According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the throttling of Russian gas supplies to Europe should result in new Western sanctions against Moscow. "Because it is clear to everyone that this is deliberate price terror by Russia against Europe," Zelenskyy said in his daily video address. But not only in the energy sector, but also in space, Russia breaks with former partners. Moscow wants to end cooperation in space for the maintenance of the International Space Station (ISS) by 2024 at the latest. Fighting continues in Ukraine. In the east of the country, the troops loyal to Russia say they get hold of an important power plant. Wednesday is the 154th day of the war.
Gas is becoming less and less - tit-for-tat for sanctions
The Russian energy company Gazprom is reducing deliveries through the most important supply line for Germany to 20 percent this Wednesday. The reason given by the state-owned company is that an important turbine has not yet been repaired and another one now has to be serviced. Politicians in Europe speak of a pretext. With the help of Gazprom, Moscow is doing everything to make this winter the hardest in history for European countries, Zelensky said.
With its announcement that it would further reduce deliveries via Nord Stream 1, Moscow deliberately provoked the rise in gas prices on the stock exchange, said the Ukrainian President. "It is necessary to respond to terror - to respond with sanctions."
Russians report capture of important power plant
Meanwhile, the energy supply for Ukraine itself in the coming winter will become increasingly problematic. In the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, Russian troops say they have taken control of Ukraine's largest coal-fired power plant near Svitlodarsk. On Tuesday, Donetsk separatist media reported the capture. Pictures should prove the presence of Russian mercenaries of the so-called Wagner group in front of the administration building. According to other reports, however, the fighting around the power plant site, which had been going on since the end of May, continued. The information cannot be verified independently.
The Ukrainian General Staff no longer mentioned the power plant in its evening situation report. Instead, the military leadership only reported fighting around Semyhirya, which was a little further to the west. In the morning report there was talk of air raids on Ukrainian positions on the power plant site. Months ago, Russian troops captured the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. This is the most powerful nuclear power plant in Europe.
Russia is getting off the ISS
Russia plans to exit the International Space Station after 2024. The new head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, said on Tuesday at a meeting with Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin. "Of course we will fulfill all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to exit this station after 2024 has been made," said Borissov, whom Putin had previously appointed to succeed Dmitry Rogozin. "NASA has not been made aware of decisions by any of the partners," said NASA chief Bill Nelson. NASA is still committed to operating the ISS until 2030 and is therefore coordinating its work with its partners.
After the war of aggression against Ukraine ordered by Putin, Western countries also imposed sanctions on the Russian space industry, which is why Roskosmos is complaining about massive technical problems. Because of the political tensions, Borisov's predecessor Rogozin had already questioned cooperation with the West and talked about decoupling the Russian module from the ISS. He did not even rule out military use of the station for observing the earth.
Russia fines Google
In the fight for the information monopoly, Moscow is meanwhile continuing to take action against Western technology groups. On Tuesday, the Russian cartel office fined Google two billion rubles (35 million euros) for allegedly exploiting the monopoly position of its subsidiary YouTube. "This leads to sudden blocking and the deletion of user accounts without warning or justification," the authority justified its decision. It's not the first punishment for the company. Since the beginning of the attack on Ukraine, the Russian leadership has also been fighting against information it dislikes on social networks of large Western corporations such as Google and Meta. Moscow accuses them of anti-Russian propaganda.
That will be important on Wednesday
You can read all further developments in our live ticker on the Ukraine war.
