Europe risked gas supply disruptions yesterday after Russia rejected an 11th-hour compromise deal with Ukraine and cut its supplies in a feud that has further fractured East-West relations.
Ukraine hosted the last-gasp talks hoping to keep an energy shortage from compounding the problems of the new pro-Western leaders as they confront a two-month separatist insurgency threatening Ukraine’s very survival.
However, Russian state gas giant Gazprom said it had switched Ukraine to a pre-payment system — a move that effectively halts all shipments because Kiev has not forwarded any money for future gas deliveries to Moscow.
“We have been informed that gas deliveries to Ukraine have been reduced to zero, with only the volumes sent for transit to European states,” Ukrainian Minister of Energy Yuriy Prodan told a government meeting.
Gazprom said it had notified Europe of possible gas disruption and lodged a US$4.5 billion lawsuit against Ukraine with an arbitration court in Stockholm, Sweden.
Ukraine said it would now try to secure greater gas deliveries from its western European neighbors to make up for the lost supplies.
Kiev also lodged a US$6 billion suit against Gazprom with the same Stockholm court to recover its past “overpayment” for gas.
The third “gas war” between Russia and Ukraine since 2006 flared when Moscow nearly doubled its rates in the wake of a deadly winter uprising that pulled Kiev out of the Kremlin’s historic orbit for the first time.
Ukraine receives half its gas from Russia and transports 15 percent of the fuel consumed in Europe, which prompted EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger to try to resolve the feud.
The nation of 46 million people had tapped into some Russian shipments destined for Europe to make up for its shortfalls during previous disputes.
Prodan yesterday said that Ukraine would both “guaranteed the gas needs of Ukrainian consumers and ensure reliable gas transits to European countries.”
Oettinger said problems for Europe would probably only begin once Ukraine uses up the gas it had kept in reserve, which analysts believe should last for at least three months.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique