Putin and Erdogan meet again. Gazprom apparently burns gas at the starting point of Nord Stream 1 in a targeted manner. According to a news channel, dead bodies are said to continue to lie on the streets of Mariupol. All voices and developments on the Ukraine war in the ticker.
Friday, August 5, 8:05 a.m.: As the “Nexta” news channel reports on Twitter, the dead bodies of civilians are said to still lie on the streets of Mariupol. The city was fiercely fought over. The news channel relies on an advisor to the mayor for its statements.
Fighting in the southern Ukrainian city claimed the lives of thousands of people. Russia recently announced plans to rebuild the city, which its army had previously destroyed in large parts. According to this, the first residential buildings and hospitals are said to be in place in September.
8:08 p.m .: The Russian company Gazprom apparently burns parts of the gas that should actually go to Germany at the compressor station of Nord Stream 1 near Saint Petersburg. This is reported by the Finnish news site “Yle” and shared corresponding photos on Twitter. The “world” also reports.
The compressor station should be visible on these, with a large flame blazing above it. This is so high that it can be seen across the national border. The station near St. Petersburg is the starting point of Nord Stream 1.
In fact, data from the NASA space agency’s “Fire Information for Resource Management Systems” also shows that larger fires have been blazing steadily across the site since June 16. There had been no flames there prior to the curtailment deadline. The starting point of Nord Stream 1 is located on the site near Saint Petersburg. Here the Russian natural gas is compressed and pressed into the pipeline, which then leads to Lubmin in Germany.
Gazprom claims the gas throttling is due to technical reasons. The federal government considers this to be a pretense. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) visited a turbine that was serviced in Canada and brought back to Germany on Wednesday. Russia has not yet requested them again.
7:24 p.m .: Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan want to meet this Friday in the Russian seaside resort of Sochi. The conversation should start around 2:00 p.m. CEST, it was said on Thursday from the Turkish presidential palace.
According to the Kremlin, possible sales of combat drones from NATO member Turkey are also on the agenda. Turkish sources did not confirm this for the time being. The Ministry of Communications said it would deal with current global and regional issues. In addition to the war in Ukraine, Turkish plans for a new offensive in northern Syria are also likely to be discussed. Moscow recently advised against this.
Shortly after the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, Erdogan said he would not rule out arms deals with Russia. For example, Russia is interested in the Turkish combat drone Bayraktar TB2, which has been successfully used by the Ukrainian military. Putin has suggested working with Turkey on Baykar’s drones, Erdogan said, according to broadcaster CNN Türk.
5:08 p.m .: The US basketball player Brittney Griner has been found guilty by a court of drug smuggling. She was sentenced to nine years in prison. This was reported by the Tass agency on Thursday from the court in Chimki near Moscow.
The US is trying to get Griner free as part of a prisoner swap. This could now succeed with the judgment that has now been passed.
US President Biden has sharply criticized the conviction and called for her release. “Russia is wrongly holding Brittney,” Biden said in a written statement Thursday. “This is unacceptable and I call on Russia to release her immediately so that she can be with her wife, family, friends and teammates.” Biden said the US government is continuing to work tirelessly to get Griner home safely as soon as possible.
9:59 a.m .: Doubts about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are apparently growing in the United States. This is reported by the “New York Times”, citing government circles. US officials are “significantly more concerned about Ukraine’s leadership than they officially admit,” the newspaper said in an article. There is “deep mistrust” between the White House and Selenskyj.
In particular, the recent dismissals in Zelenskyj’s environment – the attorney general and his intelligence chief – are causing concern in the United States. The “New York Times” reports that there is still no convincing explanation for this harsh step. Columnist Thomas L. Friedman writes: “It seems to me that now that we’ve invested so much, we’d rather not look so closely under the hood in Kyiv for fear of discovering corruption or escapades there.
8:55 a.m .: The Ukrainian leadership considers statements by former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to be implausible, according to which Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin is ready for peace negotiations. “There is nothing more cynical than the claims by Putin supporters that Russia is ready to negotiate,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on his Twitter channel on Wednesday. The daily shelling of Ukrainian territory said otherwise.
The Ukrainian chief diplomat referred to heavy artillery fire and rocket attacks against civilian objects. In addition, he once again accused the Russian military of serious war crimes. “Russia remains focused on the war – everything else is a cloud of smoke,” added Kuleba.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Russia was quite ready for a diplomatic settlement of the “problem” – but only on Russian terms.
7.38 a.m .: Germany has to reduce its absolute gas consumption more than any other EU country in order to achieve the European Union’s savings target of 15 percent. According to a calculation by the German Press Agency based on data from the EU Commission, the Federal Republic of Germany must use a good 10 billion cubic meters less gas from the beginning of August to March next year in order to achieve the target set by the EU countries.
The amount of gas that can be saved in Germany is roughly equivalent to the average annual consumption of five million four-person households. Because 10 billion cubic meters of gas correspond to around 100 billion kilowatt hours, and a typical four-person household in Germany consumes around 20,000 kilowatt hours a year.
This means that Europe’s largest economy has to save more in absolute terms than others because of its comparatively high gas consumption. Next is Italy, with a required saving of just over 8 billion cubic meters by March next year. France and the Netherlands both need to use around five billion cubic meters less. Overall, the EU has to save around 45 billion cubic meters of gas – so Germany would be responsible for almost a quarter of the savings.
5:35 a.m .: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj attacked ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder without specifically naming him. Zelenskyy said in his nightly speech: “It’s just disgusting when former leaders of powerful states with European values work for Russia – that is, fight against their own values.” The statement almost certainly refers to Schröder’s recent visit to Vladimir Putin in Moscow . Schröder is said to have spoken to the despot about peace negotiations. Ukraine does not believe that Putin is seriously interested in such negotiations.
3:02 a.m .: Despite the ongoing Russian war of aggression, Ukraine has increased its harvest forecast for this year by around ten percent. 65 to 67 million tons of grain and oilseeds are now expected instead of the initial 60 million tons, said Minister of Agriculture Mykola Solskyj according to a government statement on Wednesday. According to Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal, twelve million tons of the new harvest have already been harvested.
Thursday, August 4, 1:13 a.m.: Zelenskyj placed the Ukraine war in a series of international conflicts and criticized the global security architecture as inadequate overall. There are currently headlines about conflicts in the Balkans, around Taiwan and the Caucasus, which are one factor: “The global security architecture did not work,” said the Ukrainian president in his daily video address on Wednesday.
Once again Zelenskyy accused Russia of violating international law with its war of aggression. The problem is that the world has long let Russia get away with these violations – be it the annexation of Crimea or the downing of the Boeing over the Donbass. The war in Ukraine shows how fragile freedom is. It can only be protected by collective action, and for this to work in the long term, an effective global security architecture is required to ensure that no state can ever again use terror against another state.
8:44 p.m .: According to the Russian gas company Gazprom, a delivery of the turbine for the Nord Stream 1 pipeline that is available in Germany to Russia is “impossible” because of the sanctions imposed on Moscow. In a statement released on Wednesday, the company also cited “ambiguities in the current situation regarding Siemens’ contractual obligations.” Both together make “the delivery impossible”.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had previously accused Russia of blocking the delivery of the important turbine in order to continue to throttle the amount of gas delivered. Germany is desperately looking for alternative energy sources to fill the gap left by reduced gas supplies from Moscow.
With the lack of the Siemens turbine, which had been serviced in Canada, the Russian energy company Gazprom had justified the reduction of gas deliveries to only 20 percent of the possible extent.
Schröder was “like all thinking and understanding people and specialists in Europe very, very concerned about (…) the energy crisis that has flared up in Europe,” said Peskow. The 78-year-old asked Putin to explain the situation from a Russian perspective. The Kremlin boss denied any guilt.
Schröder also wanted to know whether it would be possible to put the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline into operation, the Kremlin said. Putin replied that this was technologically possible, but that a maximum of 27.5 billion cubic meters of gas could still be pumped through the Baltic Sea pipes to Europe by the end of the year. In view of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the German government has ruled out using Nord Stream 2. Schröder is chairman of the board of directors for the pipeline.
When asked by journalists whether Schröder was being discussed as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine in the war that has been going on for more than five months, Peskov said: “Schröder has not expressed any desire to become a mediator.” Russia is quite ready to become one diplomatic settlement of the “problem” – but only on Russian terms.
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