Kremlin seeks more than €1bn in damages from Shell; EU energy ministers discuss Russian LNG imports

EU energy ministers met in Luxembourg on Tuesday to discuss the bloc’s rising Russian LNG imports, Ukraine’s energy shortages ahead of winter and how to balance energy prices across member states, officials said.

The US was “concerned” by reports of North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia in Ukraine, said a White House spokesperson on Tuesday.

Russia seeks more than €1bn in damages from Shell

The Russian prosecutor-general was seeking to collect more than €1-billion in damages from international energy major Shell, the RIA news agency reported on Tuesday, citing the Moscow Arbitration Court.

Russia’s prosecutor-general earlier this month filed a lawsuit against eight units of Shell, which quit Russia following the start of Moscow’s military conflict with Ukraine in February 2022, according to the court’s website.

It cited Shell plc, Shell Energy Europe Limited, Shell Global Solutions International B.V., Shell International Exploration & Production B.V., Shell Neftegaz Development, Shell Exploration & Production Services B.V., Shell Sakhalin Services B.V. and Shell Sakhalin Holdings В.V. among the defendants.

Shell had a stake in a liquefied natural gas-producing plant on the Pacific island of Sakhalin led by Kremlin-controlled Gazprom.

Moscow has consolidated its control over the plant in response to sanctions imposed by the West following Shell’s departure from Russia.

A hearing on the case was scheduled for 11 December, the court said. Shell has not immediately responded to a request for comment.

EU energy ministers discuss Ukraine energy crisis, Russian LNG

European Union (EU) energy ministers met in Luxembourg on Tuesday to discuss the bloc’s rising Russian LNG imports, Ukraine’s energy shortages ahead of winter and how to balance energy prices across member states, said officials.

The EU agreed on a 14th package of sanctions in June including a ban on transhipments of Russian gas as of March next year but stopped short of an outright ban. Since then, Belgium and the Netherlands have seen a sharp increase in imports.

In a letter on Monday, France and nine other countries asked the European Commission to propose stricter reporting obligations on Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) for storage companies and suppliers.

“Belgium will file and we will support an initiative to ban and track LNG imports from Russia more structurally,” Kai Mykkanen, Finland’s climate and environment minister, told reporters ahead of the meeting.

Soon after Moscow began its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the EU announced an effort towards phasing out Russian fossil fuels “as soon as possible” without setting a date.

“We have seen in Belgium a doubling of LNG volumes. These are probably destined for security of supply within Europe but we have difficulty implementing this [14th] package, that’s why we are calling for a tracking system,” said Tinne van der Straeten, Belgium’s energy minister.

After the major Nord Stream pipeline was blown up in 2022, Russian LNG imports to the EU increased, while piped gas still flows via Ukraine and Turkey to central Europe.

“Some countries have internal issues clouding their judgment preventing a fast switch but it’s been 2½ years so it’s time to find an alternative,” said Krzysztof Bolesta, Poland’s state energy minister.

The contract between Ukraine and Russia for gas flows via Ukraine is due to end in December.

The International Energy Agency said Ukraine’s winter electricity shortfall could reach six gigawatts, exacerbated by the end of the Russian pipeline deal.

US ‘concerned’ by reports of North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia

The US was “concerned” by reports of North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia in Ukraine, said a White House spokesperson on Tuesday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this week accused North Korea of transferring personnel to Russia’s armed forces, saying his intelligence agencies had briefed him on “the actual involvement of North Korea in the war” in Ukraine.

The Kremlin has dismissed the allegation as “fake news”.

White House National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said the involvement of North Korean troops in Ukraine, if true, would mark a significant increase in the North Korea-Russia defence relationship.

“Such a move would also indicate a new level of desperation for Russia as it continues to suffer significant casualties on the battlefield in its brutal war against Ukraine,” said Savett.

Washington says North Korea has supplied Russia with ballistic missiles and ammunition. Moscow and Pyongyang have denied arms transfers but have vowed to boost military ties, possibly including joint drills.

Four-fifths of Ukrainians support ban of Russia-linked church

Four-fifths of Ukrainians said they supported a new law banning Russia-affiliated religious groups in a survey released on Tuesday, as Kyiv seeks to root out a branch of the Orthodox Church accused of cooperating with Moscow, which is waging war on Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which counted 6% of the respondents as followers, has for years faced accusations that it is a tool of Moscow’s influence in Ukraine and that some of its clergy cooperate with Russian intelligence.

The church denies these allegations and maintains that it officially broke off all ties to the Russian Orthodox Church, previously its parent church, in May 2022 — three months after Russia invaded Ukraine.

In August, Ukraine passed a law that bans the Russian Orthodox Church on Ukrainian territory and says that a government commission will assemble a list of “affiliated” organisations whose activities are not allowed.

Legislators said the process of banning the UOC would be long and complicated as each UOC parish is an individual legal entity and will have nine months to decide whether it wants to leave the church.

Most Ukrainians are part of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, a separate church founded in 2019 to be independent of Moscow and recognised by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, widely regarded as the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christianity.

Russia’s invasion has already driven hundreds of UOC parishes to switch to the OCU, sometimes causing tensions in rural communities with one church.

The poll, conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, found broad support for the law across all regions of Ukraine that remain under Kyiv’s control. Even in the more Russophone east, more than 70% of respondents supported the ban.

Overall, 16% of Ukrainians said they opposed the ban, while another 4% were unsure, with 80% in favour.

Throughout the war, Kyiv has highlighted the national security risks it says the church poses.

Dozens of UOC clergy have been arrested and tried on charges including treason and cooperating with Russia. The UOC says it is the victim of a witch-hunt.

Ukraine has traded a number of UOC clergy for Ukrainian prisoners of war held by Russia during the war. One unidentified clergyman accused of working for Russia was swapped for 28 Ukrainian soldiers.

Legislators in Estonia and the Czech Republic have also raised concerns this year about Moscow’s influence through the Russian Orthodox Church in their countries.

Kremlin says defence agreement with North Korea is ‘unambiguous’

Russia said on Tuesday that a treaty it signed with North Korea earlier this year provided for “strategic cooperation” in all areas, but declined to be drawn on how a mutual defence clause in the agreement could be put into practice.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the treaty with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un when he visited Pyongyang in June, and said it included a mutual assistance clause under which each side agreed to help the other repel external aggression.

Asked if this meant that Russia could be drawn into backing Pyongyang in a conflict on the Korean peninsula or that North Korea could side with Russia in a conflict with the West, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the treaty wording was “quite unambiguous” and needed no clarification.

The pact “implies truly strategic deep cooperation in all areas, including security”, Peskov told reporters.

Ukraine denies involvement in drone supplies to Mali’s rebels

Ukraine denied late on Monday media reports that it has been involved in supplying drones to rebels fighting in the north of Mali.

The French Le Monde newspaper reported that the Tuareg fighters in the West African country use Ukrainian drones with “discreet but decisive” support from Kyiv against the Mali army and Russia’s Wagner mercenary group that said it fights alongside it.

“Ukraine strongly rejects the accusations that have recently been released by the international media outlets about the alleged involvement of our state in the supply of UAVs to the rebels in Mali,” Ukraine’s foreign ministry said in a statement, referring to unmanned aerial vehicles.

Mali, where military authorities seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021, is battling a yearslong Islamist insurgency, with heavy fighting against Tuareg rebels ongoing near Mali’s border with Algeria.

In August, Mali cut diplomatic ties with Ukraine over Kyiv’s comments that the rebels got all “necessary” information to conduct attacks that reportedly killed scores of Malian soldiers and Wagner fighters in the north.

Russia, which in recent years has intensified efforts to gain influence in Africa, including Mali, has accused Ukraine of opening a “second front” against Russia by supporting fighters in Moscow-friendly African states. DM