Kyiv Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned against making concessions to Russia over concerns about energy shortages in Europe. The planned delivery of a serviced Russian turbine for the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 1, for example, sends a completely wrong signal to Moscow, he said in a video message on Monday. “If a terrorist state can enforce such an exemption from sanctions, what exemptions does it want tomorrow or the day after? This question is very dangerous.”
The Russian state-owned company Gazprom had significantly reduced the delivery volume through Nord Stream 1 in June and referred to the missing turbine, which had been brought to Canada for repairs. A government spokeswoman said on Monday in Berlin that the delivery of the turbine would not fall under the EU sanctions because, with good reason, they were not aimed at gas transit.
Nothing has been delivered via the last most important route for Russian natural gas to Germany since Monday – according to Nord Stream AG due to maintenance work until July 21st. Until then, no gas will be transported through the pipeline to Germany, it said. However, there is general concern that Moscow will not turn on the tap afterwards and that gas will run out in the autumn and winter.
“Russia now only supplies Germany via the Transgas pipeline through Ukraine,” said the President of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, the editorial network Germany. “The government in Moscow could increase shipments through Ukraine at any time to meet its contractual obligations. (Russia’s President) Vladimir Putin obviously lacks the political will to do so.”
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If the serviced turbine is reinstalled by the end of the Nord Stream service on July 21, “Russia would no longer have any argument to continue to throttle the gas delivery volumes,” explained Müller.
No Russian gas is currently being delivered to Germany via the pipeline.
(Photo: dpa)
Zelensky said the decision to “exception sanctions” was perceived in Moscow as a “manifestation of weakness.” “That’s their logic. And now there is no doubt that Russia will try not only to limit gas supplies to Europe as much as possible, but to completely stop them at the most acute moment.”
Every concession is perceived by Moscow as an incentive for further, stronger pressure, said Zelenskiy. “Russia has never played by the rules in the energy sector and will not do so now unless it sees strength.”
Mass exodus from the Donbass
According to the authorities, around 1.3 million people have fled from the government-controlled part of the contested Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine alone since the start of the Russian war of aggression four and a half months ago. According to Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, that’s about 80 percent of the civilian population.
Since Russia took control of the Luhansk region, the focus of fighting has shifted to neighboring Donetsk.
Heavy fighting breaks out in the Donetsk region.
(Photo: IMAGO/ZUMA Wire)
Rocket attack on house in Donetsk: death toll rises to over 30
After a rocket attack on Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region, the number of dead recovered from a destroyed house has risen to more than 30. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry spoke of 33 bodies on Monday. Nine people have been rescued from the rubble since the weekend.
The Ukrainian side accuses Russia of attacking civilians. Moscow claims it destroyed a military target. On Monday evening, the Russian side reported injuries in an attack by Ukraine near Nowa Kakhovka. Reports from the combat zones can hardly be checked independently.
After a Russian missile attack, the salvage work continues.
(Photo: dpa)
Putin orders simpler issuing of Russian passports
In the future, people in Ukraine should be able to obtain Russian citizenship in a simplified procedure. Russian President Putin signed a decree that provides for an extension of the regulation that previously only applied to eastern Ukraine. Kyiv protested sharply against it.
The issue of Russian passports is also explosive because Russia’s military doctrine justifies operations when it comes to the alleged protection of its own nationals.
Putin and Erdogan on the phone about the grain crisis
Putin and Turkish head of state Recep Tayyip Erdogan have talked on the phone about possible solutions to the dispute over grain exports from Ukraine. It is time for the United Nations to implement the plan for a grain corridor through the Black Sea, said a statement from the Turkish Presidential Office.
The Kremlin said the talks also included economic cooperation. There was also talk of a planned “Russian-Turkish meeting at the highest level” in the near future. Later, Ukrainian President Zelensky wrote on Twitter that he too had spoken to Erdogan about ways to unblock ports and resume grain exports.
Investigations into Ukraine can take years
Attorney General Peter Frank dampens hopes of rapid success in prosecuting war crimes in the Ukraine war. “Please don’t expect that we will have identified any suspects tomorrow or the day after tomorrow,” said Frank at the annual press reception of the federal prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe. In international criminal law, you need “staying power”.
This is how the Handelsblatt reports on the Ukraine war and the consequences:
He drew parallels with the Syrian civil war that began in 2011. The first charges were not filed in Germany until 2019. Ten years had passed before the first final judgment. “In particular, there are still no personal investigations at all in the Ukraine war,” said Frank.
That will be important on Tuesday
Welthungerhilfe presents its annual report in Berlin and explains, among other things, the effects of the Ukraine war and the climate crisis, flight and displacement on the lack of food worldwide. At an informal meeting in Prague, the EU justice ministers want to talk, among other things, about securing evidence in the Ukraine war.
In Moscow, the eastern Ukrainian separatist region “Donetsk People’s Republic” has announced the opening of a representation and is expecting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to do so.
More: Don’t miss any development – everything new in our news blog about the Ukraine war