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Putin: Russia ready to resume gas supplies to EU via Nord Stream 2
President Vladimir Putin says Russia is ready to resume gas supplies via one link of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that remains operational, in his address to the Russian Energy Week international forum.
The Russian leader said gas could still be supplied by one remaining intact part of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The ball was in the EU’s court on whether it wanted gas supplied via the pipeline, he said.
Putin says:
Russia is ready to start such supplies. The ball is in the court of the EU. If they want, they can just open the tap.
He went on to say that Russia has nothing to do with the sky-high energy prices that Europeans are facing this winter, instead blaming the west for stoking a global energy crisis.
It was the poorest countries that would pay the highest price in terms of rising energy costs, Putin added.
Key events
The Netherlands will deliver €15m worth of air defence missiles to Ukraine in reaction to Russian air raids on Ukraine earlier this week.
Reuters reports the the defence minister, Kajsa Ollongren, wrote in a letter to parliament: “These attacks … can only be met with unrelenting support for Ukraine and its people.”
Vatican official: Russian bombing of Ukrainian cities ‘to be totally condemned’
Earlier we reported that Pope Francis had condemned the recent wave of attacks on Ukrainian cities, saying: “My heart is always with the Ukrainian people, especially the residents of the places that have been hit by relentless bombings. May the Lord’s spirit transform the hearts of those who have the fate of the war in their hands, so that the hurricane of violence stops and peaceful coexistence in justice can be rebuilt.”
Reuters has now reported an additional quote from the Vatican number two, secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin. Asked if the attacks could be considered war crimes, he said he was not qualified to make such a technical, juridical judgment.
“But certainly they are unacceptable acts that cry out vengeance before God and before humanity, because bombing unarmed civilians is beyond any logic. It is to be totally condemned,” Parolin said.
Here are some of the latest images we have received from the aftermath of Russian attacks on central Kyiv earlier this week.
External power to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant restored, says IAEA chief
Power has been restored to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is surrounded by Russian troops, according to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Rafael Grossi, director general of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, had warned earlier today that the nuclear plant, Europe’s biggest, had lost all external power needed for vital safety systems for the second time in five days.
Grossi has now tweeted that he has been informed by his team that the external power to the facility has been restored:
Earlier today, Grossi, who met yesterday with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said IAEA monitors at the Zaporizhzhia plant reported the interruption in external power, and said backup diesel generators were keeping nuclear safety and security equipment operational.
Gazprom chief warns ‘no guarantee’ Europe will survive winter if it renounces Russian gas
The head of the Russian state-owned gas monopoly supplier, Gazprom, has warned Europe of the consequences of renouncing Russian gas, saying there is “no guarantee” that Europe would survive winter based on its current gas storage capacity.
Speaking at the Russia Energy Week conference in Moscow, Alexei Miller said gas in Germany’s underground storage would be enough for between two- and two-and-a-half months.
Miller also said repairs to the damaged Nord Stream pipelines would take at least a year, and that Russia had still not been granted access to the area of damage.
Germany and the EU “should respond” if they are interested in restoring the pipeline, he said.
Simon Smith, a former British ambassador to Ukraine, writes for us today about how Russian missile strikes on Kyiv and other cities in Ukraine over the past two days stem from Vladimir Putin’s desperation.
In their vicious efforts to extinguish Ukraine, the Russians have reached an unprecedented state of weakness and cluelessness, he writes.
Putin is signalling that he is paying no heed to any waning commitment to the war among the population at large, following his mobilisation decision. And that he’s listening more closely to those who have been vocally critical of the army’s poor performance, and who have called for a tougher, (even) more ruthless offensive approach.
But it goes further than that. It’s also an intimidatory message to Russian citizens opposed to his needless war – or even those simply less convinced of its good sense or justice.
Read the full piece here:
Mykhailo Podolyak, a presidential adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called on the west to officially recognise Russia’s aggression and acts in Ukraine as genocide.
Russian forces have committed attacks on civilian infrastructure, mass executions and rape, forced deportations, separated families and destroyed Ukrainian literature in schools, Podolyak said on Twitter.
Here’s more from President Vladimir Putin’s address to the Russian Energy Week international forum earlier today, where he proposed that Moscow could redirect gas supplies for the Nord Stream pipelines to the Black Sea to create a major European gas hub in Turkey.
Putin said it was possible to repair the damaged pipelines but that Russia and Europe should decide their fate.
He said:
We could move the lost volumes along the Nord Streams along the bottom of the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea region and thus make the main routes for the supply of our fuel, our natural gas to Europe through Turkey, creating the largest gas hub for Europe in Turkey.
He added:
That is, of course, if our partners are interested in this. And economic feasibility, of course.
The Kremlin has denied a report that Elon Musk spoke with President Vladimir Putin before publishing his “peace plan” for Ukraine that would have seen territory permanently handed over to Russia.
In a mailout sent to Eurasia Group subscribers, Ian Bremmer said the Tesla CEO had told him that Putin was “prepared to negotiate”. Musk has since denied the report.
Asked if Musk had spoken to Putin prior to publishing the Twitter poll, the Kremlin’s spokesperson said:
No, this is not true.
The pair had communicated over the phone “about a year and a half ago”, Peskov added without providing any details.
In a reply to a tweet, Musk said he had spoken to the Russian leader “only once and that was about 18 months ago”. The subject matter of that conversation was “space”, he added.
Bremmer subsequently reiterated his initial claims, and said Musk had told him he had spoken with Putin “directly about Ukraine”.
Fran Lawther
We reported yesterday that children’s doctor Oksana Leontieva was among those killed by Russian missile strikes on Kyiv earlier this week.
Leontieva was on her way to work on Monday morning after dropping her son at kindergarten when a Russian missile hit the Ukrainian capital.
Now her father, Gregory, has told German newspaper Bild that her death has left her five-year-old son an orphan after his father recently died as well.
He added:
Oksana had called the hospital in the morning because the kindergarten couldn’t take her son due to warnings of a possible attack. In the end, they did take Grischa … and she went to work.
Gregory said the boy had not yet been told his mother had died. Gregory said:
For now he thinks she is at work and working very hard. We will tell him today or tomorrow.
The doctor’s funeral is due to be held later this week.
The number of people wounded after a Russian strike on a crowded market in the town of Avdiivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region has risen to nine, according to a city official.
At least seven people were killed after the Russian shelling on the market this morning, Vitalii Barabash, the head of the Avdiivka city military administration, said.
In a statement on Telegram, Barabash said:
Today is another black day for our Avdiivka. In the morning, the Russian evil spirits once again brought death to our land, sneakily, as always, shelling the central market with tanks and MLR systems during rush hour. Seven residents of Avdiivka were killed and nine were wounded.
Jennifer Rankin
The European Commission wants at least €18bn (£15.8bn) in emergency aid to help Ukraine’s government stay afloat next year, as an economic crisis looms in the country.
Officials in Brussels think the EU should provide at least half the €3bn-€3.5bn monthly running costs it estimates the Ukrainian state needs to function in 2023, the Guardian has learned.
The financial aid would most likely be in the form of cheap loans with long repayment deadlines. But it would require EU member states to find extra money to guarantee the loans and potentially pay the interest.
According to the World Bank, Ukraine’s economy is on course to shrink by more than one third (35%) in 2022, as a result of the widespread destruction of factories, infrastructure, fertile land, as well as the displacement of 14 million people. EU sources fear that if Ukraine cannot afford to pay its bills it could print money, triggering inflation.
EU officials are optimistic about an agreement on the new financial aid, despite long delays in releasing €9bn funding for Ukraine promised in May. Nearly five months since the commission proposed €9bn in “macro financial assistance” for Ukraine, only €1bn has been released.
Earlier this month, Brussels and Kyiv signed an agreement on the next €5bn, paving the way for a €2bn tranche to be released this month.
EU member states have been wrangling over whether aid to Ukraine should be offered as non-repayable grants, as favoured by Germany, or cheap loans, the option backed by most member states.
The money would allow the Ukrainian government to pay salaries, fund humanitarian relief and make emergency repairs to some essential infrastructure. But it falls far short of the vast costs of rebuilding Ukraine, estimated by the World Bank to be $349bn (€359bn, £315bn).
Putin: Russia ready to resume gas supplies to EU via Nord Stream 2
President Vladimir Putin says Russia is ready to resume gas supplies via one link of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that remains operational, in his address to the Russian Energy Week international forum.
The Russian leader said gas could still be supplied by one remaining intact part of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The ball was in the EU’s court on whether it wanted gas supplied via the pipeline, he said.
Putin says:
Russia is ready to start such supplies. The ball is in the court of the EU. If they want, they can just open the tap.
He went on to say that Russia has nothing to do with the sky-high energy prices that Europeans are facing this winter, instead blaming the west for stoking a global energy crisis.
It was the poorest countries that would pay the highest price in terms of rising energy costs, Putin added.
Putin accuses Ukraine of Crimea bridge ‘terrorist attack’
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, is currently addressing the Russian Energy Week international forum’s plenary session.
Large leaks that suddenly erupted in the Nord Stream gas pipelines running from Russia to Europe were an “act of international terrorism” that set a “dangerous precedent”.
Putin says:
There is no doubt it was an act of international terrorism, aiming to undermine the energy security of a whole continent. The calculation behind it was quite cynical, to block and destroy the cheap energy sources and deprive millions of people and industrial consumers of gas, heat, power and other resources.
The “attack” against the Nord Stream pipelines was a “most dangerous precedent”, he continued:
It shows that any piece of critical transport energy or communications infrastructure is at risk now.
Putin goes on to blame Ukrainian special services for what he calls the “terrorist attack” against the Kerch bridge connecting Russia to Crimea.
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