Russian gas is flowing back to Europe via Nord Stream. Moscow reopened the gas tap this Thursday morning to Europe by restarting the gas pipeline linking Russia to Germany after a ten-day interruption for maintenance. Uncertainty remains about the quantities transported via this pipeline, which is essential to avoid an energy crisis this winter.
On the ground, Russia extended, on Wednesday July 20, its objectives to territories other than those of eastern Ukraine. For its part, kyiv is asking its allies for more weapons and new sanctions against Moscow, five months after the start of the Russian invasion.
- Russian gas: Nord Stream restarted after maintenance
The Nord Stream gas pipeline linking Russia to Germany restarted Thursday after ten days of maintenance, the eponymous company managing the equipment told AFP. “It works,” a spokesman for Nord Stream told AFP, without specifying how much gas was being delivered. The actual data will be known later today.
The German government feared that this pipeline would not be reopened by Moscow after the work started on July 11. According to data transmitted by Gazprom to Gascade, the German network operator, the pipeline should deliver 530 GWh during the day. It’s only “30%” of its capacity, noted on Twitter on Thursday, the president of the German Network Agency, Klaus Müller.
It would also be ten points less than before the works. Arguing that there is no turbine under maintenance in Canada, Gazprom has already reduced deliveries via Nord Stream to 40% of capacity since mid-June. The Russian gas giant Gazprom had assured that it could not guarantee the resumption of deliveries via this gas pipeline under maintenance until Thursday morning.
- Mercosur refused the request of the Ukrainian president to make a speech at its summit
South America’s Mercosur economic bloc, made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, has not allowed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to make a speech at his leaders’ summit. State which will take place this Thursday in Asuncion, announced the Paraguayan rotating presidency.
“There was no consensus. This was communicated to the Ukrainian ambassador to Argentina and Paraguay. It was the Minister of Foreign Affairs himself” who notified the diplomatic representative, said Wednesday Raul Cano, Deputy Foreign Minister of Paraguay, the host country of the summit. The Minister specified that all decisions of the economic bloc were taken unanimously. However, he did not give the name of the state or states that opposed the intervention of the Ukrainian president.
- Washington to send four additional Himars precision artillery systems to kyiv
The United States will provide four new Himars precision artillery systems to Ukraine to help fight the Russian invasion, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday. His Ukrainian counterpart had asked Washington the day before to send more of these multiple rocket launchers mounted on light armor, saying that kyiv had used them to destroy about 30 Russian command stations and arms depots so far.
The United States will deliver “four systems (…) additional Himars, bringing the total to 16. The Ukrainians have made excellent use of the Himars and you can see the impact on the ground”, said Lloyd Austin in front of the press at the Pentagon.
- Brussels wants to reduce EU gas consumption by 15% to get rid of Russia
Limit the heating of certain buildings, postpone the closure of nuclear power plants, encourage companies to reduce their needs… Brussels proposed a plan on Wednesday aimed at reducing European gas demand by 15% to overcome the drop in Russian deliveries.
In order to get through the winter without a major disaster, the European Commission has prepared an arsenal of measures allowing the Twenty-Seven to face a possible rupture in Russian supplies – which constituted some 40% of their gas imports last year. “Russia uses gas as a weapon. In the event of a total disruption, Europe will have to be ready,” said EU executive president Ursula von der Leyen.
- Paris will invest 85 million euros to replace the Caesar cannons donated to kyiv
France will invest 85 million euros to replace the 18 caesar cannons given to Ukraine, which cut nearly a quarter of the stock of the French army, said Wednesday the Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu. “An envelope of 85 million euros will allow us to do this replenishment, the idea being not to damage the training and training plans of our gunners”, he declared during a hearing before the Senate Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
“The money is there, it is rather taken in the management of the LPM (military programming law, editor’s note) without that shaking up an existing program. We do not cancel, we do not delay a committed program”, a- he specified. Before the start of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine on February 24, the French army had 76 Caesars, 155mm truck-mounted guns with a range of 40 kilometers.