Ukraine’s natural gas pipeline operator on Wednesday cut off shipments from Russia through its hub in the country’s east, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the military had made little progress in the east and pushed out the Russian forces from four towns near Kharkiv.
Russian shipments through the Novopskov facility, in an area controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, would be cut off from Wednesday, according to the carrier. The Ukrainian company said the hub handles about a third of the Russian natural gas that passes through Ukraine to Western Europe, though Gazprom, the Russian state-owned energy giant, said it handled just a quarter.
It is the first time that the supply of natural gas has been affected by the war that began in February. The maneuver could force Russia to divert gas deliveries to territory controlled by Ukraine to reach its customers in Europe. Gazprom initially said it could not do so, although preliminary flow data suggested increased volume at a second station in kyiv-controlled territory.
The operator attributed the cut to interference by the “occupation forces”, including an alleged diversion of gas. He noted that Russia could reroute the affected shipments through the other major Ukrainian hub, Sudzha, in a Ukrainian-controlled part of the north of the country. A Gazprom spokesman, Sergei Kupriyanov, called the proposal “technologically impossible” and said the company saw no reason for the decision.
Zelesnkyy said on Tuesday the army was pushing back Russian forces in Kharkiv, while Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba suggested Ukraine could go further than pushing Russia out to areas it controlled before the invasion began last year. 11 weeks.
Kuleba told the Financial Times that Ukraine initially believed that a victory would be the withdrawal of Russian troops to the positions they held before the February 24 invasion. But after Russian forces failed to take kyiv at the start of the war, he noted, attention shifted to Donbas, the country’s eastern industrial heartland.
“Now, if we are strong enough on the military front and win the battle for Donbas, which will be crucial for the further dynamics of the war, of course for us the victory in this war will be the liberation of the rest of our territories,” Kuleba said.
Kuleba’s comments seemed to echo political ambitions rather than battlefield reality. Russian forces have advanced into Donbas and now control more than when the war began. But his words reflected how Ukraine has held off a larger and better-armed Russian army, a surprise to many who expected the conflict to end much more quickly.
Ukraine said on Tuesday that Russian forces had launched seven missiles at Odessa the previous day, hitting a shopping mall and a warehouse in the country’s largest port. One person was killed and five were injured, according to the army.
A Russian general has said that Russia’s goals also include cutting off Ukraine’s access to the Black and Azov seas. That would also give it a stretch of territory connecting Russia with the Crimean Peninsula, annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and Transnistria, a pro-Russian independence region in Moldova.
Ukraine’s attack on Russian forces on Snake Island is helping to curb Moscow’s attempts to expand its influence in the Black Sea, according to the British military.
In its daily intelligence report on the conflict, Britain’s Defense Ministry tweeted on Wednesday that Russia was trying to reinforce its exposed garrison there, while “Ukraine has successfully attacked Russian air defenses and resupply ships.” with Bayraktar drones.”
Russian resupply ships have minimal protection in the western Black Sea, following the Russian Navy’s withdrawal to Crimea after the loss of Moskva, it added.
This corresponds with satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press this weekend showing fighting in the area.
However, the British military warned that “if Russia consolidates its position on the (Snake) Island with strategic air defense and coastal defense cruise missiles, it could dominate the northwestern Black Sea.”
Even if it doesn’t achieve its goal of cutting off Ukraine’s access to the sea – and it doesn’t seem to have the forces to do so – the missile attacks Odessa continues to suffer reflect the city’s strategic importance.
Odessa is also a major departure point for grain shipments, and the Russian blockade on the city already threatens the global food supply. The city is a cultural gem cherished by Russians and Ukrainians alike and holds great symbolic significance.
To protect Odessa, kyiv may be forced to move more troops to the southwest and away from the eastern front, where they are trying to push the Russian contingent across the border.
Kharkiv and its surroundings have suffered constant Russian attacks since the beginning of the war. In recent weeks, macabre images from the area have captured the horrors of these battles, with charred and twisted bodies in a street.