s not good… /end
— Mattia Nelles (@mattia_n) July 26, 2022
Naftogaz, which accounted for almost 17% of Ukraine’s public revenue last year, had submitted two requests to the government to approve payments to creditors and avoid a hard default, though both were rejected.
The firm – which had been overdue to transfer US $335 million in principal and interest payments, as well as a separate interest installment on another bond that runs up to 2024 by Tuesday – issues its bonds through its financing arm Kondor Finance.
While Ukrainian officials have spoken of a possible counteroffensive in the south, the British Defense Ministry said on Tuesday there was no indication a Ukrainian warship and a stockpile of anti-ship missiles were at Odesa’s Black Sea port, as Moscow claimed when it struck the site over the weekend, the Associated Press reports.
The British ministry said Russia sees Ukraine’s use of anti-ship missiles as “a key threat” limiting its Black Sea Fleet.
This has significantly undermined the overall invasion plan, as Russia cannot realistically attempt an amphibious assault to seize Odesa. Russia will continue to prioritize efforts to degrade and destroy Ukraine’s anti-ship capability.
Russia’s targeting processes are highly likely routinely undermined by dated intelligence, poor planning, and a top-down approach to operations,” the ministry said.
NEW: UK Defense Intel finds “no indication” Russian strikes hit a Ukrainian warship & stockpile of anti-ship missiles in Odesa.
🇷🇺 “almost certainly” believes 🇺🇦 anti-ship missiles – which prevented an amphib assault on Odesa – are limiting effectiveness of Black Sea Fleet.
— Jack Detsch (@JackDetsch) July 26, 2022
In other military developments, Russian shelling over the previous 24 hours killed at least three civilians and wounded eight more in Ukraine, the Ukrainian president’s office said Tuesday.
In the eastern Donetsk region, where the fighting has been focused in recent months, shelling continued along the entire front line, with Russian forces targeting some of the region’s largest cities, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Toretsk, the presidential office said.
The US State Department commented today on Russia’s announcement that it plans to pull out of the International Space Station, calling it an “unfortunate development,” reported Reuters.
“I understand that we were taken by surprise by the public statement that went out,” said State Department spokesperson Ned Price during a regular news briefing.
“It’s an unfortunate development, given the critical scientific work performed at the ISS, the valuable professional collaboration our space agencies have had over the years, and especially in light of our renewed agreement on spaceflight cooperation,” said Price.
Russia’s new space chief announced earlier today that Moscow plans to pull out of the two-decade-old orbital partnership by 2024, but a Nasa spokesperson said that Russia has not communicated its intent to withdraw.
Russia’s targeting of Ukraine’s southern Black Sea regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv on Tuesday resulted in hits on private buildings and port infrastructure with missiles fired from long-range bomber aircraft, the Ukrainian military said, and the Associated Press reports.
In the Odesa region, buildings in coastal villages were hit and caught fire, Ukraine’s Operational Command South said on Facebook. A Ukrainian air force spokesman said long-range Russian Tu-22M3 bombers and Su-30 and Su-35 fighter jets launched the strikes from the Black Sea.
In the Mykolaiv region, port infrastructure was targeted despite agreements intended to allow grain grain shipments to resume from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.
Hours after the strikes, a Moscow-installed official in southern Ukraine said the Odesa and Mykolaiv regions would soon be “liberated” by Russian forces, just like the already occupied Kherson region further east.
The Kherson region and the city of Kherson have been liberated forever,” Russian state news agency RIA Novosti quoted the region’s Russia-appointed official, Kirill Stremousov, as saying.
On the diplomatic front, Russia’s top diplomat repeated his insistence that Moscow was ready to hold talks with Ukraine on ending the war, though he once again claimed that Kyiv’s Western allies oppose a deal.
We never refused to have talks, because everybody knows that any hostilities end at the negotiating table,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday during a trip to Uganda.
He said negotiations have gone no further since a meeting between the two sides in Istanbul at the end of March.
The British prime minister, Boris Johnson, has defended meeting a Russian oligarch with a KGB past, saying “as far as I am aware” no government business was discussed at the 2018 get-together, the Associated Press writes.
Johnson, who quit as Conservative party leader on 7 July after months of ethics scandals, is facing questions about his relationship with the Russia-born newspaper owner Evgeny Lebedev and his father, Alexander.
The older man is a businessman and former cold war-era KGB officer who has been put under sanctions by Canada for his alleged role in enabling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In April 2018, Johnson went to a party at Evgeny Lebedev’s Italian mansion that was also attended by Alexander Lebedev. Johnson, who was British foreign secretary at the time, was not accompanied by any officials.
Johnson told a committee of senior lawmakers that his meeting with Alexander Lebedev “was not a formal meeting, nor something that was pre-arranged”. He said it was normal for Britain’s top diplomat to attend a “private, social occasion” without officials or security staff.
He said in a letter published on Tuesday by parliament’s liaison committee that “as far as I am aware, no government business was discussed” at the party.
Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the opposition Labour party, said Johnson’s “mealy-mouthed statement raises more questions than it answers.”
She said Johnson “apparently still cannot recall whether he discussed government business or not.
This letter suggests the prime minister has something to hide.”
Boris Johnson has finally admitted meeting a former KGB agent while Foreign Secretary.
The secret meeting came in the wake of an attack on British soil and after a crucial NATO summit.
But this mealy-mouthed new statement on Lebedev raises more questions than it answers. 1/5 pic.twitter.com/LBVJcvEMDT
— Angela Rayner 🌹 (@AngelaRayner) July 26, 2022
Evgeny Lebedev owns Britain’s Evening Standard and Independent newspapers. In 2020 was given a noble title Lord Lebedev of Siberia and a seat in the House of Lords by Johnson’s government.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Johnson’s government has passed sanctions on hundreds of wealthy Russians and moved to clamp down on money laundering through London’s property and financial markets.
Opposition politicians and anti-corruption campaigners say the Conservatives have allowed ill-gotten money to slosh into UK properties, banks and businesses for years, turning London into a “laundromat” for dirty cash.
Evgeny Lebedev’s most recent tweet was indirectly in support of Ukraine.
Summary
The time in Kyiv is coming up to 9pm. Here is a round-up of the day’s top headlines:
- EU member states have agreed to ration gas this winter, in an attempt to avoid an energy crisis generated by further Russian cuts to supply. Energy ministers from the 27 member states mostly backed a plan for a voluntary 15% reduction in gas usage over the winter, but added in several opt-outs for island nations and countries unconnected or little connected to the European gas network, which will blunt the overall effect.
- Russia’s defence ministry plans to hold strategic military exercises in the east of the country from 30 August to 5 September, news agencies reported on Tuesday. Interfax reported that the militaries of unspecified other countries will be taking part in the regular “Vostok” exercises, citing the defence ministry.
- A British citizen who video blogs pro-Kremlin material from Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine has been added to a UK government sanctions list. Graham Phillips, who has been accused of being a conduit for pro-Russian propaganda, is one of 42 new designations added to the UK’s Russia sanctions list.
- Boris Johnson has compared Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s leadership of Ukraine to the war-time exploits of Sir Winston Churchill. The British prime minister said he believed “Churchill would have cheered and probably have wept too” when the Ukrainian president insisted he needed “ammunition, not a ride” out of Kyiv when the Russian invasion was renewed in February.
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will hold a one-day visit to the Russian resort of Sochi on 5 August, his office has just announced. Reuters reports that no further details were immediately available, but it is anticipated that he would meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
- Worries over insurance are the biggest obstacle to grain ships leaving Ukraine’s Black Sea ports this week, exporters say. Questions remain over whether insurance companies will be willing to insure the vessels as they navigate the mined waters, while buyers are hesitant to make new orders given the risk of Russian attacks.
- A joint coordination centre (JCC) for Ukrainian grain exports under a UN-brokered deal will be opened in a ceremony in Istanbul on Wednesday, Turkey’s defence ministry said. Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations signed the accord last week to resume Ukraine’s grain exports, which had stalled after Russia’s invasion of its neighbour.
- The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it believes former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is in Moscow and did not rule out possible contact with him. “As far as we know, he is in Moscow,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked if the Kremlin was aware of reports that Schroeder had travelled to Moscow on Tuesday.
- Russia’s armed forces destroyed eight Ukrainian missile and artillery arms depots in the southern Mykolaiv region and in the eastern Donetsk region, the defence ministry said in its daily briefing on Tuesday. Ukrainian officials said earlier on Tuesday that Russia launched a “massive missile strike” against the south of the country overnight, including hits against infrastructure in the black sea port of Mykolaiv.
- A major fire broke out at an oil depot in the Budyonnovsky district of the Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine after Ukrainian troops shelled the province, according to local media reports. No casualties or injuries have been reported so far, but the occupying forces of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic issued photographs which showed train tank cars on fire.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for today. I’ll be back again tomorrow but, for now, my colleague Joanna Walters will be along shortly to continue bringing you all the latest news from Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Boris Johnson has compared Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s leadership of Ukraine to the war-time exploits of Sir Winston Churchill.
The British prime minister said he believed “Churchill would have cheered and probably have wept too” when the Ukrainian president insisted he needed “ammunition, not a ride” out of Kyiv when the Russian invasion was renewed in February.
He added he could imagine Sir Winston’s “spirit walking with you” and “jabbing the way ahead with his walking stick” throughout every ordeal, the Press Association reported.
Johnson’s comments came during a ceremony in 10 Downing Street in which he presented Zelenskiy, who appeared via video link, with the Sir Winston Churchill Leadership Award. Members of the Churchill family and the International Churchill Society attended the ceremony.
Zelenskiy said:
This is my extreme honour to receive this award for leadership.
He added:
Ukraine was not left alone after 24 February, we had those who were helping us, who remembered in the darkest times what is honour, and who have not thought of quitting the struggle – I’m talking about you Boris.
This award is yours as well and this is the manifestation of our joint leadership of Ukrainians, Britons and all those who will not give their freedom away to any tyrants.
Governments in the European Union have agreed to ration natural gas this winter in order to protect themselves against further supply cuts made by Russia.
Since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, EU leaders have accused Moscow of using their global gas supply as a political weapon.
Ukrainian soldier Mykola Zabavchuk planned to marry his girlfriend when he next returned home from the war against Russia, but never made it back.
Zabavchuk, who was 25, and two other soldiers were buried in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Tuesday after being killed in action, Reuters reported.
“He was a very good boyfriend, a sincere one. He loved and took care of me very much. He was very devoted to me and to his friends,” his fiancee, Oleksandra, told Reuters at the funeral.
“Before his departure, he proposed. We planned a wedding after the rotation. It was not destined [to come true].”
At the funeral, a uniformed soldier held a portrait of Zabavchuk, smiling and cradling a dog under his right arm.
“We have a little dog, Arei. It is in the picture. I will foster it, take care of it, he wanted this very much. He called it his son, [and] so it is.”
Led by one soldier carrying a cross and another holding the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag, mourners formed a procession behind Zabavchuk’s coffin and those of two other soldiers.
Pjotr Sauer
The Kremlin has insisted its decision to shut down the agency that processes Jewish migration to Israel should not be “politicised”, amid a widening rift between the two countries over Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.
Last week Russia’s justice ministry requested the liquidation of the Russian branch of the Jewish Agency, a private charity closely affiliated with the Israeli government that promotes migration to Israel.
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said on Tuesday that the ministry’s request came after the organisation, which has several offices in cities across the country, violated Russian laws.
Russia’s defence ministry plans to hold strategic military exercises in the east of the country from 30 August to 5 September, news agencies reported on Tuesday.
Interfax reported that the militaries of unspecified other countries will be taking part in the regular “Vostok” exercises, citing the defence ministry.