KYIV | Russia threatened Finland with a ‘military-technical’ response on Thursday after its leaders announced their desire to join NATO ‘without delay’, as tension mounted over Russian gas supplies to the EU. Europe, disrupted for the second consecutive day.
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The President and Prime Minister of Finland, Sauli Niinistö and Sanna Marin, said they were in favor of joining NATO “without delay” on Thursday, a prelude to a formal candidacy on Sunday from this Nordic country, which shares 1,300 km of border with Russia and was for a long time forced into a kind of enforced neutrality by Moscow.
If membership materializes, Russia will be “obligated to take reciprocal military-technical and other measures to end threats to its national security”, the Russian Foreign Ministry replied in a statement, calling on Helsinki to “be aware of their responsibilities”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had previously estimated that Moscow’s response would depend on “the advance of military infrastructure towards our borders”.
On the Western side, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have assured Finland of their support.
If she applied, “she would be warmly welcomed into NATO and the membership process would go smoothly and quickly,” Stoltenberg said.
Worried about Moscow’s reaction to these probable membership requests, Stockholm and Helsinki signed declarations of mutual protection with the United Kingdom on Wednesday.
Energy tensions
Tension was also mounting around energy issues.
Germany, one of the main European customers of Russian gas, saw its deliveries routed via Ukraine drop by some 40% in two days, according to operators. The Russian gas giant Gazprom confirmed on Wednesday that volumes delivered to Europe via Ukraine would fall by nearly 30% on Thursday, after an 18% drop the day before.
Moscow and Kyiv reject responsibility for this. Kyiv has said since Tuesday that it can no longer guarantee deliveries via the Sokhranivka facilities in the Luhansk region, due to the presence of the Russian armed forces, and has asked Gazprom to increase volumes via another transit point, Sudja. .
But Moscow ensures that the transit can be done perfectly via Sokhranivka, while redirecting the flow towards Soudja is impossible.
While the declines were offset on the German side by gas from Norway and the Netherlands, Gazprom seemed ready to further reduce its European deliveries on Thursday by announcing that it would no longer use a key gas pipeline passing through Poland, the Yamal-EuroPol.
German Energy Minister Robert Habeck accused Russia of using energy “as a weapon”. In addition to the gas disruptions, he denounced the Russian counter-sanctions announced Thursday against Western energy companies, which primarily hit Gazprom Germania, the former German subsidiary of Gazprom that the German state has taken under its control for its strategic importance.
“Cut Off Energetic Oxygen”
In this context, Russian President Vladimir Putin assured Thursday that the economic sanctions imposed by the West in Moscow affected Europe more than Russia.
The Western “obsession” with sanctions “will inevitably lead to the most difficult consequences for the European Union, for its citizens,” he told a meeting on the economic situation.
The question of sanctions and gas disturbances should be on the menu of the visit of Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba to Germany, where he was to participate on Friday and Saturday in a meeting with his G7 counterparts (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom and United States).
“Europe must cut off energy oxygen” to Russia and “get rid of its dependence on Russian gas,” Mr Kouleba said on Thursday.
The 27 EU countries have been trying to reduce their dependence on Russian hydrocarbons since the start of the conflict, but have so far failed to agree on a gradual embargo on Russian oil.
Earlier Thursday, Mr. Kouleba had again pleaded for his country’s accession to the EU.
“We very often hear that Ukraine belongs to the European family, now it is important to reserve (it) this place” in the EU, he declared on German television.
Kyiv applied for EU membership on February 28, but some of the 27 member countries are skeptical, including on granting candidate status to Ukraine, a matter on which a decision is expected in June .
New Russian strikes
In parallel with the G7, the foreign ministers of NATO member countries will also meet on Friday and Saturday to discuss their military support for Ukraine and perhaps also for Moldova.
US intelligence chief Avril Haines said on Tuesday that Vladimir Putin did not intend to limit his desire to occupy Donbass and southern Ukraine, and that he wanted to go as far as Transdniestria, a separatist region. Pro-Russian of Moldova.
On the ground, the fighting continues, and no one has spoken of peace talks for several weeks.
Russian airstrikes left at least three dead and 12 injured overnight from Wednesday to Thursday near Cherniguiv, in northeastern Ukraine, where “critical infrastructure, including schools” were hit, according to reports. local officials.
The Russian army is also continuing its offensive in the Donbass, where it is gaining ground. In particular, they are trying to take “total control” of the localities of Roubijné and Severodonetsk, according to the Ukrainian presidency.
Residents of Donbass who refused to evacuate are often favorable to Moscow. “They give the Russians our coordinates, that’s for sure,” a soldier who uses the nom de guerre “Zastava” told AFP, met on the front line in Novomykolaivka.
“Endless list” of Russian abuses
In Geneva, Ukraine and its allies on Thursday denounced “the endless list” of abuses committed by Russia since the February 24 invasion, during a boycotted special session of the UN Human Rights Council. by Moscow.
At the end of the meeting, the 47 Member States of this Council were to vote on a text requesting that the UN’s international commission on Ukraine “investigate” into alleged Russian abuses, “with a view to holding accounts to those responsible”.
Investigations by the International Criminal Court and the Ukrainian authorities are already underway.
According to the Ukrainian prosecutor general, a 21-year-old first Russian soldier is to be tried soon for having killed an unarmed 62-year-old Ukrainian civilian on his bicycle.
The soldier, Vadim Chichimarin, was traveling with four other Russian soldiers after their convoy was attacked on February 28, according to the prosecutor’s statement. They would have stolen a car in the Sumy region (east) and Chichimarin would have shot the civilian “so that he does not denounce them”, according to the press release, which does not specify the date of the trial.
The United Nations Security Council is also due to meet on Ukraine on Thursday from 2:00 p.m. GMT, at the request of France and Mexico.