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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Ukraine’s counteroffensive in Kharkiv has proved that it can drive Russia out of its territories, a key adviser in President Zelenskiy’s government has said.
Writing on Twitter, Mykhailo Podoliak, adviser to the Head of the Office of President of Ukraine, said: “What does effective Ukrainian counteroffensive tell the world?
Continue reading...Only Singapore has imposed sanctions, while others have been receptive to Moscow’s offers of friendship
The head of Myanmar’s military junta beamed with joy as he shook hands with Vladimir Putin this week. “We would call you not just the leader of Russia but a leader of the world because you control and organise stability around the whole world,” Min Aung Hlaing said.
His remarks came as Putin claimed in a defiant speech that European efforts to isolate Russia would fail: instead, he would pivot to Asia.
Continue reading...Giorgia Meloni, tipped to become PM, backs sanctions while Matteo Salvini says they are bringing Italy to its knees
Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini, the far-right protagonists of a coalition on course to win Italy’s general election this month, posed together in a warm embrace by the sea in Sicily last week in a show of unity.
Meloni, the Brothers of Italy chief who could become prime minister, and who in the past has likened the pair’s relationship to that of Romeo and Juliet, said: “The photo is the best response to the inventions by the left of alleged divisions.”
Continue reading...Antony Blinken visits Kyiv as US pledges nearly $2.7bn in new military aid; Zelenskiy says 1,000 sq km recaptured; Poland and Baltic nations restrict entry for Russians
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has told Volodymyr Zelenskiy the war with Russia is in a “pivotal moment” as Ukraine’s military continues its counteroffensive in the south of the country. The Associated Press reported that Blinken told the Ukrainian president: “We know this is a pivotal moment, more than six months into Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, as your counteroffensive is now under way and proving effective.”
Blinken’s surprise trip to Kyiv came after the US unveiled nearly $2.7bn (£2.4bn) in new military support to Ukraine and other European countries threatened by Russia. Blinken travelled in secret on his second trip to Kyiv since the Russian invasion began in February. He approved $2bn in foreign military financing under a programme in which the US offers loans or grants to other nations to buy US-produced weapons. That amount is in addition to another $675m in military assistance announced by the defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, and includes more arms, ammunition and supplies for precision-guided Himars rockets.
Poland and the Baltic states have announced they will temporarily restrict access for Russian citizens holding European Union visas. The prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland said in a statement that the move had been taken to address “public policy and security threats” arising from the “substantial and growing influx of Russian citizens” into the EU. The measures were expected to come into force by 19 September and would “restrict the entry into the Schengen area for Russian citizens travelling for tourism, culture, sport and business purposes”.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv’s forces had “liberated dozens of settlements” and reclaimed 1,000 sq km (385 sq miles) of territory in the east and south since 1 September in the counteroffensive. The Ukrainian president also posted a video in which Ukrainian soldiers claimed to have captured the eastern town of Balakliia near Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv, Reuters reported.
Heavy fighting was reported on Thursday in areas near the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in the south, after Ukraine warned it might have to shut down the plant to avoid disaster, Reuters reported.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth, who has died at the age of 96. The Ukrainian president said on Twitter: “It is with deep sadness that we learned of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. On behalf of the people, we extend sincere condolences to the @RoyalFamily, the entire United Kingdom and the Commonwealth over this irreparable loss.”
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, extended his condolences to King Charles for the “irreparable loss” of his mother, saying the Queen had “rightfully enjoyed the love and respect of her subjects, as well as authority on the world stage”.
Norway said it would donate about 160 Hellfire missiles to Ukraine as well as launching pads, guidance units and night-vision equipment.
Two people have been killed and four injured by Russian shelling in the Donetsk region amid “massive shelling” in Bakhmut city, the Ukraine prosecutor general’s office said. In Kharkiv’s industrial district, authorities said two people had been killed and five injured in Russian shelling.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence said Ukraine appeared to be “imposing pressure on Russian forces” in Kherson and had probably destroyed a bridge that served as “one of the main routes between the northern and southern sectors of Russia’s military presence along the Dnieper River”.
Ukraine’s top military chief has claimed responsibility for an attack on Russia’s Saky airbase in Crimea last month – the first official acknowledgment from Kyiv that it was behind the strike, which destroyed at least nine Russian aircraft.
The UK’s permanent representative to the UN, Dame Barbara Woodward, has said the deportation of people from Ukraine has “chilling echoes from European history” and that the “appalling term ‘denazification’” was a “cover for obliterating Ukraine from the map”.
Belarus has started week-long military exercises near the Polish border, its capital of Minsk and the north-eastern region of Vitebsk, the country’s defence ministry said.
Continue reading...Talks expected to be complex, with some member states strongly against proposed price cap on Russian gas
EU energy ministers will gather for emergency talks in Brussels on Friday to thrash out common measures in an effort to counter a gas and electricity price crisis that threatens to make energy bills unaffordable for households and businesses and tip Europe into recession.
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has set out a five-point plan, which includes a price cap on Russian gas that is likely to draw strong opposition from some member states.
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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...Correspondent ‘well looked after’ in hospital, says Italian foreign ministry, after car reportedly drove over mine
An Italian journalist has been wounded, and his driver reportedly killed, close to the frontline between Ukrainian and Russian forces in the Kherson region.
Mattia Sorbi, a freelance correspondent who has worked for several Italian outlets, was taken to hospital in Russian-occupied territory after the car in which he was travelling reportedly drove over a mine several days ago.
Continue reading...Ukrainian forces recapture about 154 sq miles of Russian-held territory, changing analysis of Kyiv’s military strategy
A sudden, unexpected Ukrainian military success south-east of Kharkiv changes the analysis of Kyiv’s counterattack strategy. What had been expected to be a well-telegraphed effort to isolate the city of Kherson in the south has been turned on its head by the sudden pushback against Russian forces at the northern edge of the front.
The effort started on Tuesday, and by Wednesday the US Institute for the Study of War estimated that Ukraine’s forces had, in a surprise attack, advanced “at least 20km into Russian-held territory” recapturing approximately 400 sq km (154 sq miles) in an area scarcely focused on by military analysts until now.
Continue reading...Zelenskiy reports ‘good news’ from northern front as Donetsk People’s Republic says Balakliia ‘encircled’
Ukraine has launched a surprise counterattack in the north-east Kharkiv region, stretching Russian forces who are also facing Ukrainian attacks in the south.
An official representing the Russian-controlled Donetsk People’s Republic said on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces “encircled” Balakliia, an eastern town of 27,000 people situated between Kharkiv and Russian-occupied Izium.
Continue reading...Paul Urey was charged with ‘mercenary activities’ by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, who say he died of ‘stress’
The body of a British aid worker who was captured by Russian proxies in April has been handed to Ukraine with “possible signs of unspeakable torture”, according to the country’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba.
Paul Urey, 45, from Warrington, Cheshire, was captured in April by pro-Russian separatists, along with another Briton, Dylan Healey.
Continue reading...Olaf Scholz says country has enough energy to get through winter after Russia cut gas supplies
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has rejected calls for his government to commit to a longer-term extension of the life of the country’s nuclear power plants and insisted that Europe’s largest economy would have enough energy to get through the winter.
Scholz shut down criticism from the opposition conservative alliance and at least one leading economist, who have described his coalition’s decision to keep two remaining reactors in emergency reserve rather than letting them produce electricity, as “madness” while the government refuses to reverse its long-term plan to close down the last remaining plants.
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Britain’s new prime minister Liz Truss and her US counterpart Joe Biden have promised to strengthen their relationship in the face of Vladimir Putin’s aggression.
Truss’s call to Biden on Tuesday night followed a conversation with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and focused on what she called ”extreme economic problems caused by Putin’s war”.
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...But there remains strong support in many countries for Russian military withdrawal from Ukraine, survey finds
The cost of living is ranked by most voters globally as a more important issue than liberating Ukraine from Russian occupation, but there is still strong support for a Russian military withdrawal, according to a survey showing global preoccupations.
Majorities in 16 of the 22 largest countries believe Russia should leave the territory it has occupied in Ukraine, the survey shows. The polling in 22 countries of more than 21,000 citizens also underlines the extent to which the global south is less engaged with the war in Ukraine than Europeans.
Continue reading...Russia’s foreign ministry says US has pushed European leaders to cut economic and energy cooperation with Moscow
UK’s defence secretary Ben Wallace will be going to Germany this week to discuss longer-term funding for Ukraine, the Ministry of Defence says.
President Vladimir Putin attended large-scale military exercises on Tuesday involving China and several other Russia-friendly countries, Kremlin, spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told local news agencies.
Putin was meeting with defence minister Sergei Shoigu and military chief of staff Valery Gerasimov at the Sergeevski military range and could observe the final phase of the military exercises later, Peskov was quoted as saying.
The military drills, called Vostok-2022, started on 1 September and are due to take place until 7 September across several training grounds in Russia’s far east and in the waters off its eastern coast.
Continue reading...Hollywood actors included on Russia’s list of 25 new names excluded from country
Ben Stiller and Sean Penn have been banned from entering Russia following their outspoken support of Ukraine during the ongoing invasion.
Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs released a list on Monday of 25 new names that will be excluded from the country in response to “the ever-expanding personal sanctions by the … Biden Administration against Russian citizens”. Stiller and Penn are both included, along with political figures such as senators Mark Kelly, Rick Scott and Kyrsten Sinema.
Continue reading...Official says deal shows Russia continues to face supply shortages as invasion of Ukraine grinds on
Russia is buying millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea to support its invasion of Ukraine, according to a newly declassified US intelligence finding.
A US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said on Monday that the fact Russia’s defence ministry had turned to Pyongyang demonstrated that “the Russian military continues to suffer from severe supply shortages in Ukraine, due in part to export controls and sanctions”.
Continue reading...Shelling at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia power plant disconnects backup power line; Ukraine claims to repel Russian offensives in the east
Continue reading...Putin aide says relations could go ‘from bad to worse’ as Ukrainian pundits welcome new ‘iron lady’
Liz Truss’s imminent arrival in Downing Street as British prime minister has been greeted with scorn and scarcely veiled condescension from the Kremlin, but an outpouring of praise in Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin’s chief spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, expressed concerns that relations might deteriorate in comments to reporters shortly before Truss was announced as the winner of the Tory leadership race.
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