EU ‘expects Russia to respect energy contracts’ following Nord Stream 1 shutdownThe European commissioner for the economy, Paolo Gentiloni, said the EU expects Russia to respect energy contracts it has agreed but is prepared to meet the challenge if it fails to do so.
Asked about the halt to the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, Gentiloni pointed to high gas storage levels and said there were plans to conserve energy in the winter.
He said:
We expect Russia to respect the contracts that they have. But even if weaponisation of energy continues or increases, the EU is ready to react.
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Ukraine’s first lady: As Britons counts pennies, we count casualtiesUkraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, has said that while the economic impact of the war in Ukraine is tough on its allies, Britons “count pennies” while Ukrainians “count casualties”.
In an interview with the BBC, Zelenska said if support for Ukraine was strong the crisis would be shorter.
The wife of Volodymyr Zelenskiy was asked what message she had for people in the UK who are facing soaring energy bills in part due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Zelenska said:
I understand the situation is very tough. But let me recall that at the time of the Covid-19 epidemic, and it’s still with us, when there were price hikes, Ukraine was affected as well.
The prices are going up in Ukraine as well. But in addition our people get killed.
So when you start counting pennies on your bank account or in your pocket, we do the same and count our casualties.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his wife Olena pictured in Kyiv in November 2019. Photograph: Efrem Lukatsky/APDuring the interview, which will be broadcast tomorrow, she said it was difficult for people outside Ukraine to understand the impact of the war on its people.
It was, therefore, important to keep highlighting the human toll of the war, she said.
She added:
That’s why we have to tell these stories, to show these stories, because these are the faces of a war. Not a number of bombs dropped, not the amount of money spent, human stories – and there are a thousand stories like that around.
Child killed in Russian shelling of Mykolaiv, says officialAn eight-year-old child has died after Russian shelling in the southern Ukrainian region of Mykolaiv this morning, according to the head of the regional council, Hanna Zamazeyeva.
Two other children were among those injured in Russian shelling in the city of Mykolaiv and Bereznehuvate, she said in an update on Telegram.
Zamazeyeva said:
Today’s morning was especially difficult. Shelling continues. Unfortunately, there are victims. There are two wounded in the city of Mykolaiv, four in Bereznehuvate. Among those injured are two children. Unfortunately, an 8-year-old child [was killed].
She added:
In addition to artillery shelling, air strikes on populated areas in the Pervomaiske, Shyroke and Bereznehuvate communities were recorded. Residential buildings and outbuildings were damaged. Fires broke out as a result of shelling.
It has not been possible to independently verify this information.
The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, said he has spoken with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, following a long-awaited visit by UN nuclear inspectors to the Zaporizhzhia plant in Ukraine.
Michel paid tribute to the UN nuclear agency’s “courage and professionalism”, describing the 14-strong team’s mission to the Russian-occupied nuclear plant as “impressive”.
The EU “fully supports” the IAEA’s work and efforts, he added.
Their courage and professionalism in accomplishing the first mission to #ZNPP is impressive.
Russia has put the world in danger.
Ensuring nuclear safety and security is key: continued @iaeaorg presence at the plant is necessary.
— Charles Michel (@CharlesMichel) September 3, 2022 the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has accused the west of playing a “chess game with death” in its support for Ukraine.
In a post on Vkontake, Russia’s largest social network, Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, accused western countries of trying to take advantage of the conflict to push Russia to “a new round of disintegration”.
“To do everything so that the state institutions of Russia stop working,” he said. “To deprive the country of effective governance, as it was back in 1991. And, as a result, eliminate Russia from the political field.”
He added that the “such attempts are really extremely dangerous” because they “ignore a simple axiom: the violent disintegration of a nuclear power is always a chess game with death”.
He also described Russia’s nuclear arsenal as “the best guarantee of the preservation of Great Russia”.
At least one woman has been injured in a strike on the southern city of Mykolaiv, the city’s mayor has said.
Posting on Telegram, Oleksandr Senkevych said explosions were heard in the city at around 11:30am local time and that a garage had been struck.
He said rescuers were working to extinguish a fire at the site and that the shockwave had also blown out the windows and doors of a nearby private residential building.
One woman received shrapnel injuries, he said.
Ukrainian State Emergency Service firefighters work after a rocket attack in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine. Photograph: Kostiantyn Liberov/APUkrainian bomb disposal experts search for remnants of a Russian S-300 missile that hit near one of the schools in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesErdoğan tells Putin he can ‘facilitate’ in Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant standoffTurkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has told his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, that his country can play a facilitator role regarding the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine, according to his office.
The pair spoke in a phone call where they discussed developments regarding Ukrainian grain exports, the Turkish presidency said in a statement.
They also expressed their determination to continue the construction of the Akkuyu nuclear plant in Turkey according to plans.
They agreed to discuss the issues in detail when they meet in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, for a summit later this month, the office added.
Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has travelled to Moscow to pay his respects at the funeral of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
There were no plans for Orbán to meet with Vladimir Putin during his trip to Moscow, Russian media reported, citing Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
Peskov told Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti:
As far as we know, he will only fly in to say goodbye to Gorbachev. There were no desires for meetings.
At the funeral of Mikhail Gorbachev, for whom a “Common European Home” was so important, the only European leader among the mourners is Hungary’s conservative nationalist Viktor Orban. pic.twitter.com/x7QL654Gkk
— Felix Light (@felix_light) September 3, 2022 Vladimir Putin is waging economic and psychological war by closing a major gas pipeline to Europe, a former energy industry boss has said.
The decision by the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom to extend the shutdown of gas flows through its Nord Stream 1 pipeline has left Britain “panicking”, according to Angela Knight, former chief executive of trade association Energy UK.
Speaking to Times Radio today, Knight said the UK and Europe had become energy dependent on countries that were “not all that friendly”.
She said:
He’s (Putin) actually playing the economic war extremely well. He’s playing the psychological war extremely well.
We have been panicking as a country – Europe has been panicking as well – and it’s not surprising and I’m not critical of it.
Britain’s energy policy has been “wrong for a long, long time”, she added. “It’s a really nasty shock that we’ve had.”
EU ‘expects Russia to respect energy contracts’ following Nord Stream 1 shutdownThe European commissioner for the economy, Paolo Gentiloni, said the EU expects Russia to respect energy contracts it has agreed but is prepared to meet the challenge if it fails to do so.
Asked about the halt to the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, Gentiloni pointed to high gas storage levels and said there were plans to conserve energy in the winter.
He said:
We expect Russia to respect the contracts that they have. But even if weaponisation of energy continues or increases, the EU is ready to react.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a key Ukrainian presidential adviser, has said Kyiv will determine the end of the war when it has finished “liberating its territories” and demanding Russia pay reparations.
Podolyak wrote on Twitter:
[Russian Federation] officials repeat weird mantra: “Special military operation will be completed on time”, “The West delays its completion”. It looks like they did not understand anything.
Ukraine will determine the ending war term by liberating its territories. As well as reparations payments amount.
RF officials repeat weird mantra: “Special military operation will be completed on time”, “The West delays its completion”. It looks like they did not understand anything. 🇺🇦 will determine the ending war term by liberating its territories. As well as reparations payments amount.
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) September 3, 2022 Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, earlier this week extended his “special military operation” and reportedly ordered his troops to capture the Donetsk region by 15 September, rather than the original 31 August deadline.