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Russia begins ‘gas blackmail’ of Poland and Bulgaria ahead of UK call to boost Ukraine military aid
Move follows Warsaw’s imposition of sanctions on 50 entities and individuals including Russia’s biggest gas company
Russia-Ukraine war – latest updatesMoscow has told Poland and Bulgaria it will halt gas supplies from Wednesday, following their refusal to pay the Russian energy giant Gazprom in roubles, in an apparent warning shot to the rest of Europe.
Gas supplies to Poland through the Yamal pipeline briefly halted early on Wednesday before resuming, EU transmission data showed.
British foreign secretary Liz Truss is expected to call on allies of Ukraine to “double down” on military production, including planes and tanks, in a speech on Wednesday. Truss said the UK’s new approach “will be based on three areas: military strength, economic security and deeper global alliances”. A Russian victory would have “terrible consequences across the globe”, Truss is expected to say. “We must be prepared for the long haul and double down on our support for Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he believed Russia was trying to destabilise Moldova’s Transnistrian region after a series of explosions there, adding that Ukrainian armed forces were ready for a possible escalation by Russian troops in the temporarily occupied territory. “The goal is obvious – to destabilise the situation in the region, to threaten Moldova. They show that if Moldova supports Ukraine, there will be certain steps,” Zelenskiy said in his latest national address.
A series of blasts were heard in the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border amid reports an ammunition depot caught fire, local officials said. Regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said he woke “to a loud sound like an explosion” at about 3.35am in an update posted to Telegram. The explosions were said to have come from near the village of Staraya Nelidovka which lies about 40km away from the border.
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