The Ukrainian prime minister was heading to Moscow yesterday to sign a deal aimed at restoring gas supplies to Europe.
The Cabinet’s press office said Yulia Tymoshenko and her Russian counterpart, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, were to oversee the signing of an official agreement yesterday.
Russia cut off gas shipments to Europe via Ukraine on Jan. 7 as a dispute over gas prices sharply escalated between Kiev and Moscow.
The confrontation deeply shook Europeans’ trust in both Russia and Ukraine as reliable energy suppliers and forced over 15 countries to scramble to find alternative sources of energy.
Tymoshenko and Putin reached a preliminary deal over the weekend for Ukraine to get gas with a 20 percent discount from average European prices this year.
Meanwhile, the EU remained skeptical about an imminent end to its worst-ever gas crisis.
Millions of Europeans have been left shivering without heat in winter after gas supplies were turned off due to a bitter dispute between the two former Soviet neighbors.
The details of an accord reached by Putin and Tymoshenko on Sunday were to be worked out by the two countries’ state gas companies, Gazprom and Naftogaz.
In a joint appearance on Sunday to announce their agreement after marathon late-night talks, Putin said gas flows to Europe would resume “shortly” while Tymoshenko said the two companies had until yesterday to draw up the agreements.
The EU cautiously welcomed Sunday’s agreement, but said the real test was whether gas would start flowing again.
“We welcome the announcement of a political accord, but we are quite cautious because there have been too many broken accords and promises not kept,” a spokesman for the Czech presidency of the EU said in a statement.
In televised comments, Czech Industry Minister Martin Riman said he was only “slightly optimistic” about the deal.
“If the deliveries don’t resume despite such strong declarations by the Russian and Ukrainian prime ministers, there will be a total crash in the confidence of EU consumers, citizens and the enterprise,” he said.
Russian newspapers yesterday also expressed doubts.
Referring to Tymoshenko’s political arch-rival in Kiev, the Kommersant daily wrote: “The risk of an escalation of the conflict cannot be ruled out until the new scheme is approved by Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko.”
Yushchenko has so far been quiet on the agreement, with his office saying it needed more details before evaluating the deal.
The Vedomosti business daily said that further gas disputes could still erupt: “This conflict has a long-term dimension and it has a tendency to repeat.”
The crisis broke out Jan. 1 when Russia cut off gas supplies to Ukraine in a dispute over unpaid debts and the price Kiev would pay for gas this year.
Crucial details of the Putin-Tymoshenko agreement, such as whether Ukraine’s debts had been settled, remained murky yesterday.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese