Countries that import large volumes fear Kremlin would respond by halting all gas flows, plunging them into recession
EU energy ministers have clashed over a plan to put a price cap on Russian gas, casting doubt on whether the measure will go ahead.
Speaking after emergency talks in Brussels in response to surging gas and electricity prices, the EU’s energy commissioner, Kadri Simson, said “nothing is decided” on proposals to curb Russia’s income.
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The Ukrainian letter ‘Ї’, which has become a symbol of resistance to the Russian occupation throughout Ukraine has been painted on a number of public monuments and statues in Mariupol, according to reporters in the southern city.
A senior Ukrainian presidential advisor has reiterated Ukraine’s desire for long-range weapons in order to equalise the battlefield.
Continue reading...Russian president alludes to fact prime minister was chosen by party members, not by whole country
Vladimir Putin has said the way Britain chooses its leaders is “far from democratic”, a day after Liz Truss replaced Boris Johnson as prime minister.
In his first public comments on Truss’s appointment, the Russian president alluded to the fact she was chosen in a leadership ballot by members of the Conservative party, not by the whole country.
Continue reading...Nuclear energy facility now linked to grid with a reserve line; former leader buried without state honours. This blog is now closed.
The Russian energy major Gazprom has said Siemens Energy is ready to help repair broken equipment for the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, but claimed there was nowhere available for them to carry out the work.
Gazprom, the state-owned oil and gas firm, extended the shutdown of gas flows through its key Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany on Friday evening, citing “malfunctions” on a key turbine along the pipeline.
In Kramatorsk, a rocket hit a food enterprise, injuring a person. Another one hit a light industry enterprise. A fire broke out there.
The city was shelled again. There were loud explosions on the outskirts. In Bylbasivka, private houses were damaged on Shkilna and Yaseneva Streets.
Continue reading...Hundreds of mourners pay tribute in Russian capital to former Soviet leader credited with helping to end cold war
Hundreds of mourners are lining up in central Moscow to bid farewell to Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, often credited with bringing an end to the cold war.
The farewell ceremony, which is being held in the Hall of Pillars in Moscow’s House of the Unions, will be followed by a closed funeral in the Novodevichy cemetery.
Continue reading...Russian president lays wreath at hospital where Soviet leader died but will snub funeral
Vladimir Putin will not attend the funeral of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin has said, in what will be seen as an extraordinary snub by the Russian president.
Gorbachev, who died on Tuesday at 91, will also not receive an official state funeral, a Kremlin spokesperson indicated, making him the first leader since Nikita Khrushchev not to be given that honour.
Continue reading...Despite being celebrated across liberal democracies, the former Soviet leader was reviled and unpopular in Russia
Until his very last day, Mikhail Gorbachev lived in a dual reality – loved and celebrated in Washington, Paris and London, but reviled by large numbers of Russians who never forgave him for the turbulence that his reforms unleashed.
His policy of ‘glasnost’, or openness, gave Russians previously unthinkable levels of freedom, but for many, his rule will be remembered by the dramatic plunge in living standards that followed.
Continue reading...Plan to freeze 2007 deal will make it harder and more expensive for Russians to get Schengen-area documents, FT reports
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has signed a decree allowing Ukrainian passport holders who have entered Russia since Moscow’s offensive to live and work in the country indefinitely.
Until now, Ukrainians could stay in Russia only for a maximum of 90 days within a 180-day period. To stay longer or to work, special authorisation or a work permit was required.
In mid-August, we closed our offices and ceased all Russian operations.
Continue reading...Ukraine’s state energy operator: ‘There are risks of hydrogen leakage and sputtering of radioactive substances’
A US citizen has recently died in Ukraine, according to a state department spokesperson.
Officials are in touch with the family and are providing consular assistance, they added.
We also once again reiterate US citizens should not travel to Ukraine due to the active armed conflict and the singling out of US citizens in Ukraine by Russian government security officials, and that US citizens in Ukraine should depart immediately if it is safe to do so using any commercial or other privately available ground transportation options.
On August 26, Russians killed two civilians in Donetsk region – in Bakhmut. Twelve people were injured.
Continue reading...Order to increase personnel from 1.9 to 2.04 million comes as war in Ukraine enters seventh month
Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to increase the size of Russia’s armed forces from 1.9 million to 2.04 million, as the war in Ukraine enters its seventh month with no signs of abating.
The Russian president’s decree appears to point to the country’s aim to replenish its military, which has suffered heavy losses in Ukraine and failed to achieve its objective to capture the capital, Kyiv.
Continue reading...Speaking in Kyiv, Ilya Ponomarev alleges bomb that killed daughter of Putin ally was work of underground group
A former member of Russia’s Duma who was expelled for anti-Kremlin activities has claimed that Russian partisans were allegedly behind a car bomb which blew up the daughter of one of Vladimir Putin’s close political allies on the outskirts of Moscow.
Speaking in Kyiv, where he is based, Ilya Ponomarev alleged the explosion on Saturday evening was the work of the National Republican Army, which he claimed was an underground group working inside Russia and dedicated to overthrowing the Putin regime.
Continue reading...Russian hawks without evidence blame Kyiv for death of Darya Dugina and demand Kremlin response
The daughter of an ultranationalist Russian ideologue and ally of Vladimir Putin has been killed in a car bomb on the outskirts of Moscow.
Darya Dugina, whose father is the Russian political commentator Alexander Dugin, died when the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving was ripped apart by a powerful explosion about 12 miles (20km) west of the capital near the village of Bolshiye Vyazemy at about 9.30pm local time (1930 BST), according to investigators.
Continue reading...The military strategy expert and author of a new book on conflict says the flawed thinking behind Russia’s invasion stems from the inability of those at the top to take responsibility for mistakes
Russia’s war against Ukraine has been hampered by failings experienced by autocratic states during conflict, according to a far-reaching new study of command in war by one of the UK’s most prominent academics in the field.
Command, a wide-ranging analysis of post-second world war conflicts by the leading strategic studies expert Lawrence Freedman, examines a series of well-known conflicts, from the Cuban missile crisis to the French defeat at the hands of the Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu, through to the Falklands war and Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, up to the present war in Ukraine.
Continue reading...Video on Twitter appears to show reported drone attack on Sevastopol and plumes of smoke over the city
Ukraine has launched a fresh strike on Russia’s Black Sea fleet headquarters at Sevastopol, where officials in the annexed Crimean peninsula said that at least one drone had been shot down by air defences.
The reported attack on Saturday morning – a day after explosions erupted near military bases in Russian-held areas of Ukraine and Russia itself – came on the same day that 12 civilians were reportedly wounded when a Russian missile hit a residential area of a Ukrainian town.
Continue reading...UK Ministry of Defence say ‘increasingly frequent’ attacks behind the frontline are also affecting air basing
In case you missed it last night, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, gave a video address to the nation, vowing that every Russian strike on the country would be answered.
Zelenskyy said: All those who experience this constant horror of the destruction of life and the destruction of everything that gives life normality. We will not leave any of these strikes unanswered. We will establish the identity of every occupier who gives orders and executes these strikes at cities. And we will bring them all to justice in one way or another. No murderer will hide.
Continue reading...Wall Street Journal suggests Russian and Chinese leaders could hold discussions in Uzbek city
Xi Jinping could meet Vladimir Putin in mid-September at a regional summit in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, it has been reported.
According to the Wall Street Journal, preparations are being made for the Chinese president to travel to Samarkand on 15 September for a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
Continue reading...Timati and co-owner Anton Pinskiy have rebranded it as Stars Coffee after buying the rights to the chain
A pro-Putin rapper has reopened the chain of coffee shops formerly owned by Starbucks under a new name, Stars Coffee, the latest high-profile rebranding of a major western chain after an unprecedented corporate exodus from Russia.
On Thursday, the rapper Timati and restaurateur Anton Pinskiy, the duo that acquired the rights to the chain in Russia, attended the opening of the first of the 130 cafes previously owned by Starbucks. During the opening in central Moscow, the pair also revealed the chain’s new logo, which replaces Starbucks’s iconic siren with a woman wearing the traditional Russian kokoshnik headdress, but is otherwise fairly similar.
Continue reading...Russian attack in eastern region also leaves 13 injured, Ukrainian officials say; Vitali Klitschko talks about ‘harsh realities’ facing residents
Another six ships have received permission to pass through the maritime humanitarian corridor in the Black Sea, according to a statement released by the UN-backed Joint Coordination Centre (JCC).
Two of the vessels, MV Kafkam Etler and MV Zelek Star, have reportedly already passed inspection in the Sea of Marmara and can go to Chornomorsk, Odesa, for loading.
Continue reading...Ukraine president says soldiers firing from Zaporizhzhia facility will become a ‘special target’; main bridges to Russian-occupied territory in Kherson likely to be unusable, says British military intelligence
People in the eastern Ukrainian town of Rubizhne have started exhuming bodies that were hastily buried in courtyards at the height of battle, anxious to be able to lay them to rest with dignity.
Rubizhne is part of the Luhansk region of Ukraine where Russian forces established full control in early July, more than four months after president Vladimir Putin launched what he called his “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Continue reading...Foreign ministry warns US not to place Russia on its list of state sponsors of terrorism
Ukrainian president Zelenskiy’s adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Saturday the war could only end with the return of the Crimea peninsula and the punishment of the Russian leaders who ordered the military invasion, saying on Twitter:
The Kyiv Independent reports that the Ukrainian military has shot down a Russian fighter jet, as well as four Russian drones.
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