Is Russia provoking a gas war in Europe?
People will “die like with Covid” because of heating costs and cold in winter
Russia plays not only grain, but also gas as a “geopolitical weapon,” says Zelensky. Fears are growing that many Europeans will no longer be able to heat their homes in winter. A Russian analyst predicts a “mass death like Covid” in Western Europe because of the cold.
The Russian gas company Gazprom will throttle deliveries through the Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 1 to 20 percent of capacity from Wednesday. The alleged reason for the renewed shortage: another turbine had to be repaired.
The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (44), on the other hand, sees a form of Moscow’s “terror” once morest the West in the further throttling of Russian gas supplies to Europe. “This is an open gas war that Russia is unleashing once morest a united Europe,” Zelensky said in his evening video message on Monday.
The first analysts in Russia are already warning that a severe cold winter is imminent in Europe. “People will die like with Covid,” says Alexander Nosovich from the Baltic news portal “RuBaltik”. Because they can no longer afford to keep their homes warm. Russia is intentionally making it difficult for Europe to prepare for the winter, says Zelensky. Moscow doesn’t just starve people by blocking Ukrainian grain exports. According to Selenski, there is a risk that populations will suffer “from poverty and cold” in winter.
heat or eat
Russia uses its gas as a “geopolitical weapon,” says Zelensky. The analyst Nosovich agrees in an interview with the Russian propaganda portal «Ukraina.ru» at. At best, Europeans would have to shut down entire industries in winter, says Nosovich, a political scientist and editor-in-chief of “RuBaltik”. This will particularly affect the industrial power Germany. More likely, however, there will be a “population loss,” according to the analyst.
Nosovich predicts loss of life to Europe due to cold weather. Because Europeans will not be able to heat residential buildings during the heating season. The new phenomenon is called “energy poverty”, like that “NZZ Magazine” already reported in February, before the war broke out in Ukraine. «Heat or eat». heat or eat. Many people in Western Europe are already unable to afford constant heating and food in winter. This is exacerbated by the impending gas war. In the coming winter, the failure of heating might “become a problem across Europe,” says analyst Nosovich. And lead to the same mass mortality as from Covid.
People would simply no longer be able to afford to keep their homes warm. Mortality is increasing. People would suffer from lung diseases, malnutrition and weakness because of the high heating costs – and even die from simple colds, according to Nosovich. He refers to reports from Great Britain, where an excessive number of pensioners have died in recent winters, “because they cannot afford heating in apartments that is acceptable from a health point of view. In this heating season,” Nosovich predicts, “this might become a problem across Europe and lead to the same mass mortality caused by Covid in 2020.” (kes)
