Russia restarts key gas pipeline to push back against West
Russia is resuming supplies of gas via a major pipeline to Europe on Thursday, the pipeline operator said, amid concerns Moscow would use its vast energy exports to push back against Western pressure over its invasion of Ukraine.
The resumption of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline at reduced capacity following a 10-day maintenance break comes after comments from Russia’s foreign minister showed the Kremlin’s goals had expanded during the five-month war.
Concern that Russian supplies of gas sent through the biggest pipeline in Europe could be stopped by Moscow prompted the European Union to tell member states on Wednesday to cut gas usage by 15% until March as an emergency step.
“Russia is blackmailing us. Russia is using energy as a weapon,” EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said, describing a full cut-off of Russian gas flows as “a likely scenario” for which “Europe needs to be ready”.
Putin had earlier warned that gas supplies via Nord Stream were at risk of being reduced further.
Russia, the world’s largest gas exporter, has denied Western accusations of using its energy supplies as a tool of coercion, saying it has been a reliable energy supplier.
As for its oil, Russia will not send supplies to the world market if a price cap is imposed below the cost of production, Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak as saying on Wednesday.
Fighting toll mounts
On the battlefront, the Ukrainian military has reported heavy and sometimes fatal Russian shelling amid what they said were largely failed attempts by Russian ground forces to advance.
In the previous 24 hours, Ukrainian forces said they had destroyed 17 vehicles, some of them armoured, as well as killing more than 100 Russian soldiers in the south and east.
The Russian-installed administration in the partially occupied Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia said Ukraine had conducted a drone strike on a nuclear power station there, but the reactor was not damaged.
Multiple blasts were also heard in the Russian-controlled southern region of Kherson overnight and into Thursday, Russian news agency TASS reported.
Also, the latest barrage of Russian shelling on Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv killed at least two people and wounded 19 others on Thursday, the regional governor said.