Russia will no longer participate in the operations of the International Space Station after 2024. Ukraine President Zelenskyj calls for new sanctions against Russia. As announced, Gazprom has further reduced deliveries through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. All voices and developments on the Ukraine war here in the ticker.
Today Melnyk regrets his statements. He underestimated “the emotional importance that this extremely sensitive topic still has, especially for our Polish friends. That was a misstep. I didn’t want to hurt anyone.”
9.50 a.m .: The uncertain supply situation is driving the European natural gas price further. On Wednesday morning, the price for a megawatt hour of Dutch natural gas for delivery in August rose by around ten percent compared to the previous day to 224 euros. The price refers to the TTF futures contract, which is used as a benchmark for gas price levels in Europe.
Wednesday, July 27, 9:18 a.m .: As announced, the Russian gas giant Gazprom has been delivering less gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline since Wednesday. The head of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, said on Deutschlandfunk, “we are currently seeing the nominated throttling”. Gazprom is supplying 20 percent of the capacity. “We’ll see over the course of the day whether it stays that way,” Müller continued.
10:58 p.m .: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has again called on the West to react to the upcoming cutback in Russian gas supplies with sanctions against Moscow. “Because it is clear to everyone that this is deliberate price terror by Russia against Europe,” Zelenskyy said in his daily video speech on Tuesday evening.
With the help of Gazprom, Moscow is doing everything to make this winter the hardest in history for European countries, said Zelenskyy. With its announcement that deliveries via Nord Stream 1 would be further reduced, Moscow deliberately provoked the rise in gas prices to the equivalent of a good 2,000 euros for 1,000 cubic meters on the stock exchange. “It is necessary to respond to terror – to respond with sanctions,” said Zelenskyy.
In addition to the sanctions, Zelenskyy also wants to hit Russia with information. Almost 40,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the war, but the Russian leadership no longer publishes figures on its own casualties. It is therefore important to pass these figures on to society in Russia, according to Zelenskyj.
Most recently, official Russian authorities announced the number of casualties at the end of March. Accordingly, 1,351 Russian soldiers died in the attack on Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation”. Experts estimate the numbers to be significantly higher. The Ukrainian president hopes to arouse dissatisfaction with the war among the Russian population by publishing the figures.
2:53 p.m .: Germany has also delivered the promised Mars II multiple rocket launchers to Ukraine. In addition, three more self-propelled howitzers were handed over, as Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) explained on Tuesday. “We keep our word,” she said.
Her Ukrainian counterpart reported on Monday that the first three Gepard anti-aircraft tanks had arrived from Germany. Several tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition were also handed over.
Lambrecht spoke of five Gepard anti-aircraft gun tanks that had been delivered. Overall, Ukraine will receive 30 Gepard systems from the industry with around 60,000 rounds of ammunition, mainly from the Bundeswehr. The three multiple rocket launchers Mars II and then a total of ten self-propelled howitzers 2000 also came from Bundeswehr stocks.
1:50 p.m .: Russia will no longer participate in the operation of the International Space Station (ISS) after 2024. “Of course we will fulfill all our commitments to our partners,” new space agency chief Yuri Borisov said Tuesday during a televised meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “But the decision to leave the station after 2024 has been made.”
After the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, the West imposed a series of sanctions on Russia. However, the collaboration continued on the ISS. The previous Vice Prime Minister Borissov has been at the head of the Russian space agency since mid-July, succeeding the head of the agency Dmitry Rogozin.
The ISS is a joint project of the USA, Canada, Japan, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Russia. It is divided into a Russian and a US segment.
Tuesday, July 26, 6:17 a.m.: The military historian Sönke Neitzel has dampened Ukrainian hopes for a successful counter-offensive in the south of the country. In an interview with the “Welt” Neitzel said: “The Ukrainians can be quite successful locally. In my opinion, however, all the prerequisites for a large-scale counter-offensive are missing.”
Neitzel explains this as follows: “The quantitative and qualitative superiority does not exist. In addition, it is often forgotten that defending is comparatively easy. Attacking on a large scale is much more difficult and according to all the information I have, the Ukrainian armed forces not only lack the weapons such as modern tanks, more artillery and ammunition, more fighter planes, but also the tactical skills.”
Military expert Carlo Masala agrees with Die Welt: “What Ukraine can only be about are spot-on counter-offensives in the south. Pinpricks in an attempt to thin out the massive concentration of Russian troops in the Donbass, because then troops will have to be sent south to reinforce.”
Masala warns: “It won’t do much to send a million people to the front because you have to train them. In addition, Ukraine does not have enough equipment to conquer territory. It has gadgets to keep the Russians at bay, to wear them down, to destroy things far behind Russian lines.”
Ukraine had recently announced initial successes in the planned reconquest of the occupied Cherson region. “We can say that a turning point has been reached on the battlefield,” Serhiy Khlan of the pro-Kyiv Kherson military administration said in a TV interview on Sunday. “We see our forces advancing openly,” Chlan added.
The Ukrainian troops would switch from the defensive to the counteroffensive. Chlan said that Kherson would be “definitely liberated by September.” Accordingly, the Ukrainians are preparing a ground offensive.
10:00 p.m .: The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj sees a form of Moscow’s “terror” against the West in the further throttling of Russian gas supplies to Europe. “And this is an open gas war that Russia is unleashing against a united Europe,” said Zelenskyy in his evening video message on Monday. Russia is deliberately making it difficult for Europe to prepare for the winter. The country is showing once again that it is not interested in the fate of the people. The country is making people starve due to the blockade of Ukrainian grain exports and suffer from the cold, poverty and occupation.
“These are just different forms of terror,” said Zelenskyj, referring to the announcement by the Russian gas company Gazprom that it would cut supplies through the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 1 to 20 percent of capacity from Wednesday. Gazprom gave the reason that another gas turbine had to be repaired. For this reason, the current 40 percent output will be further reduced to 33 million cubic meters of gas per day, it said. Nord Stream 1 is Germany’s most important supply pipeline for gas from Russia.
This is another threat for Europe, said Selenskyj. That is why the West must strike back. Instead of thinking about returning the gas turbine that has already been repaired, sanctions against Russia should be further tightened, he said. “Do everything possible to reduce Russia’s revenues not only from gas and oil, but also from other exports that remain,” said Zelenskyy. He warned that any further trade relationship is a “potential means of pressure on Russia”. Russia has long had a reputation for using its gas as a “geopolitical weapon.”
5:27 p.m .: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismisses Deputy Secretary of the National Security Council Ruslan Demchenko. This emerges from a statement on the website of the Ukrainian President. Demchenko used to be considered Zelensky’s intimate.
As the medium “The Kyiv Independent” writes, Demchenko is said to have campaigned for the signing of the Kharkiv agreements of 2010. These are said to have favored the Russian annexation of Crimea a few years later. The agreement provided Ukraine with a discount on Russian gas. At the same time, the lease for stationing the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea was extended.
You can read more news on the following pages.
