What is happening in Ukraine today and how are countries around the world reacting? Read live updates on Vladimir Putin and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
LVIV, Ukraine – European gas prices have skyrocketed as much as 24% following Gazprom’s announcement that it will suspend deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria starting Wednesday because they have not received any payment from them. as of April 1. Standard Dutch futures are trading at a rate of around 125 euros per megawatt hour.
Fatih Birol, executive director of the Paris-based International Energy Agency, tweeted Wednesday morning that his organization “stands with Poland”.
Gazprom’s complete cut off gas supplies to Poland is another sign of Russia’s politicization of existing agreements and will only accelerate European efforts to move away from gas supplies, he wrote. Russian energy supply”.
The spike occurred even as the weather turned warmer in Europe, reducing the need for natural gas to heat homes and businesses.
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MOSCOW – Russia’s state-controlled natural gas giant Gazprom said it had cut gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria after they refused to pay for shipments in rubles.
It warned that if they sucked up the air intended for other European customers, shipping to Europe would drop to that level.
The move follows an order from Russian President Vladimir Putin to switch to rubles in payments for Russian gas supplies to Europe.
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BEIJING – The drone company DJI Technology Co. said it would suspend business activities in Russia and Ukraine to ensure its products were not used during hostilities.
“DJI is internally re-evaluating compliance requirements in various jurisdictions. Pending the current review, DJI will temporarily suspend all business activities in Russia and Ukraine,” the company said in a statement.
The statement makes it one of the few Chinese companies to have publicly withdrawn from Russia. While many Western brands and companies withdrew from the Russian market in protest of the invasion of Ukraine, many Chinese companies continued to operate in the country. China continued to exercise restraint and did not directly criticize Russia for the war.
The suspension comes more than a month after Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov wrote an open letter calling on DJI to block the sale of its drones in Russia, alleging that Russians were using “products of the Russian Federation.” DJI in Ukraine to direct their missiles to destroy civilians.”
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POKROVSK, Ukraine – As Russian forces intensify their shelling in eastern Ukraine, more and more people are fleeing their homes in search of safety.
In Pokrovsk, a town in the Donetsk region, on Tuesday, people lined up to board a train bound for the west of the country along the borders with Hungary and Slovakia. One was brought on board in a wheelchair, another on a stretcher.
The passengers brought cats, dogs, several bags and boxes, and memories of those who didn’t escape in time.
“We were in the basement, but my daughter didn’t make it and was hit by shrapnel in the doorway,” said Mykola Kharchenko, 74, during Monday’s shelling, said Mykola Kharchenko, 74.
He said his village, Vremivka, about 70 kilometers (40 miles) from Pokrovsk, had been under heavy fire for four days and everything was destroyed. With tears in his eyes, Kharchenko said he somehow hugged each other at home, but when he got to the train station, he collapsed.
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United Nations – The United Nations says Secretary-General António Guterres and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed in principle that the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross must be involved in the evacuation of civilians from a home. besieged steel machine in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that during Tuesday’s face-to-face meeting, Guterres and Putin “discussed proposals for humanitarian assistance and the evacuation of civilians from conflict areas, specifically the regarding the situation in Mariupol.”
The vast Azovstal Steel Plant was almost completely destroyed by Russian attacks but it was the last bag of organized Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol.
An estimated 2,000 troops and 1,000 civilians are believed to be trapped in bunkers beneath the sunken structure.
Dujarric said that in principle following the Guterres-Putin agreement, discussions will be held with the UN humanitarian office and the Russian Defense Ministry on the evacuation.
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WASHINGTON – The State Department said that US diplomats have begun returning to Ukraine by making day trips to temporary offices in the western city of Lviv from neighboring Poland.
The ministry said the first group of diplomats crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border and arrived in Lviv on Tuesday morning before returning to Poland later in the day.
The move comes just two days after Foreign Minister Antony Blinken informed Ukrainian leaders during a hidden visit to Kyiv that the US would begin rebuilding its diplomatic facilities in Ukraine this week. .
State Department spokesman Ned Price said the agency has accelerated its review of reopening the US embassy in Kyiv, which was closed shortly before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24. He said the Operations at the embassy will resume as soon as possible depending on the security situation. in the capital.
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