Moscow:
Russia will stop supplying gas to Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday, the two NATO and EU members said, escalating the deeper divide between the West and Moscow over Ukraine as tensions also mounted in neighboring Moldova.
Kiev accused Moscow of blackmailing Europe and involving Moldova in the conflict after authorities in the Moscow-backed region of Transnistria said they were the target of a series of attacks.
The Kremlin’s staunch opponent, Poland, is among the European countries seeking the toughest possible sanctions against Russia for invading its neighbor.
Poland’s state-owned company PGNiG said supplies from energy giant Gazprom via Ukraine and Belarus will be cut at 0800 CET (0600 GMT) on Wednesday, but Warsaw said it didn’t need to tighten reserves and its gas storage was 76% full.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on “unfriendly” countries to pay for gas imports in rubles, a move only carried out by a few buyers so far.
“The ultimate goal of the Russian leadership is not just to conquer the territory of Ukraine, but to tear apart the entire center and eastern Europe and deal a blow to democracy worldwide,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday. leave.
His chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said Russia “started the gas blackmail of Europe”.
“Russia is trying to destroy the unity of our allies,” Yermak said.
Bulgaria, which is almost entirely dependent on Russian gas imports, said it had fulfilled all of its contractual obligations with Gazprom and that the proposed new payment schedule was inconsistent with the settlement.
It has made initial talks to import liquefied natural gas through neighboring Turkey and Greece.
Gazprom said it had not yet suspended supplies to Poland, but that Warsaw would have to pay for gas in accordance with its new “payment order”. It declined to comment on Bulgaria.
The invasion of Ukraine, launched on February 24, has left thousands dead or injured, reduced towns and cities to rubble and forced more than 5 million people to flee abroad.
Moscow calls its actions a “special operation” to disarm and protect Ukraine from fascists.
Ukraine and the West say this is a false pretext for an unprovoked war to conquer territory in a move that has sparked fears of greater conflict in Europe, unprecedented since World War II.
The Russian ambassador to the United States has warned Washington to stop sending weapons to Ukraine, saying major Western arms shipments were exacerbating the situation.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned late Monday that “NATO is essentially at war with Russia through a proxy and arms that proxy. War means war,” saying the risks of nuclear conflict should not be underestimated.
US Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said there is no reason to escalate the conflict in Ukraine into nuclear war. “A nuclear war cannot be won and it should not be fought,” he said.
CONFLICT DISTRIBUTION?
In Transnistria, an unrecognized patch of land bordering southwestern Ukraine, authorities said explosions damaged two radio masts broadcasting in Russian and attacked one of its military units.
It gave few details, but blamed Ukraine, while Moldova’s pro-Western President Maia Sandu blamed the “escalation attempts” on “pro-war” factions in Transnistria.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the accounts. The Kremlin, which has troops and peacekeepers in the region, said it was deeply concerned.
Moldova, an ex-Soviet republic with close cultural ties to NATO member Romania, raised the alarm last week after a top Russian general said Moscow wants to clear its way through Ukraine into Transnistria.
Meanwhile, fighting continued in eastern and southern Ukraine.
The Russian defense ministry said its troops had “liberated the entire Kherson region of southern Ukraine and parts of the Zaporizhzhya, Mykolaiv and Kharkov regions,” Interfax news agency reported.
If confirmed, that would represent significant Russian progress.
One of Putin’s closest allies, Nikolai Patrushev, said Ukraine was spiraling downward in “several states” over what he termed as a US attempt to use Kiev to undermine Russia.
More than 40 countries gathered in Germany to discuss the defense of Ukraine.
Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters flying into Tuesday’s meeting that the next few weeks in Ukraine would be “very, very critical.”
On possible humanitarian aid, Putin has “in principle” agreed to the involvement of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to evacuate civilians from a besieged steel mill in Mariupol, according to the United Nations.
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