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Sweden detects underwater blasts near Nord Stream gas leaks; Zelensky says focus of war is now Donetsk

Sweden detects underwater blasts near Nord Stream gas leaks; Zelensky says focus of war is now Donetsk
Bloomberg
By Bloomberg
27 Sep 2022
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the current focus of the war is Donetsk, describing the heavily industrial eastern region as the ‘primary target’ for both Ukraine and invading Russian forces. He also urged the international community to step up pressure on Russia with sanctions.

Swedish scientists detected two powerful underwater explosions near enormous leaks coming from the Nord Stream pipeline system that usually transports Russian gas to the region, and Germany suspects sabotage is behind the damage. Gas prices surged further after Gazprom warned Russia may sanction Ukraine’s Naftogaz.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia was “extremely concerned” about the reports of leaks, which prompted a surge in gas prices even though the flows have been halted for months. 

Key developments 



On the ground


Russian forces hit Kryvyi Rih airport in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region with a missile, rendering it inoperable, local authorities said late on Monday. Russian rockets also struck the city of Zaporizhzhia. Ukraine’s General Staff reported that the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant remains tense, with staff reluctant to work with Russians and trying to flee occupied territories. 

In the south, Russia attacked the Odesa region with drones, all three of which were shot down by air-defence forces, while the city of Mykolaiv was heavily shelled overnight, local authorities said. Ukrainian forces continued to make advances north of Lyman and on the eastern bank of the Oskil River, according to the latest report by the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War. 

Gazprom warns of sanctions risk to Ukraine gas flows 


Gazprom warned there’s a risk Moscow will sanction Ukraine’s Naftogaz, which would prevent it from being able to pay transit fees, and therefore put at risk gas flows to Europe via Ukraine.

Gas prices surged immediately in late European trading.

Ukraine demands EU add new Russia sanctions 


Ukraine seeks a clear signal on a new sanctions package in reaction to sham referendums being held on its territory by Russia, Zelensky said during a meeting with French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna. 

“We expect clear sanctions — both in the eighth package and separate signals of what will happen if Russia recognises sham referendums,” Zelensky added. 

Russia Senate may vote to annex Ukraine lands next week - Tass  


The upper house of Russia’s Parliament isn’t currently planning a special session to vote to annex occupied territories in Ukraine and may discuss the issue at its next regular session on October 4, Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said, according to Tass.

The Kremlin has pushed through “referendums” on annexation in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions and local occupation officials are already reporting initial results showing 90%-plus voting in favour. The United Nations has condemned the “referendums” as illegal, as have Kyiv and its allies in the US and Europe.

Sweden detects underwater blasts near Nord Stream leaks  


Two powerful underwater explosions were detected on Monday in the same area of sea as the Nord Stream gas leaks, according to the Swedish National Seismic Network.

The monitoring network said the first explosion occurred on Monday at 2.03am Swedish time with a magnitude of 1.9 on the Richter scale, followed by a second at 7.04pm on the same day with a magnitude of 2.3.

“It’s clear that there has been some kind of explosions, and the coordinates match the leaks,” Peter Schmidt, a seismologist who works with the group, said by phone.  

The leaks on the Nord Stream pipelines are forming an area of natural gas bubbles about 1km in diameter in the Baltic Sea, a video released by the Danish army showed.

Another smaller area with gas bubbles measured about 200m in diameter, according to the footage, which the Danish Defence Ministry shared on its website and via its Twitter account.  

UN recorded nearly 6,000 civilian deaths in Ukraine 


United Nations specialists recorded 5,996 civilians being killed in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion, including 382 children, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said in a new report.

The mission reported 8,848 corroborated civilian injuries, noting that actual figures may be much higher as hostilities severely hinder information gathering and verification.

Most of the civilian casualties were due to the use of explosive weapons in populated areas. The UN also recorded wilful killings and numerous cases of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment, as well as conflict-related sexual violence, mostly in the territories controlled by Russian armed forces or affiliated groups.





 

 



 

Meta blocks propaganda accounts from Russia 


Meta Platforms has blocked thousands of “inauthentic” accounts, pages and groups from Facebook and Instagram that originated in Russia and spread propaganda about that country’s invasion of Ukraine.

The group behind the accounts created 60 websites “carefully impersonating legitimate news organisations in Europe”, Meta said.

Russian billionaire fights UK sanctions probe 


Russian billionaire Petr Aven, fighting a UK investigation for evading sanctions, used companies supposed to manage his luxury mansion as a personal “piggy bank”, according to British authorities.

The investigation has focused on around €3.7-million routed to the UK from an Austrian trust in the hours before European sanctions were imposed.

Read more: Billionaire without a bank account fights UK sanctions probe

Denmark says pipeline sabotage can’t be ruled out 


Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, echoed Peskov in saying that sabotage cannot be ruled out as the cause of damage to Nord Stream infrastructure off the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea.

“It’s hard to imagine that these are coincidences,” the prime minister said in an interview with broadcaster TV2 from Poland, where she was attending the opening ceremony of Baltic Pipe, a separate gas link between Norway and Poland.

Ukraine slams Lufthansa over stake in Russian airline caterer  


Ukraine’s foreign minister accused airline Deutsche Lufthansa of taking “blood money” and damaging Germany’s reputation over its minority stake in Russian airline caterer Aeromar. 

“I urge the company’s management to immediately withdraw from Aeromar and stop supporting Russia’s war crimes,” Dmytro Kuleba said in an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF. 

Responding to ZDF’s inquiry about the Aeromar stake, Lufthansa said it’s not in breach of European Union sanctions on Russia and as a minority shareholder had no influence over a decision to establish a facility in Russian-annexed Crimea, the broadcaster said.

Nord Stream says pipeline damage unprecedented  


Nord Stream said the damage to its key pipeline to Germany is “unprecedented” and it’s impossible to say when flows could resume.

Germany is probing the incidents in the Baltic Sea on the two idled Nord Stream gas pipelines from Russia, while Denmark steps up security on its energy installations. It’s the clearest signal yet that supplies won’t resume this winter. European Union officials have repeatedly accused Moscow of weaponising energy. 





 

 



 

Latvia ‘taking Russian nuclear threats seriously’  


Russia wouldn’t be making threats about deploying nuclear weapons if it was winning its war in Ukraine, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said in an interview with TV3.

“A cornered rat is a dangerous rat” and Latvia was preparing for all scenarios, Rinkevics said. Latvia is supplying Ukraine with all the military equipment it has available and a swift end to the conflict isn’t in sight, he added.

Lithuania arms donations constrained by Nato needs 


Lithuania cannot immediately hand over some critical military equipment that Ukraine needs such as Nasams air-defence systems or howitzers without compromising operations with its Nato partners, according to an adviser to the Baltic nation’s president.

Lithuania is looking to find replacements for the equipment but this is unlikely to happen quickly, Kestutis Budrys, the president’s chief national security adviser, told radio broadcaster LRT. Lithuania has already supplied Ukraine with 50 armoured personnel carriers, according to Defence Minister Arvydas Anusauskas.

Russian traffic on Finnish border eases further  


Traffic on Finland’s eastern border remained busy on Monday, even as numbers of Russians crossing fell from a weekend peak, the Nordic country’s Border Guard said. Some 7,743 Russians entered via the land border, with about half that number returning to Russia. 

Europe ready for winter without Russian gas - BNEF  


Europe’s frenzied buying of liquefied natural gas (LNG) means it’s likely to have enough of the power-generation fuel this winter to offset supplies from Russia, according to BloombergNEF. 

The region may import almost 40% more LNG during the coming winter than the prior year, and it may increase purchases next summer by about 14% to rebuild lost inventories, BNEF said in a report. Along with demand destruction from higher energy prices, those shipments are enough to cover a complete halt in Russian pipeline flows from October 1, it added.

Russia expels Japanese diplomat on spying charges  


Russia expelled a Japanese consul in Vladivostok, accusing the diplomat of paying for sensitive information.

Tatsunori Motoki was given 48 hours to leave the country, the Foreign Ministry said, according to Tass. Earlier, the Federal Security Service said the envoy in the Far Eastern city had been caught collecting “restricted information” about Russia’s ties with an unspecified country in the region, as well as on the impact of sanctions on the local economy. DM

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