Europeans urged to turn off lights amid fears Putin will cut off gas
Kremlin warns troops will march on areas outside eastern Ukraine if West continues to supply arms
EUROPEANS were yesterday advised by Brussels to switch off lights and turn down air conditioning amid mounting fears of a “likely” cutoff of Russian gas supplies to the continent.
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission’s president, told EU states to slash gas consumption by 15 per cent as part of emergency plans ahead of an expected winter energy crisis.
It came as Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, announced plans to seize more of Ukraine, beyond the eastern Donbas region, in an expanded war effort. His comments came after Washington said it saw signs Moscow was preparing to formally annex territory it has seized.
Under the EU’S plans, national governments were told to put limits on heating and cooling temperatures on public buildings and draw up lists of potential industrial closures, which could cost tens of thousands of jobs.
“Russia is blackmailing us. Russia is using energy as a weapon,” Mrs Von der Leyen told a news conference.
“We have to prepare for a potential full disruption of Russian gas. And this is a likely scenario. That’s what we’ve seen in the past,” she added.
The powers, which still need approval by member states, would give the Commission the ability to impose mandatory cuts if national governments fail to voluntarily reduce their consumption between August and March.
Frans Timmermans, a Commission first vice-president, said: “In the heat of summer, we need to think about winter. We need to save gas now to keep our homes heated and industry running when winter comes.”
He added: “Do we need to have the lights on empty office buildings or shopfronts all night? Do we have to have air conditioning set at 20 degrees – it could be higher. Of course, it might reduce our comfort.”
Gas deliveries from Russia to Europe have dramatically slowed in recent
‘We need to save gas now to keep our homes heated and industry running when winter comes’
weeks as European officials accuse the Kremlin of leveraging supplies in retaliation for Western sanctions.
Moscow supplied about 40 per cent of the bloc’s gas in 2021. Politicians across the continent have expressed fears that without their usual supplies of Russian fossil fuels they won’t be able to heat homes or keep factories open.
President Vladimir Putin yesterday hinted he could slash deliveries of Russian gas to Europe through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline by half.
The pipeline, Germany’s main source of Russian gas, has been shut down for maintenance since last week with no confirmation from Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled energy giant, when it could come back online.
Under maintenance schedules, the pipeline is due to restart at 4am today. Sources told Reuters the pipeline was likely to restart on time but at less than its usual capacity of 160mcm per day.
Gas flows through the pipeline had already fallen to 60mcm per day since the war began, and Mr Putin said volumes could fall to 30mcm per day, blaming the availability of key equipment. The UK gets less than four per cent of its gas from Russia so is less exposed to cut-offs, but does suffer knock-on effects from Europe’s market including soaring prices.
Meanwhile in Ukraine, a Russian strike on a bus station in the second city, Kharkiv, killed at least three civilians, including a 13-year-old boy.
Footage from the scene of the strike showed the teenager’s father leant over his lifeless body.
A top official in Ukraine’s government said its forces wouldn’t be able to sustain counteroffensives against Russia without more Western weapons.
RUSSIA has abandoned its initial military “tasks” and will expand further into Ukraine if the West continues to send weapons, it warned yesterday.
Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister, said Russia is no longer focused “only” on eastern Ukraine and that Western military support for Kyiv had changed Moscow’s strategy.
It is the most senior acknowledgement yet that Russia is no longer fighting a limited war to “defend” the Donbas.
In his de-facto declaration of war on Ukraine on Feb 24, Vladimir Putin insisted that “occupation of Ukrainian territory is not in our plans” and has since made no comment to the contrary.
After Russian forces failed to capture the capital and topple Ukraine’s government, the Kremlin announced in March it would refocus on capturing the Donbas region. But Mr Lavrov said that Russia would once more widen its aims, despite troops struggling to make ground in a grinding artillery war.
“The geography is different now. It is not only about the DNR and LNR, but also the Kherson region, the Zaporizhzhia region and a number of other territories,” he said, referring to the breakaway territories of the so-called Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. “This process is continuing, consistently and persistently,” he added.
Mr Lavrov said Russia’s “geographical aims will move even further from the current line” if the West continues to “pump” Ukraine with weapons.
Yesterday the United States said it would be sending four more high mobility artillery rocket systems to Ukraine which have been key to slowing the advance of Russian troops.
Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, said America would “keep finding innovative ways to sustain our longterm support for the brave men and women of the Ukrainian armed forces and we will tailor our assistance to ensure that Ukraine has the technology, the ammunition and the sheer firepower to defend itself”. Earlier this week Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defence minister, ordered generals to prioritise destroying the US systems after they were utilised to strike its supply lines.
In the US yesterday Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, made an emotional pitch to Congress for more air defence systems to shield her country from missile strikes.
“We want no more air strikes. No more missile strikes,” Ms Zelenska said, echoing her husband, president Volodymyr Zelensky, as she asked politicians: “Is this too much to ask for?”
Earlier this week Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s defence minister, urged the
West to keep sending new arms, offering his country’s battlegrounds as “a good chance to test their equipment”.
“Ukraine is now essentially a testing ground,” he told an online Atlantic Council event.
“Many weapons are now getting tested in the field in real conditions of battle against the Russian army, which has plenty of warning systems of its own.” This could prove a boon to weapons companies, he suggested.
“We are sharing all the information and experience with our partners. We are interested in testing modern systems in the fight against the enemy, and we are inviting arms manufacturers to test new products here.”
The US has warned that Russia will try to annex captured territories in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and the Donbas region later this year, as it did with the Crimean Peninsula.
“Russia is beginning to roll out a version of what you could call an ‘annexation playbook’,” said John Kirby, spokesman for the US National Security Council.
He said proxy officials would arrange “sham” referendums on which they would base a claim to the land.
Despite ongoing talks, Russia has not yet agreed to lift a Black Sea blockade preventing Ukrainian grain from reaching world markets.
Turkey had hoped to broker a deal this week but Mr Putin said on Tuesday that he would only allow safe passage for the grain if the West lifts sanctions on Russia’s shipments.