Step denounced by European leaders as \u2018blackmail\u2019
\n MOSCOW
\nRussia halted gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland on Wednesday for rejecting its demand to pay in roubles, taking direct aim at European economies in its toughest retaliation so far against international sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
\nThe step was denounced by European leaders as \u201cblackmail\u201d, and comes as European countries have joined the United States in ramping up arms shipments to help Ukraine fend off a new Russian assault in the east.
\nUkraine reported on Wednesday that Russian troops had made gains in several villages there. Russia reported a number of blasts on its side of the border, including a blaze at an arms depot, which Kyiv called \u201ckarma\u201d.
\nMoscow says the gas cut-off is to enforce its demand for payment in roubles, needed to shield its economy from sanctions. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia was a reliable energy supplier and denied it was engaging in blackmail. Gazprom (GAZP.MM), the Russian gas export monopoly, said in a statement it had \u201ccompletely suspended gas supplies to Bulgargaz and PGNiG (PGN.WA) due to absence of payments in roubles,\u201d referring to the Polish and Bulgarian gas companies.
\n\u201cBasic legal principles have been broken, violated,\u201d Polish President Andrzej Duda said. \u201cAppropriate legal steps will be taken and there will be appropriate compensation from Gazprom for violations of the provisions of the contract.\u201d
\nBulgarian Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov said: \u201cIt is clear that at the moment the natural gas is being used more as a political and economic weapon in the current war.\u201d
\nRussian President Vladimir Putin demanded last month that buyers from \u201cunfriendly\u201d countries pay for gas in roubles or be cut off. The European Union says this violates contracts that called for payment in euros.
\n\u201cThe announcement by Gazprom that it is unilaterally stopping delivery of gas to customers in Europe is yet another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail,\u201d European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.
\n\u201cThis is unjustified and unacceptable.\u201d
\nPoland and Bulgaria are both former Soviet-era satellites of Moscow that have since joined the EU and NATO. Poland has been one of the Kremlin\u2019s most vocal opponents over the war. Bulgaria has long had warmer relations with Russia, but Prime Minister Kirill Petkov, an anti-corruption campaigner who took office last year, strongly denounced the invasion of Ukraine.
\nPetkov was due to travel on Wednesday to Kyiv, the latest European leader to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
\nPoland receives its Russian gas through the Yamal-Europe pipeline from Russia\u2019s huge gas fields in the Arctic far north, which continues west to supply Germany and other European countries. Bulgaria is supplied through pipes over Turkey.
\nSupplies from Gazprom (GAZP.MM) cover about 50% of Poland\u2019s consumption and about 90% of Bulgaria\u2019s. Poland said it did not need to draw on reserves and its gas storage was 76% full. Bulgaria has said it is in talks to try to import liquefied natural gas through Turkey and Greece.
\nOther European countries, including Germany, the biggest buyer of Russian gas, did not report cuts. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, declined to say how many countries had agreed to pay in roubles.
\nRussia\u2019s energy exports had until now continued largely unhindered since the war began, by far the biggest loophole in sanctions that have otherwise cut off Moscow from much of its trade with the West.
\nKyiv has long called on Europe to stop funding Moscow\u2019s war effort by cutting off imports that bring Russia hundreds of millions of dollars a day.
\nGermany said this week it is hoping to stop importing Russian oil within days. But weaning Europe off cheap and abundant Russian natural gas, which heats its homes, fuels its factories and generates its electricity, would be a far more disruptive prospect.
\nAndriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Russia was \u201cbeginning the gas blackmail of Europe\u201d.
\nSince the Russian invasion force was driven back at the outskirts of Kyiv last month, Moscow has refocused its operation on eastern Ukraine, starting a new offensive from several directions to fully capture two provinces known as the Donbas.
\nUkraine\u2019s general staff acknowledged Russia had made gains in the east, capturing the town of Zavody and some outskirts of the town of Velyka Komyshuvakha on one front, and the Zarichne and Novoshtokivske settlements in Donetsk region.
\nBlasts were heard early on Wednesday in three Russian provinces bordering Ukraine, authorities said, and an ammunition depot in the Belgorod province caught fire. The regional governor said the blaze near Staraya Nelidovka village had been put out. read more
\nRussia this month accused Ukraine of attacking a fuel depot in Belgorod with helicopters and opening fire on several villages in the province. A fire also broke out this week at a fuel depot in nearby Bryansk.
\nKyiv has not confirmed responsibility for such incidents but described them as payback. \u201cKarma is a cruel thing,\u201d Ukrainian presidential advisor Mikhaylo Podolyak wrote on social media.
\nAn aide to the mayor of the ruined port city of Mariupol said Russian forces had renewed their attacks on the Azovstal steel plant, where fighters and some civilians are holed up. No agreements had been reached on trying to evacuate civilians from Mariupol on Wednesday.
\nConcern has increased in recent days over the prospect of the conflict widening to neighbouring Moldova, where pro-Russian separatists have blamed Ukraine for reported attacks this week in a region occupied since the 1990s by Russian troops. Kyiv denies this.
\nThe separatists reported firing across the border from Ukraine near an arms depot on Wednesday. Moldova\u2019s pro-Western government has blamed forces inside the separatist region for attacks aimed at provoking conflict.
\nThe invasion of Ukraine has left thousands dead or injured, reduced towns and cities to rubble, and forced more than 5 million people to flee abroad.
\nMoscow it a \u201cspecial operation\u201d to disarm Ukraine and defeat fascists. Ukraine and the West say the fascist allegation is baseless and that the war is an unprovoked act of aggression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Step denounced by European leaders as \u2018blackmail\u2019 MOSCOW Russia halted gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland on Wednesday for rejecting its demand to pay in roubles, taking direct aim at European economies in its toughest retaliation so far against international sanctions over the war in Ukraine. The step was denounced by European leaders as \u201cblackmail\u201d, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257832,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[795,305,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-257804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-bulgaria","9":"tag-poland","10":"tag-russia"},"yoast_head":"\n