The Nord Stream turbine can be transported at any time, Germany says
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has blamed Russia for delays in returning a Nord Stream 1 turbine that has been repaired in Canada and returned to Germany, but has not yet returned to operation on the pipeline to Russia.
“This [the turbine] it can be transported and used at any time,” Scholz said during a visit to the Siemens Energy factory in Mulheim an der Ruhr, Reuters reported.
“The breach of gas supply contracts has no technical reason,” Scholz said.
The German chancellor’s comments come after Russia’s state gas giant Gazprom again cut gas flows through the Nord Stream pipeline, which it operates, to around 20% of the pipeline’s capacity, citing the need to repair the equipment
This followed a previous 10-day shutdown of gas flows for annual maintenance, including the Siemens Energy turbine being sent to Canada for repair work.
The repair was carried out, with Canada returning the turbine in mid-July, but it has since been stuck in Germany, and was visited by Chancellor Scholz today, awaiting its return at the Russian Portovaya compressor station.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in front of a Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline turbine during a visit on August 3, 2022 to the Siemens Energy plant in Mulheim an der Ruhr, western Germany, where the turbine is located after maintenance work in Canada.
Sascha Schuermann Afp | Getty Images
Germany has accused Russia of stalling the process. Russia, for its part, has repeatedly said that easing sanctions would help solve problems with energy supply and the repair and transportation of pipeline parts.
Restrictions on Gazprom’s gas supply have drawn criticism and condemnation from Germany and the rest of the EU, which depends on Russia for around 45% of its gas imports. The bloc is trying to drastically reduce its consumption of Russian gas and has introduced gas rationing next winter, but in the meantime it remains dependent on the supply.
—Holly Elliott
Ceasefire could follow grain export deal, former German chancellor says
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin with former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in 2011.
Sasha Mordovets | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, has said that Russia wants a negotiated solution to the Ukraine war and that the resumption of Ukraine’s grain exports could serve as a basis for a ceasefire
“The good news is that the Kremlin wants a negotiated solution,” Schroeder told Stern Weekly and broadcasters RTL/ntv in comments translated by Reuters.
“A first success is the grain agreement, which can perhaps be slowly extended to a ceasefire,” he added.
Schroeder said solutions to issues like Crimea, and the question of whether a ceasefire would return territory annexed by Russia to Ukraine, could be found over time, “maybe not for 99 years, like Hong Kong, but in the coming years.” generation”.
Schroeder’s close friendship with Putin is well-documented, and his pro-Russian views have not gone down well in Germany of late.
Germany’s ruling Social Democratic Party has begun proceedings that could see Schroeder kicked out of the party over his close ties to Putin and Russian energy companies, as he chairs the Nord Stream shareholders’ committee. He resigned from the board of Russian state company Rosneft in May.
—Holly Elliott
First shipment of grain out of Ukraine in months arrives safely in Turkey
The first grain ship to leave Ukraine in months has arrived safely in Turkish waters, where it will be inspected before continuing its journey to Lebanon.
The shipment comes after Turkey and the United Nations brokered a deal between Russia and Ukraine to allow vital exports to resume from the country after a blockade that contributed to global shortages of wheat and cooking oil, from of which Ukraine is a major producer and exporter. .
The ship was carrying more than 26,000 tonnes of maize and is to undergo an inspection in Istanbul before continuing to Tripoli.
Aerial view of the Sierra Leone-flagged dry cargo ship Razoni, which left the port of Odesa on Monday and arrived at the Black Sea entrance of the Bosphorus Strait, in Istanbul, Turkey, on 3 August 2022.
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
The UN-led Joint Coordination Center called on all sides to inform their militaries of the ship’s movements in order to ensure its safe passage from Ukraine through the Black Sea, where much of the coast has been mined by Russia and Ukraine in the middle of the invasion, by Turkish waters in the Bosphorus.
The agreement, which was reached after much negotiation between the warring countries, has been hailed as a rare success for international diplomacy, with some officials hoping it could be used to broker a ceasefire.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday after the merchant ship, the Razoni, left the port of Odesa that it “was loaded with two scarce commodities: corn and hope.”
“Hope for millions of people around the world who depend on the smooth functioning of Ukraine’s ports to feed their families. The departure of the ship is the first concrete result of the Black Sea Grain Initiative. It has been a long journey since that I presented the proposal to the leaders of the Russian Federation and Ukraine at the end of April,” he said. The Razoni march was, he added, a “huge collective achievement”.
—Holly Elliott
“It’s just hell”: President Zelenskiy describes the situation in Donbas
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that the situation in Donbas, in eastern Ukraine, the epicenter of the war in Ukraine, is “just hell”.
Describing Russia’s “fire superiority” in his late-night video message, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces “still cannot completely break the Russian army’s advantage in artillery and manpower, and that it is very noticeable in the battles, especially in the Donbas – Pisky, Avdiyivka, other directions.”
“It’s just hell. You can’t even describe it in words,” he added.
Firefighters try to put out a fire after Russian bombing of a house in Bakhmut in Donetsk, Ukraine, on July 27, 2022.
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
With fighting raging in Donbas, Ukraine has ordered residents of one of its constituent regions, Donetsk, to evacuate as Kyiv discusses the need for more weapons with its international allies. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke with President Zelenskyy about more military aid to Ukraine, tweeting on Wednesday that “it is vital that NATO and its allies provide even more aid to Ukraine even faster “.
People board the evacuation train from the Donbas region in western Ukraine at the Pokrovsk railway station on August 2, 2022.
Bulent Kilic | Afp | Getty Images
He said the two also discussed the first grain shipment since Russia’s invasion in late February and the subsequent naval blockade of Ukrainian ports.
Zelenskyy also commented on the initial success of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, an agreement between Russia and Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations, to allow the resumption of Ukrainian exports of vital products by sea.
“Our aim now is to have regularity: so that when one ship leaves the port there are also others, both those carrying cargo and those approaching the port. Continuity and regularity is the necessary principle. All consumers of our agricultural products need it,” he said.
—Holly Elliott
Read the previous CNBC blog here:
Two Republican senators are proposing amendments ahead of the vote to add Finland and Sweden to NATO
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (C), Finnish Foreign Ministers Pekka Haavisto (L) and Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde (R) hold a press conference after of their meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels on 24 January 2022.
John Thys | AFP | Getty Images
Two Republican senators have proposed amendments to the vote to add Sweden and Finland to NATO.
Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, are seeking changes to the treaty vote as Congress prepares to go into recess.
Paul told NBC News that his amendment states that “nothing in Article Five of the NATO Treaty supersedes the directive from Congress that we must declare war.” The NATO provision holds that an attack on one member of the alliance is an attack on all members.
Sullivan told NBC News that his amendment states that all NATO members, which now include Sweden and Finland, would have to commit to spending 2 percent of GDP on the defense goal set at the Summit of NATO in Wales 2014.
The vote to include Sweden and Finland in NATO is expected to pass overwhelmingly.
— Amanda Macias
US imposes more sanctions on Russian officials and oligarchs
Red Square, Moscow
Mike Hewitt | Getty Images
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced new sanctions against Russian oligarchs and state-owned entities.
Below is the State Department fact sheet on the sanctions imposed on the following Russian oligarchs:
- Alexander Ponomarenko “for operating or having operated in the aerospace sector of the Russian economy. He is an oligarch with close ties to other oligarchs and the construction of Vladimir Putin’s maritime palace.” It has been sanctioned by the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
- Dmitry Pumpyanskiy “for operating or having operated in the financial services sector of the economy of the Russian Federation.” The United Kingdom, the European Union and New Zealand have also designated it. Pumpyanskiy has links to the yacht “Axioma”, which is now identified as blocked property.
- Andrey Melnichenko “for operating or having operated in the financial services sector of the economy of the Russian Federation.” Like Pumpyanskiy, he has also been designated by the United Kingdom, the European Union and New Zealand.
“We are also imposing additional costs on Russia’s war machine by designating 24 fields related to defense and technology…