◀ anchor ▶
Russia has stopped supplying natural gas to NATO allies Poland and Bulgaria.
Major European countries have criticized Russia for weaponizing energy.
By Park Young-il, staff reporter.
◀ Report ▶
Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom has stopped supplying natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria on the 27th local time.
The reason is that the two countries did not pay for gas in rubles as requested by Russia.
As the so-called ‘energy weaponization’ feared by the West began in earnest, European gas prices jumped more than 20% right away, and the euro’s value fell to its lowest level in five years.
The European Union has strongly criticized Russia’s gas supply cutoff, even though it is ready for Russia’s gas supply cutoff scenario and negotiations are ongoing among member states.
[우르줄라 폰데어라이엔/EU 집행위원장]
“Gazprom’s unilateral stoppage of gas supplies to EU member states is another Kremlin provocation.”
The Korean government has also decided to supply some of its natural gas to Europe at a level that does not affect domestic supply and demand and prices.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the level of the offensive, stating that he would quickly retaliate if a third country intervened in Ukraine.
[블라디미르 푸틴/러시아 대통령]
“If we intervene in Ukraine and create a strategic threat to Russia, we need to know that our retaliatory strike will be lightning fast.”
Russia appears to be declaring a head-to-head confrontation with the West, such as meeting Japanese and Norwegian diplomats, following the previous statement that it had directly struck and destroyed the weapons the West had supplied to Ukraine.
This is Park Young-il from MBC News.
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