Gazprom stops delivering gas to Poland and Bulgaria

Europe 1 with AFP 06:49, April 27, 2022

The Russian group Gazprom will suspend from Wednesday its deliveries of gas to Bulgaria and Poland, announced Tuesday evening these two countries which say they have prepared for it.

"On April 26, 2022, Gazprom informed (the Polish gas company) PGNiG of its intention to completely suspend deliveries under the Yamal contract (...) on April 27, the Polish company said in a statement. "Today Today (Tuesday), Bulgargas EAD received notification that deliveries from Gazprom Export will be suspended from April 27, 2022", said the Bulgarian Ministry of Economy, while this Balkan country is dependent on more than 90 % of Russian gas.

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Two countries prepared for the suspension of gas deliveries

These two members of NATO and the European Union (EU), however, say they are prepared to obtain the missing gas from other sources.

“There will be no shortage of gas in Polish homes,” Polish Climate Minister Anna Moskwa wrote on Twitter.

“Since the first day of the war, we have declared that we are ready for complete independence from Russian raw materials,” she added.

“Actions to find alternative arrangements for the supply of natural gas and to deal with the situation” have been undertaken, underlined for its part the Bulgarian government in a press release, ensuring that “at the present time” no measure is planned. restriction of consumption.

Supply suspended if gas is not paid for in rubles

After the introduction of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin warned EU countries that their gas supply would be cut off if they did not pay in rubles from Russian accounts.

Moscow clarified, however, that the price of gas remained denominated in the currency of the current contracts, most often in euros or dollars, and that customers would have to carry out a simple exchange transaction in Russia.

"The Bulgarian side has fully fulfilled its obligations and made all payments required under the contract in due time," the government reacted.

And to denounce "the new two-step payment procedure proposed by the Russian side".

"It does not comply with the existing contract until the end of this year and presents significant risks for the Bulgarian side, in particular that of making payments without receiving any gas delivery from the Russian side," he said. -he adds.

Russia will cut gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday as explosions in the pro-Russian separatist Moldovan region of Transdniestria raise fears of an extension of the war beyond Ukraine's borders.

On Tuesday evening, the Polish and Bulgarian authorities announced that they had been warned by the Russian gas group Gazprom of its intention to interrupt its gas deliveries to these two countries the next day, despite the contracts binding them. 

These two members of NATO and the European Union (EU), however, say they are prepared to obtain the missing gas from other sources.

This announcement comes as many chancelleries are worried about the risk of the current conflict spreading outside Ukraine, after a series of explosions, attributed by kyiv to Moscow, in the separatist Moldovan region of Transdniestria.

"This is an attempt to increase tensions. We strongly condemn such actions. The Moldovan authorities will take care to prevent the republic from being drawn into a conflict," said Moldovan President Maïa Sandu.

She announced measures to strengthen the security of this small Eastern European country neighboring Ukraine. 

"Russia wants to destabilize the Transdniestrian region, which suggests that Moldova should expect to receive + guests +", declared on Twitter the adviser to the Ukrainian presidency Mikhaïlo Podoliak, referring to the Russian soldiers who invaded the Ukraine since February 24.

"If Ukraine falls, tomorrow Russian troops will be at the gates of Chisinau", the Moldavian capital, continued Mr. Podoliak.

"We remain concerned about any potential attempt to escalate tensions," US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Tuesday.

- "Move heaven and earth" - 

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian reiterated on Tuesday his support for Moldova, a neighbor of Ukraine, in the face of "the risks of destabilization".

For their part, the United States declared itself ready to "move heaven and earth" to make Ukraine win against Russia. 

"Ukraine clearly believes it can win and so does everyone here," US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said at the start of a meeting with some 40 countries on the American air base in Ramstein (Germany), organized in order to accelerate the deliveries of military equipment that Ukraine requires to repel the Russian invasion.

For her part, the head of British diplomacy Liz Truss must call on Wednesday, during a speech in London, to "redouble support" for Ukraine and to prepare for a "long-term" war after the Russian invasion.

"Heavy weapons, tanks, planes - dig into our stocks, ramp up production, we have to do all of that."

The Ukrainians surprised the world in March by repelling a Russian offensive on kyiv, but face relentless shelling and a slow advance by the Russian army in Donbass (east), which pro-Russian separatists have already partly controlled since 2014 , and in the south. 

Speaking on Facebook, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said: "I can say something: the Ukrainian army will have something to fight for (...) We have entered a new phase, to which no one would have thought two months ago. The transfer to the Ukrainian armed forces of NATO weapons, to NATO standards. It is in progress". 

After initially reluctant to supply offensive weapons to Ukraine, the United States, like Britain, France and the Czech Republic, have taken the plunge.

Even Germany, particularly reluctant, announced on Tuesday that it was going to authorize the delivery of "Guepard" type tanks.

- Slow down arms deliveries -

The Netherlands will supply Panzerhaubitze 2000 type armored howitzers to kyiv, the Dutch government has confirmed. 

According to Mike Jacobson, a civilian artillery specialist, the West wants to allow the Ukrainians to respond to the long-range Russian bombardments, which aim to push back the bulk of the Ukrainian forces and then send tanks and soldiers to occupy the ground. 

While waiting for the delivery of these weapons, on the Donbass front, the situation is complicated and "in terms of morale, it's not rosy at all", told AFP Iryna Rybakova, press officer of the Ukrainian 93rd Brigade. 

According to an adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Minister, Russian forces are bombing bridges and railways to slow down Western arms deliveries. 

The Russian army said on Tuesday it carried out high-precision missile strikes against 32 Ukrainian military targets, including 20 areas of troop and equipment concentrations, and four ammunition depots near the towns of Sloviansk and Druzhkovka in the region of Donetsk.

In the regions of Donbass as in the south, "the enemy is carrying out strikes on the positions of our troops along the entire length of the front line with mortars, artillery and multiple rocket launchers", explained on Tuesday the Ukrainian ministry of defense. 

In the south, two Russian missiles notably hit the city of Zaporijjia on Tuesday morning, killing at least one person and injuring one, according to the regional administration.

Zaporizhia, a major industrial center on the Dnieper, has in recent weeks been the reception point for Ukrainian civilians fleeing besieged Mariupol and other bombed towns in Donbass.

But the city is now preparing for an attack by the Russians from the coast, according to kyiv.

For his part, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called on Ukraine and Russia to work in coordination with the UN to allow the opening of humanitarian corridors in Ukraine.

The United Nations announced on Twitter on Wednesday that following the meeting in Moscow between Guterres and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Russian side accepted "in principle" the United Nations' participation in the evacuation of civilians. from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

Mr. Putin also told him that he still believed in a positive outcome of the negotiations with Ukraine.

The UN Secretary General must then go to kyiv to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky in particular.

The latter accused Tuesday Russia of having placed the world "on the brink of disaster" by its occupation, at the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine, of the Chernobyl power plant.

Rafael Gossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who visited Chernobyl on Tuesday for the 36th anniversary of the 1986 nuclear disaster, however stressed that the level of radioactivity was "in the normal range". , after increasing at times while the Russians occupied it, between late February and late March.