L’Ukraine hoped on Monday to be able to resume its grain exports “as of this week”, for the first time since the start of the war, while Moscow announced a new drastic cut in gas deliveries to Europe.
The Russian gas giant Gazprom announced on Monday that it would drastically reduce from Wednesday, to 33 million cubic meters daily, deliveries of Russian gas to Europe via the Nord Stream gas pipeline, arguing the need for maintenance of a turbine.
The German economy ministry, however, said there is “no technical reason” to make further cuts in delivery. According to Berlin, this is a “pretext” and a “political” decision to influence Westerners in the context of the conflict in Ukraine.
At the same time, grain exports blocked in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24 should resume “starting this week”, declared the Ukrainian Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandre Kubrakov, in the wake of an agreement concluded on July 22 in Istanbul between kyiv and Moscow, under the aegis of the UN.
Find below our live on the 152nd day of conflict since the beginning of the Russian invasion in Ukraine