NATO sees no threat from Russia toward any of its territories, the US-led bloc’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Tuesday during a press conference in Brussels. That’s as several alliance members, including Germany and the Baltic states, have raised concerns of a potential future Russian attack.
Answering questions from journalists following the signing of major new investments in artillery ammunition productions, Stoltenberg stated that, “We don’t see any direct or imminent threat against any NATO ally.” At the same time, he stressed that the bloc nevertheless “closely monitors what Russia does” and has increased its “vigilance and presence in the eastern part of the alliance,” in order to prevent any attacks on allied nations. Meanwhile, German news outlets have reported in recent weeks that Berlin was preparing for a scenario in which Russia launches an “open attack” on NATO as early as the summer of 2025 after securing a major victory in Ukraine. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius also warned on Monday that his country should be ready to respond to a possible Russian attack even though there is no real threat as of now. “Deterrence is the only effective means of positioning oneself against an aggressor from the outset,” Pistorius told ZDF, calling on Germany and its NATO allies to commit to strengthening their military capabilities. Similar concerns have been voiced by other NATO members, such as Estonia, whose Prime Minister Kaja Kallas suggested last week that the bloc has three to five years to prepare for a possible direct confrontation with Russia. Moscow has dismissed any claims that it intends to attack any NATO members as “complete nonsense,” with President Vladimir Putin arguing that Russia has “no geopolitical, economic … or military interest” in doing so. At the same time, the Kremlin has for decades voiced concerns that it was the US and its NATO allies’ continuous expansion to the east that posed an existential threat to Russia. Moscow has cited this expansion, which it believes threatens its national security, as well as the refusal to rule out Ukrainian NATO membership in the future, as some of the key reasons for launching its offensive against Kiev in February 2022.
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Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has invited former US president and potential Republican nominee in the 2024 election, Donald Trump, to visit Kiev.
In his interview with UK’s Channel 4 News on Friday, Zelensky was asked to comment on Trump’s claim that if he returned to the White House, he would be able to put an end to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in just 24 hours. “I don't know if his message… will have such [a] positive result,” the Ukrainian leader replied in English. It could be just a “political message” made by a candidate during the “complicated” election period, “but if it's some formula – I have to know it,” he stressed. The reporter then asked the Ukrainian leader if he wanted to invite Trump to arrive in Kiev in person to explain his plan. “Yes, please, Donald Trump, I invite you to Ukraine, to Kiev. So, if you can stop the war during 24 hours I think it will be enough to come, in any day,” Zelenksy said. “Maybe Donald Trump really has some idea, a real idea… he can share it with me, and I think it's OK,” he added. If somebody knows how to stop the conflict with Russia, this information shouldn’t be kept secret from the Ukrainian people, the president insisted. Addressing a crowd of his supporters in Des Moines, Iowa, on Monday night, Trump said, “I know [Russian] President Vladimir Putin very well; I know Zelensky well. I’m gonna get them in; we’re gonna get it solved very quickly.” On Thursday, in his interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, the former US president reiterated his other claim that “Putin would’ve never attacked Ukraine” if he was still in office. When asked about ways to end the conflict in Ukraine last week, Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., suggested that “the only way” to persuade Zelensky to engage in talks with Russia was to “cut off the money” that’s being provided to Kiev by Washington. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday, Zelensky tried to brush off concerns that US aid to Ukraine would halt if Trump were back in power. “One man can’t change the whole nation,” he argued. A senior official of the Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist group says Chinese and Russian vessels will have safe passage through the Red Sea.
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi political leadership, said in an interview with the Russian outlet Izvestia that the shipping lanes around Yemen are safe to ships from China and Russia as long as vessels are not connected with Israel, Agence France-Presse reported Friday, citing Izvestia. The Houthis have said they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians amid Israel’s war against Hamas militants in Gaza and have carried out more than 30 attacks in the Red Sea. However, the Houthis have launched attacks on ships with no apparent connection with Israel, resulting in some shipping firms avoiding the shipping lanes where the Houthis have launched attacks. Major shipping companies have responded by rerouting vessels on the longer and more expensive route around Africa. The Red Sea route is a vital shipping link between Europe and Asia, carrying about 15% of the world’s maritime traffic. The Houthi rebels launched two anti-ship ballistic missiles at a U.S.-owned ship in the Gulf of Aden, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement late Thursday. The statement said the crew saw the missiles land in the water near the ship. There were no reported injuries or damage to the ship, the M/V Chem Ranger, a Marshall Island-flagged, U.S.-owned, Greek-operated tanker ship, U.S. Central Command said. Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they had carried out the attack, claiming “direct hits,” a statement on the group’s social media said. On Thursday, U.S. forces carried out more strikes against targets inside Iranian-backed, Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen, as concerns grow that the Israel-Hamas conflict could expand into a full-blown war across the Middle East. NATO is set to carry out its largest round of war games in decades, with some 90,000 troops from all 31 member states – as well as Sweden – planning to participate. The drills will run for several months, and see training operations held across Europe.
Dubbed “Steadfast Defender 2024,” the exercise will kick off next week and continue into May, Supreme Allied Commander for Europe Christopher Cavoli announced at a Thursday press briefing. “Exercise Steadfast Defender 2024 will be the largest NATO exercise in decades, with participation from approximately 90,000 forces from all 31 Allies and our good partner Sweden,” Cavoli said, adding that the drills would simulate an “emerging conflict scenario against a near-peer adversary.” At least 1,100 combat vehicles are also set to take part in the war games – including 133 tanks and 533 infantry fighting vehicles – in addition to more than 50 naval vessels from aircraft carriers to destroyers. Around 80 helicopters, drones and fighter jets will join them. Cavoli went on to say that the training operations would show NATO’s ability to “reinforce the Euro-Atlantic area via trans-Atlantic movement of forces from North America,” suggesting the drills would rehearse a major US deployment to the continent. In a separate announcement, the bloc said the drill would demonstrate NATO’s ability to “conduct and sustain complex multi-domain operations over several months, across thousands of kilometers, from the High North to Central and Eastern Europe, and in any condition.” Earlier this week, UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said London would contribute 20,000 military personnel to Steadfast Defender, including troops with the Royal Navy, the Army and the Royal Air Force. British fighter jets, warships and submarines will also take part. The last war games to rival the size of the upcoming exercise came in 1988, at the height of the Cold War, when 125,000 Western troops gathered for the US-led “Reforger” drill. The annual operation was meant to simulate a large deployment of forces to West Germany in the event of conflict with the Soviet Union, but was halted in 1993 following the collapse of the USSR. Last week German media claimed that Berlin was bracing for hostilities with Russia, which it projected could arise as early as summer 2025. Moscow has for decades voiced concerns about NATO’s expansion towards its borders, viewing it as an existential threat. President Vladimir Putin earlier cited Ukraine’s desire to join the bloc as one of the key reasons for the current conflict. Ukraine will encounter difficulties maintaining the US-made F-16 fighter jets scheduled to arrive in the country later this year, a spokesman for the Air Force has acknowledged.
Speaking on national TV on Saturday, Yury Ignat said he was sure that Kiev would eventually switch from Soviet-era jets to Western warplanes, including F-16s and also the Swedish-made Gripen. Stockholm earlier said deliveries were possible, but that it would first have to be accepted into NATO. However, according to the official, until the Ukrainian military transitions to new aircraft, it will face serious infrastructure challenges as it tries to maintain several types of jet simultaneously – even though infrastructure for NATO aircraft is relatively standardized. “Different countries have one, or at most two types of planes. As of today, we have four types of Soviet-era planes. We want to take on the Western F-16s and more… It will be extremely difficult to maintain and operate different types of aircraft,” Western countries announced the creation of a coalition to help Ukraine procure F-16 fighter jets and train its pilots to fly the advanced warplanes last year, with Kiev officials expecting the first deliveries in 2024. The Netherlands and Denmark have spearheaded the effort, promising to donate up to 61 planes of this type. However, the Danish newspaper Berlingske reported earlier this month that the delivery of F-16s by Copenhagen would be delayed by up to six months. At the time, Ignat cautioned against making a “disaster” out of the report, urging the public to rely on official statements. Russia, which has repeatedly condemned Western arms shipments to Ukraine, has warned that aircraft deliveries will not help Kiev drastically change the situation on the frontline, while vowing to destroy F-16s along with other foreign-supplied equipment. In July, however, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the upcoming deliveries a “dangerous development,” recalling that some modifications of the F-16 can carry nuclear weapons. The Netherlands should urgently get ready to face a security challenge posed by an “increasingly assertive” Russia, the nation’s Land Forces commander, Lieutenant General Martin Wijnen, said on Thursday. The EU nation should strengthen its military and help society adapt to the potential hardships of war, he added.
The general claimed that Moscow has designs on the Baltic States, three former Soviet republics which have joined NATO and the EU, after it is done with Ukraine. “The Netherlands should not think that [its] safety is guaranteed just because we are 1,500 kilometers away,” Wijnen warned, adding that “Russia is getting stronger.” Wijnen told De Telegraaf newspaper on Thursday that the Netherlands “must work on [its] operational readiness, ensure that we have enough deterrence to deprive any adversary of the courage to [attack] us.” He also claimed that “there is only one language that Russia understands,” and that is the one “of robust Armed Forces.” The general, who has led the Royal Netherlands Army since 2019, also described the Dutch military as “crippled by budget cuts,” according to De Telegraaf. The Netherlands, which abolished conscription back in 1997, is now facing a “glaring personnel shortage,” the paper said. Wijnen spoke about the need to increase the army's size and warned that it could not afford to take any battle casualties. “If we start to suffer losses, who will replenish them?” the general asked. “We used to have options for that, but not anymore,” he added, noting that the Dutch would not get a choice on whether to fight or not in case of an “imposed conflict.” “The Netherlands must learn again that the entire society must be ready when things go wrong,” Wijnen said. While his words do not mean that everyone would have to “wear a helmet tomorrow,” the Dutch people have become “too accustomed to the idea that there is always peace,” the army chief added. The Dutch military is currently running a campaign called “service year,” which encourages young people to enlist in the army voluntarily for 12 months. According to Wijnen, the idea has supposedly been a huge success, though he admitted that only around 600 people joined the program this year, when “that should be between two and three thousand.” Wijnen also urged Dutch society to improve its “resilience,” storing “supplies, food and drinking water” in basements so it could “take the blow” when the time comes. Dutch companies should also be ready to provide for the needs of the military if the need arises, he added. The Netherlands has been one of the most ardent supporters of Kiev in its ongoing conflict with Moscow. The EU state was one of the few countries to pledge the delivery of US-made F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced that his government has started preparations for the delivery of the first 18 planes to Kiev. The US, which is by far Ukraine’s biggest single military aid donor, has long been reluctant to supply Ukraine with Western-made fighter jets. Washington only gave permission for Ukrainian pilots to train on F-16 jets and signaled that it was ready to approve a third-party transfer of the aircraft to Kiev this summer, adding that the training should be completed first. Moscow has never mentioned any plans to attack any NATO nations. It has only repeatedly warned that continued military supplies by the US and its allies to Kiev make them de facto parties to the conflict and increase the risk of a direct confrontation between Russia and the US-led military bloc. The Netherlands will supply Ukraine with eighteen F-16 fighter jets, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte confirmed on Friday. He wrote on social media that he notified his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of the caretaker Cabinet's decision during a phone call on Friday morning.
The Netherlands already confirmed in August that it would supply Ukraine with the aircraft after receiving permission from the United States, where the warplanes are manufactured. Zelenskyy had requested the aircraft during earlier conversations with its allies. Although it was never officially confirmed that the Netherlands would provide 18 aircraft in total, it was known that the Dutch military had 18 surplus F-16s that were not in an operational state. The other 24 are operational, even as the Dutch Air Force has been upgrading its fleet with the newer F-35. Rutte confirmed the number of aircraft on Friday. "Today I also informed President Zelenskyy of our government’s decision to prepare an initial 18 F-16 fighter aircraft for delivery to Ukraine. The delivery of F-16s is one of the most important elements of the agreements made on military support for Ukraine," Rutte wrote. An export permit is still needed to supply the jets, and other conditions related to personnel and infrastructure will need to be "met before delivery can take place." Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren explained that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will still need to make sure that handing the planes over to Ukraine meets European Union requirements about exporting arms. Zelenskyy thanked Rutte for the military support in a post on X. "We discussed frontline developments, the situation in the Black Sea, and Ukraine’s current military needs, including artillery, drones, and air defense," he wrote. The Netherlands has already helped spearhead an effort to create a training center for F-16 fighter pilots in Romania. The facility is being used to teach Ukrainian and Romanian pilots how to fly the aircraft. At least five F-16 units are on the ground at the Romanian location, but they will remain property of the Netherlands. The training takes an estimated six to eight months. "This decision confirms the Netherlands’ undiminished commitment to providing Ukraine with the support it needs to respond to the ongoing Russian aggression," Rutte stated. He also said that the Netherlands is available to assist Ukraine in its ongoing effort to join the European Union. "I also assured President Zelenskyy that the Netherlands will make every effort to ensure agreement is reached at the European Council meeting in February 2024 on financial support from the EU," Rutte said. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán blocked the EU's bid to offer 50 billion euros in support to Ukraine earlier this month. After the EU summit in mid-December, Rutte said he was optimistic that that European leaders would come together in agreement early next year. "It is an assumption. And that assumption is that you need just a little more time," he said at the time. "I also thanked the Netherlands for actively supporting the opening of Ukraine’s EU accession talks and emphasized the importance of providing €50 billion in long-term EU assistance for Ukraine as soon as possible," Zelenskyy said on Friday. "We agreed to continue our joint work on security guarantees following the G7 Vilnius Declaration. We also discussed the next Peace Formula meeting and efforts to further consolidate international support for the Ukrainian vision of a just peace."
According to Basha, the Russian bank recorded an exponential growth in transactions settled in national currencies passing through VTB’s infrastructure within the subsidiaries and branches abroad. She added that the bank also works in India and China and operates a chain of banks across the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The global trend towards using national currencies in cross-border trade instead of the US dollar began to gain momentum in 2022, shortly after Ukraine-related sanctions saw Russia cut off from the Western financial system and its foreign reserves frozen. A Ukrainian military officer allegedly coordinated last year's attack on the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, according to The Washington Post, citing anonymous sources in Ukraine and Europe.
No one has taken responsibility for the September 2022 explosions, off the Danish island of Bornholm, that damaged three out of four offshore natural gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea and delivering Russian gas to Europe. The United States and NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, called it an act of sabotage, while Moscow said it was an act of international terrorism. Germany, Denmark and Sweden have launched investigations into the Nord Stream explosions, which sent plumes of methane into the atmosphere in a leak that lasted several days. Roman Chervinsky, a decorated 48-year-old colonel who served in Ukraine’s special operations forces, was the “coordinator” of the Nord Stream operation, according to people familiar with his role, The Washington Post reported Saturday. Chervinsky, sources say, managed logistics and support for a six-person team that rented a sailboat under false identities and used deep-sea diving equipment to place explosive charges on the gas pipelines, The Washington Post reported. On Sept. 26, 2022, three explosions caused massive leaks on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, The attack left only one of the four gas links in the network intact as winter approached. A spokesperson for Ukraine’s military told the Reuters news agency he had "no information" about the claim. The Ukrainian foreign ministry and Kyiv's domestic security service, the SBU, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The newspaper also reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has denied Kyiv's role in the blasts, had been unaware of the operation. Zelenskyy last week replaced the head of Ukraine’s special operations forces. Chervinsky denied any involvement in the pipeline explosions. An outspoken critic of Zelenskyy’s administration, he said the case against him is politically motivated. “All speculations about my involvement in the attack on Nord Stream are being spread by Russian propaganda without any basis,” Chervinsky said in a written statement to The Washington Post and Germany's Der Spiegel newspaper, which conducted a joint investigation of his role. Chervinsky is currently under arrest for attempting to convince a Russian pilot in 2022 to defect to Ukraine, which investigators say led to a deadly Russian attack on a Ukrainian air base. Although he is accused on acting alone in this, his commanding officer at the time, Maj. Gen. Viktor Hanushchak, told Ukrainian media earlier this year that senior military leadership had signed off on the plot to lure the Russian pilot. The Post and Der Spiegel collaborated on reporting and wrote separate stories that they agreed to publish at the same time. Separately, three Russian soldiers were killed Saturday in a blast in the Russian-occupied town of Melitopol, according to Ukraine’s intelligence directorate. "This act of revenge, carried out by representatives of the local resistance, “a directorate statement said, “took place in the New Post offices seized by the Russians." Reuters said the Russians have not mentioned the incident and the news agency has not been able to verify the incident. The journalistic cliché that World War III is already underway has often circulated from one publication or another for decades. Indeed, since the beginning of the 21st century, when the US was attacked on 11 September 2001, people have been talking about a clash of civilizations as a new form of global conflict. Then, Washington's declared "war on terror" got bogged down in the Middle East before disappearing from the agenda altogether. Instead, the "good old" rivalry between the major countries was gradually revived, first in the political, propaganda and economic spheres, but with an increasingly pronounced military and force element. This was accompanied by warnings of the risk of a World War III in the classic sense of the last century. Such considerations, however, remained notional. Today, the idea of a "World War III " is fathomable. Nevertheless, a similar situation to World Wars I and II seems inadmissible at the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, although some commentators see similar features in the armed conflict in Ukraine. Structurally, however, the state of affairs is very different. The presence of nuclear weapons in the hands of the world's major players and a very complex range of significant and diverse players in international politics rule out (and make highly unlikely) a head-on collision between the major powers or their blocs, as was the case in the last century. However, the changes taking place on the world stage and in the balance of power are so serious that they are "worthy" of a confrontation on the scale of a world war. In the past, such shifts have led to major military clashes. However, now the "world war" that some repeatedly talk about is a chain of large but localized confrontations, each of which in one way or another involves the main players, balances on the verge of spilling over from the original zone, and is indirectly linked to other hotbeds of instability. This sequence of military events began with the Middle East conflicts of the last decade (Yemen and Syria), continued in Ukraine since 2014, then the South Caucasus and now Palestine. It is clearly too early to put an end to this list. End of status quo means world entering long period of turmoilInternational colleagues have already pointed out that in the context of the disappearance of former frameworks and constraints (the very decline of the world order, which now seems to be universally recognized), dormant conflicts and disputes are almost inevitably resurfacing. What has been held back by the pre-existing arrangements is erupting. In principle, everything is quite traditional; it was so before and it will be so after. The ideologization of world politics in the twentieth century meant that the end of that political period was very ideological in itself. The view that humanity has found the optimal political model, which will turn the page on previous confrontations, has triumphed. This is the only way to explain, for example, the belief that the contours of state borders will not change in the 21st century (or only by mutual agreement), because it has been decided and established that way. The historical experience of Europe and other continents in every historical period does not support such an assumption – borders have always changed fundamentally. And shifts in the balance of power and opportunity inevitably give rise to the desire to move territorial boundaries.
Another thing is that the importance of territories is different now than it was in the past. Direct control of certain spaces can now have more costs than benefits, while indirect influence is much more effective. Although it is worth noting that 15-20 years ago, at the height of economic and political globalization, it was often argued that in a fully interconnected 'flat' world, geographical and material proximity no longer mattered. The pandemic was the first and most vivid argument against this approach. The current chain of crises has forced a return to more classical ideas about the role of subordination between the regional and the global. The disappearance of the status quo means that the world has entered a long period of turmoil in which new frameworks have not yet been established (and it is not clear when they will be) and the old ones are no longer working. The formal end of the era of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (Russia has withdrawn from it, the other countries have announced the suspension of their participation) is an example of the dismantling of existing institutions. The unprecedented intensity of the wave of assaults on the UN from all sides is an attack on the main bastion of world order established after 1945. The current "World War III" is likely to endure over a long timeframe and be scattered in terms of locations. But based on its results – and there will be some – a different structure of international organizations will emerge. This is always the case. This does not mean that the UN, for example, will disappear, but there will definitely be a profound correction of the principles on which it operates. The head of the Muslim Coordination Center in Russia’s North Caucasus, Ismail Berdiev, has condemned the rioters who targeted an airport in Dagestan on Sunday, accusing them of using the term ‘Allahu Akbar’ in an unacceptable way.
Dagestani capital Makhachkala was the scene of unrest when pro-Palestinian protesters broke into the local airport looking for alleged refugees from Israel. In an interview with RIA Novosti on Monday, Berdiev criticized the rioters, noting that “extolling the Almighty by shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ is appropriate only when there is a sound reason for it.” He added that religious holidays, prayers, or family celebrations were suitable occasions, but that praising Allah “during illegal marches and demonstrations, as happened during the storming of the airport in Makhachkala, [is] unacceptable.” Berdiev also noted that rioters had used exclamations of religious praise alongside “blasphemous words” that are forbidden in Islam. “The faithful are barred from uttering profanities. A Muslim must control his actions and not shoot off the mouth, thereby setting a bad example for his brothers,” he insisted. Berdiev’s comments came after hundreds of protesters gathered outside Makhachkala Airport on Sunday, later breaking into the facility and blocking the runway. They then boarded planes in search of “Jewish refugees” allegedly fleeing their homeland following the attack by Palestinian armed group Hamas earlier this month. The unrest at the airport led to clashes with police, resulting in several officers being injured and dozens of protesters being detained. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov suggested that the riots had “obviously” been influenced by foreign forces, and stressed that Russian President Vladimir Putin was paying close attention to the issue. The head of Dagestan, Sergey Melikov, alleged that Ukrainian nationalists were trying to destabilize the situation in the republic by fomenting ethnic and religious divisions through social media channels. He also vowed that those responsible for the rioting would be held accountable, suggesting that they could atone by joining Russian forces fighting Ukraine. It has been almost three months since Victoria Roshchyna's family and colleagues received any word from the award-winning Ukrainian journalist.
Roshchyna, who is known for her courageous reporting on Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, disappeared shortly after passing a checkpoint. Friends and colleagues believe Russian forces detained her. The reporter had quickly pivoted from covering court cases to reporting from the front lines when Russian forces invaded her home country. As a freelance journalist, she has written for publications that include the Ukrainian news websites Hromadske and Ukrainska Pravda, as well as the broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Roshchyna told the stories of children killed in Dnipro and Berdyansk. She spoke to survivors of a missile strike in Uman and reported from Mariupol, where Russian occupiers staged a celebration in front of ruined houses. She interviewed soldiers and civilians, putting a human face to the brutality of war. But covering these stories came with great personal risk. On March 5, 2022, the car that Roshchyna was traveling in was shot at by Russian forces. She and the driver managed to escape and seek shelter in a nearby house. Roshchyna's camera and laptop were stolen from the car, according to reports from the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based nonprofit. Less than a week later, Russian security agents detained Roshchyna. She was held for 10 days, hit and threatened.She detailed the experience for Hromadske, writing, "I didn't feel fear … there was only despair over the unknown and wasted time, the inability to do my job." "The fact that she was detained by Russian soldiers and lived through that experience and went back and kept reporting as if that never happened certainly shows an incredible amount of courage and tenacity and a journalist who's willing to risk everything to report the news," said Elisa Lees Munoz, executive director of the International Women's Media Foundation, or IWMF. The IWMF in 2022 awarded Roshchyna its Courage Award for her coverage of the war. One year on from presenting that award, Munoz and others are advocating for Roshchyna's release. "To disappear somebody is one of the worst things that one can do," Munoz said. "It's certainly intended to send a message to others — we can do that to anybody." The volume of natural gas in EU underground storage facilities has soared to an all-time high, reaching nearly 98%, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) data released on Monday.
Gas inventories across the EU and the UK amounted to 1,114 terawatt-hours (TWh), breaking the previous record set in October 2019, when it reached 1,102 TWh. Gas reservoirs in the EU are now 97.89% full, exceeding the bloc’s target of 90% by November 1 and providing some cushion ahead of the heating season. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies to the region remained the lowest in almost two years in October, the European gas operator association revealed. Meanwhile, Russia’s energy major Gazprom continues to supply gas for transit to Western and Central Europe through Ukraine via the only remaining gas pumping station, Sudzha. The amount totals 42.5 million cubic meters per day as of October 17. Ukraine shut down transit through the Sokhranovka station, a key gas transit route which handled around a third of the Russian gas being supplied to the EU, in May 2022, citing “interference by the occupying forces.” Russia used to deliver about 155 bcm of natural gas to the EU annually before the start of the Ukraine conflict, primarily via pipelines. In January, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, claimed that the EU has reduced Russian gas imports by 80%. To offset gas supply shortfalls, the EU has resorted to taking in high-priced shipments of LNG from the US and Qatar, and increased pipeline imports from Norway and Azerbaijan. “We’re talking about buying American gas, but production volumes there are also limited, and it’s not so easy to spin everything up quickly,” Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed out last week. He noted that while his country has already found an alternative to the European gas market, the EU still cannot make do without Russian gas. “Thus far, European countries cannot cope without our gas in full. They simply have nowhere to get it,” Putin said, adding that “physical” volumes of the fuel the bloc is currently receiving from other exporters are insufficient to cover demand. An undersea gas pipeline connecting Finland and Estonia is temporarily out of service after gas system companies in both countries observed an unexpected drop in pressure likely caused by a leak, its operators have said.
“I do not want to speculate at all on the cause of the leak,” Janne Gronlund, a senior executive at Finnish energy firm Gasgrid, told Reuters on Sunday. He added that gas supplies remained stable, and that measures had been taken to isolate the pipeline to prevent further gas from escaping. Gronlund said the pipeline, which is capable of flowing in either direction depending on requirements, was transporting around 30 gigawatt hours of gas each day from Finland to Estonia at the time of the fault. Gasgrid also said gas “has been secured through the Inkoo floating LNG terminal for the time being.” The “unusual drop in pressure” was first noticed just before 2am local time (11pm GMT) by Gasgrid engineers and operators from Estonia’s Elering, the Finnish company said on its website. The 48 mile (77km) Balticconnector pipeline links Inkoo in Finland and the Estonian port town of Paldiski, and across the Gulf of Finland – a stretch of the Baltic Sea that extends in Russian waters towards the port of St. Petersburg. The pipeline began its commercial operations in early 2020. Elering has indicated that any shortfalls in its supplies would be bolstered by gas from Latvia. In September of last year, the Nord Stream pipelines transporting gas between Russia and Germany in the Baltic Sea were hit by underwater explosions which led to four leaks. The incidents, which remain unsolved, are considered by authorities to have been sabotage. In February, American journalist Seymour Hersh cited anonymous sources from the intelligence community in a report claiming that US President Joe Biden had ordered the CIA to blow up the pipelines. He added that the operation was conducted in conjunction with the Norwegian Navy and that a NATO exercise in the region was used as cover. Washington has denied having any role in the sabotage. A new warning Sunday that the Kremlin “is already and will likely continue to exploit the Hamas attacks on Israel” to hype its rhetoric against Western interference in Ukraine, demoralize Ukrainians and reassure Russians that the focus of the West on the Israeli crisis will deflect its attention from the war in Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Following Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7, the Kremlin primarily blamed the West for neglecting conflicts in the Middle East in favor of supporting Ukraine, and claimed that the international community will turn its attention to the Middle East crisis and will cease to focus on Ukraine. Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, said that the United States and its allies should be "busy" with work on a "Palestinian-Israeli settlement" and not "interfere" in Russia's affairs and provide military aid to Ukraine,the ISW reports. Prominent Russian propagandist Sergei Mardan and other Russian news bloggers aim to influence their audience and to demoralize Ukrainian listeners by stating that Russia will benefit from the escalation in Israel as the world “will take its mind off Ukraine for a while and get busy once again putting out the eternal fire in the Middle East,” ISW said. The group added that the Kremlin narrative that Ukraine will lose international support is intended to reassure Russian audiences that the international society will ignore Ukraine’s war effort. Reacting to the Hamas coordinated attacks against Israel Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reminded the world during his nightly video address — to stand firm against terror wherever it emerges. “Terror has opened too many fronts against humanity. The war against Ukraine. The war in the Middle East. Terrible destabilization in Africa. Constant attempts to provoke a crisis in the world food market. Being strong in such conditions means standing up to terror. It is not enough to be a great country. It is not enough to be a rich country. It is not enough to have ambitions. To be strong is to help protect people and lives from all forms of terror. And that is exactly what it is. To help,” he said. Zelenskyy held an emergency phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday, about the situation in Israel and the actions of the armed forces and law enforcement agencies to repel the attack. He expressed Ukraine's solidarity with Israel and offered condolences over the numerous victims. |
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