In a statement posted to Telegram, Russian energy company Gazprom said it was no longer sending gas because of the expiration of the agreement Wednesday.
Ukraine war
‘No Peace Without Me’: Trump Dismisses Istanbul Talks
Midway through his Middle East tour, Donald Trump dismissed ongoing Ukraine peace talks in Istanbul, claiming nothing will move forward without his direct talks with Putin. As Russian and Ukrainian delegations met without their leaders, Trump, speaking from Air Force One, declared himself the only path to peace. With Kyiv demanding a ceasefire and Moscow sidestepping conditions, the Istanbul talks are losing steam — and Trump’s message is clear: Only he can end the war.
Russia’s gas supply to Europe halted after Ukraine transit deal expires
Ukraine, which had allowed Russian oil and gas to cross its territory to serve Europe while fighting Moscow’s invasion since 2022, refused to renew the deal
MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — The flow of natural gas from Russia to Europe was suspended Wednesday after Ukraine said it would not renew a deal allowing Russian gas to transit its territory, ending an energy supply route that dates back some 60 years.
“Due to the repeated and explicit refusal of the Ukrainian side to extend these agreements, Gazprom was deprived of the technical and legal ability to supply gas for transit through the territory of Ukraine from January 1, 2025. Since 8:00 Moscow time, Russian gas has not been supplied for its transportation through the territory of Ukraine,” it said in the statement.
Despite the ongoing Russian invasion, which has killed tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians and laid waste to swaths of the country since 2022, Ukraine had continued to allow Russian oil and gas to cross its territory to serve its European neighbors — generating revenue for Kyiv and Moscow and illustrating how hard it is for the bitter enemies to cut ties.
Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko confirmed in a statement Wednesday that Russian gas had ceased flowing through Ukraine.
“This is a historic event. Russia is losing its markets; it will suffer financial losses. Europe has already made the decision to abandon Russian gas,” he said Wednesday on Telegram.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the gas stoppage “one of Moscow’s biggest defeats,” in a post to X on Wednesday.
European Union leaders insist they can cope without the gas transiting via Ukraine, saying that the bloc has worked steadily over the past three years to cut its dependence on Russian gas, slashing imports fourfold. According to the Brussels think tank Bruegel, 5 percent of Europe’s gas imports came through Ukraine, based on data from the first eight months of 2024.
In the run-up to Wednesday’s cutoff, European energy officials had been coordinating with the nations most dependent on Russian gas — mostly those in Central and Eastern Europe.
Italy G7 Summit: Biden signs 10-Year security deal with Zelensky amid G7 Summit
President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy today signed a 10-year bilateral security pact aimed at strengthening Ukraine’s ability to defend itself in the present while also deterring aggression in the future.
US urges Putin to ‘acknowledge reality’ after ‘war’ reference
The United States has called on Vladimir Putin to acknowledge reality and withdraw troops from Ukraine after the Russian president finally called the conflict a “war”.
Agence France-Presse reported that since Putin ordered the invasion in February, Russia has officially spoken of a “special military operation” and imposed a law that criminalises what authorities call misleading terminology.
But at a news conference on Thursday, Putin used the word “war” as he said that he hoped to end it as soon as possible.
A State Department spokesperson said on Friday:
Since February 24, the United States and rest of the world knew that Putin’s ‘special military operation’ was an unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine. Finally, after 300 days, Putin called the war what it is.
As a next step in acknowledging reality, we urge him to end this war by withdrawing his forces from Ukraine.
The State Department said that, whatever Putin’s terminology, “Russia’s aggression against its sovereign neighbour has resulted in death, destruction and displacement”.
The people of Ukraine no doubt find little consolation in Putin stating the obvious, nor do the tens of thousands of Russian families whose relatives have been killed fighting Putin’s war.
A Russian court earlier this month sentenced an opposition politician, Ilya Yashin, to eight-and-a-half years in prison under the new law over his “false information” about the war.
Yashin had spoken of a “massacre” in Bucha, the town near Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv where the bullet-ridden bodies of Ukrainians in civilian clothes with hands tied behind their backs were discovered after Russian forces retreated.
An opposition legislator critical of the invasion, Nikita Yuferev, on Friday said he was seeking legal action against Putin for spreading “fake news” over his “war” reference.
(source: theguardian.com)
Turkey President Erdoğan on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the future of NATO
World leaders have begun assembling in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. Among the leaders who sit at the crossroads of many issues of global importance is Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. From Ukraine, to Russia, to NATO, he wields outsized influence in both the east and west. Judy Woodruff sat down with Erdoğan in New York.
TANIKO Madagascar 