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LAST UPDATE | 27 Jul 2022
RUSSIAN ENERGY GIANT Gazprom drastically cut gas deliveries to Europe via the Nord Stream pipeline today to about 20%of its capacity, German authorities said.
The Russian state-run company had announced on Monday that it would choke supply to 33 million cubic metres a day, half the amount it has been delivering since service resumed last week after 10 days of maintenance work.
EU states have accused Russia of squeezing supplies in retaliation for Western sanctions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops have continued to resist invading forces and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he hopes the UK’s Boris Johnson will not ‘disappear’ from politics.
Gazprom cited the halted operation of one of the last two operating turbines for the pipeline due to the “technical condition of the engine”.
The German economy ministry dismissed the explanation, saying there was “no technical reason for a reduction of deliveries”. Government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann spoke on Wednesday of a “power play” by Moscow.
Klaus Mueller, head of Germany’s energy regulator, said gas flows had dropped to 20 percent of the pipeline’s capacity on Wednesday from 40 percent.
“We’ll see today if it stays that way,” he said in a statement.
In parallel, Italian energy major Eni said Gazprom had informed the group it would only deliver “approximately 27 million cubic metres” on Wednesday, down from around 34 million cubic metres in recent days.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov blamed EU sanctions for the limited supply.
“Technical pumping capacities are down, more restricted. Why? Because the process of maintaining technical devices is made extremely difficult by the sanctions adopted by Europe,” Peskov said.
“Gazprom was and remains a reliable guarantor of its obligations… but it can’t guarantee the pumping of gas if the imported devices cannot be maintained because of European sanctions
Zelenskyy has said he does not want Boris Johnson to “disappear” after he stands down as prime minister.
The Ukrainian President noted he has “no right” to interfere in the UK’s domestic affairs but said he would like Johnson to “be somewhere in politics in a position to be someone”.
Zelenskyy made his remarks during an interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored, where he appeared alongside his wife, First Lady Olena Zelenska.
“I don’t want him to disappear, but the decision is in the hands of the British people. But I am sure that whatever position he is going to take, he is always going to be with Ukraine. This is from the heart.”
Zelenskyy was also asked about Tory leadership hopefuls Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss and what message he would like to send them.
He said: “What can I say? I would be happy to cooperate very closely like we used to have with Boris. The same close relationship with the UK and Ukraine.
“I know those two candidates are very respectful, and they have the support of the people and the society from the UK.
“We know about this support. We know about the positive strength of those leaders. We would be happy to cooperate with whoever is elected as leader.
“I used to have contact with Liz Truss. Whoever is the leader, the highest level of support will be provided from the Ukraine.”
Ukrainian troops have struck a strategic bridge essential for Moscow to supply its forces occupying the country’s south as Russia pounded several areas in Ukraine with rocket and artillery strikes.
The Ukrainian military struck the Antonivskyi Bridge across the Dnieper River late on Tuesday, the deputy head of the Moscow-appointed administration for the Kherson region, Kirill Stremousov, said.
He said the bridge was still standing but its deck was pierced with holes, stopping vehicles from crossing.
The near-one-mile bridge sustained serious damage in Ukrainian shelling last week, when it took multiple hits.
It was closed for trucks but had remained open for passenger vehicles until the strike late yesterday.
Ukrainian forces used the US-supplied Himars multiple rocket launchers to hit the bridge, Stremousov said.
The bridge is the main crossing across the Dnieper River in the Kherson region.
The only other option is a dam at the hydroelectric plant in Kakhovka, which also came under Ukrainian fire last week but has remained open for traffic.
Knocking the crossings out would make it hard for the Russian military to keep supplying its forces in the region amid repeated Ukrainian attacks.
Early in the war, Russian troops quickly overran the Kherson region just north of the Crimean Peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014.
They have faced Ukrainian counter-attacks, but have largely held their ground.
The Ukrainian attacks on the bridge in Kherson come as the bulk of the Russian forces are fighting in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland of Donbas, where they have made slow gains in the face of ferocious Ukrainian resistance.
Supplies of US weapons such as Himars have helped slow the Russian advances.
Zelenskyy claimed that Russian military losses have climbed to nearly 40,000, adding that tens of thousands more were wounded and maimed. His claim could not be independently verified.
The Russian military last reported its losses in March, when it said that 1,351 troops were killed in action and 3,825 were wounded.
Russian forces kept up their artillery barrage in the eastern Donetsk region, targeting towns and villages, according to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.
In Bakhmut, a key city on the front line of the Russian offensive, the shelling damaged a hotel and caused casualties, Kyrylenko said. A rescue operation was under way.
Amid Moscow’s push to take full control of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Russian have gained marginal ground northeast of Bakhmut, according to the Washington DC-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War.
Russian forces, however, are unlikely to occupy significant additional territory in Ukraine “before the early autumn,” the institute added.
Additional reporting by AFP
Euro has been an unmitigated disaster .
Certainly from wee Paddy’s perspective, bailing out this disaster .
@Willy Malone: Are you even old enough to remember the punt and what the economy was before the bubble? Newsflash! For almost all the time we had our own currency the country was in recession or close to bankrupt.
@8bitplebian: totally agree with you there.in fact can’t see why there can’t be a single world currency.it might cut out all this fluctuation and maybe even some of the corruption.Le Pen fluffed her chances when she misused European Parliament funds.
@Bennythekid: We had big self inflicted recessions in the 30s and 80s. The first was long before the concept of the EU. You can destroy an economy with (Greece) or without (Venezuela) a currency union.
@8bitplebian:
So we needed the Euro to bail us out, and in turn we end up bailing it out, bit of a disaster all round.
@8bitplebian:
Socialism destroyed Venezuela.. https://youtu.be/WCUq0V-3mgo
@8bitplebian: interest rates were also insane back when we had to punt, 18 percent in early eighties. 12 percent in early 90s. Yep, Things were far from better!
It’s funny that people pay no attention to what previously happened in this country.
We also bailed out banks back then too, AIB was bailed out back in the days of the punt.
@8bitplebian: Not quite as black or white. Ireland’s celtic tiger began in the mid 90s when we still had the punt, 2000-2001 were great, once the Euro came into effect in 2002 it kept going, but the economy was already performing well. The unemployment and economics of the past were die to failed policies. It was the change to corporate tax and economic measures from the 90s that gave us a boom and a recession. The Euro just made it more difficult to come out of that recession. Look at Iceland, no Euro, hot rock bottom in 2008 and they are on the top of the world now and has been for a while already.
@Juan Venegas: Couple of points there. The “real” boom appears to have lasted for no more than a few years at best from around 97 to 2001 with the rest being property inspired madness. I’d be hesitant to call that as having anything to do with currency. Also the comparison to Iceland is not a fair one. It has the population of Limerick county and could make a nice enough living just selling fish to the rest of the world.
@8bitplebian: Or old enough to remember the Pound?
Let’s hope Le Pen wins outright
It will be the best thing for France
@Gary Purcell: yeah, nothing like starting a economic war to make things better for everyone.
@Gary Purcell: A brainless populist thug, clearly melting under any form of adult scrutiny.
@Diarmuid:
Coming from you that’s a bit rich, wasn’t it you who hoped the EU would give the UK ‘a good hiding’ over Brexit? What did you mean exactly? An invasion? Sanctions? Punishing the voters for actually voting and winning, is a bit sick.
Cue all the comments about how terrible the euro is followed by the usual verbiage about printing our own currency again. Countries like Ireland who grossly mismanage and inflate their economies as in the early 2000′s will eventually experience a crash, irrespective of them being constrained by the rules of a single currency union or not.
@8bitplebian: There’s some truth in that, but being in a single currency removes much of the ability to do the management necessary. FF made an unholy mess of the public finances, but there was very little they could do to prevent the mad accumulation of private debt that was fuelled by the euro.
@Ben McArthur: I think that’s an unknown. When FF faced down the economic crisis in the 80s (created in part by their own 1977 budget) the approach they took made the situation progressively worse even with all the tools they had available. We also had very high inflation and a currency devaluation to worry about. So there’s no reason to think the 2008 crash would have been handled any better.
@8bitplebian:
Correct me if I misunderstand your position but your arguing that our politicians are inept whether in the Euro or not, so its better to stay in it?
@Maurice Bourke: No, more that blaming the single currency for the 2008 crash and subsequent recession is inaccurate. Economic mismanagement can happen with or without the euro. If Ireland had properly regulated its banks and controlled the property bubble, the impact of the then financial crisis would have been much less severe.
Le Pen is as damaged as her father -
@kingstown: The fake fight with her daddy is the most cynical political move in decades. And transparent as hell.
The thing about Le Pen is she could win if she pledged a tough crackdown on non-EU migration, while maintaining the status quo economically and pledging to keep the euro.
If she just stuck to that issue, she would win.
@Fred Jensen: Le Pen might not even get to the 2nd round and there are absolutely no poll results that even suggest that she will win.
@Neil Mcdonough:
I know. I’m saying she is shooting herself in the foot with her anti-euro rhetoric. Peoples savings would be wiped out. She should just stick purely to the non-EU migration issue if she wants to win.
@Fred Jensen: I don’t understand her point about the Euro. Some countries might do well to leave it, Greece for example ( mainly because they should have never adopted it in the first place ) but there is no way it would benefit France in any way anymore.
That was by far not the moment of that debate. Macron is the worst that could happen to France,worst than le pen.that guy agree with everyone and can never answer a question. The best moments of the debate came when the so called “petit candidates “started speaking specially Mr asselinaud. Mr poutou or Miss arthaud. Macron telling people that Tx to European Union we were not killing each other what a joke that guy is.
@Frantz Harband: “Macron is the worst that could happen to France …” Most people agree, yet the media always give him as favourite. Hmmm…
@Neil Mcdonough: Like Simon Coveney, he is backed by the bilderburgers
Ireland cannot be trusted to manage its own independent currency. Look at what Charlie Haughey did when Ireland did a devaluation. he passed insider information to his cronies so that they could enrich themselves.
It would be better, in light of the credit bubble from 2002 to 2007, had Ireland not joined the euro because it facilitated a massive credit expansion for non economically productive borrowing but exiting the euro would now be be very damaging.
Public goverance and economic management in Ireland are very lacking. The Punch and Judy of FG andf FF does not help. It is a Lanigan’s Ball.
@Neil Mcdonough: Like Simon Coveney, he has the same bilderburgh backing
Macron or Le Pen?
Pragmatists will prefer Macron.
Ideologues with far right sympathies, Brexit types, will prefer Le Pen.
At least there is a choice but with choice comes adult responsibility.
@Tony Daly: Listened to the entire debate and some of the commentry this morning. Le Pen has her support but did herself no favours trying to convince anyone else last night. Macron, the candidate of the media did no better. The surprising thing is the media constantly make him favourite yet no-one I know, both from the left and right, can stand him. He’s seen as being more liberal than Fillon, thatcherite even, but mostly an empty vessel who tries to please everyone.
Melenchon maybe but unlikely, and no-one should write off Fillon yet. If it wasn’t for his affairs with the law, he would stand head and shoulders above the rest in terms of stature and experience. Going to be an interesting few weeks!
@Neil Mcdonough: all the French people I know will happily vote Macron.
@David Fülöp: Interesting. That would have been true also a while back for some of my acquaintances, but not anymore. Sound more and more like Vallsozy everyday.
@David Fülöp: your friends are blind . that guy is a joke. He will the continuation of what’s happening for the last 15 years in France.
I never liked when we switched from the punt to the euro. I found I could get very little with the euro. With the old currency you could get a litre of milk for a pound/punt. With the euro, out can but a bag of chrisps with a euro and then, that’s it. It’s gone. There was no value in the euro. The euro only benefitted those who dealt with mainland Europe often like for holidays or work.
So I was never a fan of the euro. However we are stuck with it. I don’t like it when I read comments about ditching the euro and going back to the old currency. A new currency will be worthless for a long time and imports into the country would be very expensive and we rely a lot on imports.
Debates will mean very little. Le Pen hasn’t got a hope. Even if she gets through the first round, she’ll get utterly demolished in the 2nd round of voting.
Another one with lots of rhetoric and no plan just like the brexiteers. Easy to knock something down very difficult to put in a credible alternative. But no one looks at that.
When Ireland had the punt it was like living in Mexico, there was always the risk of devaluation and currency shocks.
@Robert Nugent:
Soros style devaluation?
have your say