Russia to cut Poland, Bulgaria gas over Ukraine

Russia will halt gas shipments
to Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday, after blasts in a breakaway region of
neighbouring Moldova led Kyiv to accuse Moscow of seeking to expand the
Ukraine war further into Europe.

The Russian energy giant Gazprom told Poland and highly dependent Bulgaria
that it would cut off supplies, in Moscow's latest use of gas as a weapon in
a conflict that has now dragged into its third month and claimed thousands of
lives.

Explosions this week targeting the state security ministry, a radio tower
and military unit in neighbouring Moldova's region of Transnistria --
occupied by Moscow's forces for decades -- followed a Kremlin commander's
claims Russian speakers in the country were being oppressed.

That triggered alarm that Moldova could be Russia's next target in its
push into Europe, with Moscow having exploited similar fears after launching
its bloody invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

"Russia wants to destabilise the Transnistrian region," Mykhaylo Podolyak,
a Ukraine presidential aide, wrote on Twitter.

"If Ukraine falls, tomorrow Russian troops will be at Chisinau's gates,"
he said, referring to Moldova's capital.

The United States echoed similar concerns -- though stopped short of
backing Kyiv's contention that Russia was responsible.

"We fully support Moldova's territorial integrity and sovereignty," State
Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.

- 'Heaven and earth' -

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has been lobbying for heavier
firepower to push back the Russian advance now focused on the eastern region
of Donbas.

Western allies are wary of being drawn into an outright war with Russia,
but Washington pledged Tuesday at a summit to move "heaven and earth" to
enable Ukraine to emerge victorious.

"Ukraine clearly believes that it can win and so does everyone here," US
Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told 40 allies gathered at the Ramstein Air
Base in Germany.

With arms flowing into Ukraine, Germany announced Tuesday it would send
anti-aircraft tanks -- a sharp U-turn dropping its much-criticised cautious
stance.

Britain will also on Wednesday urge Kyiv's allies to "ramp up" military
production including tanks and planes to help Ukraine, with Foreign Secretary
Liz Truss set to call for a "new approach" to confront Russian President
Vladimir Putin.

"We must be prepared for the long haul and double down on our support for
Ukraine," she is set to say, according to pre-released remarks.

"Heavy weapons, tanks, aeroplanes -- digging deep into our inventories,
ramping up production. We need to do all of this," she will add.

"There must be nowhere for Putin to go to fund this appalling war."

Truss will also urge Europe to cut off Russian energy imports "once and
for all" -- a move that would deprive Moscow of a key source of leverage over
its dependent western neighbours.

Underlining that precarity, Bulgaria -- which is almost completely
dependent on Russia for its annual consumption of gas -- said it had received
word from energy giant Gazprom that supplies would be suspended from
Wednesday.

Poland's PGNiG gas firm, too, announced that Moscow would turn off the
taps -- though its prime minister said gas storage facilities were 76 percent
full and that the country was ready to obtain necessary supplies from other
sources.

- On the brink -

Fighting continues to rage across Ukraine's east, Kyiv's defence ministry
said, with Russia shelling Kharkiv city and its troops launching an offensive
on the town of Barvinkove.

Russia said it had carried out high-precision missile strikes against 32
Ukrainian military targets including four ammunition depots on Tuesday.

It also launched air strikes against 33 targets, as well as 100 artillery
and rocket strikes.

In the south, two Russian missiles struck the industrial city of
Zaporizhzhia, which has welcomed many civilians fleeing Mariupol, regional
authorities said.

Russian forces are expected to soon advance on the city, which is located
near Ukraine's largest nuclear power plant.

And at the site of the world's world-ever atomic disaster, Chernobyl in
northern Ukraine observed the 36th anniversary of the meltdown back under
Kyiv's control.

The sprawling complex fell into Russian hands on the day Moscow's troops
began their invasion in February, suffered a power and communications outage
that raised alarm about a possible new calamity at the site.

That put the world "on the brink of disaster", Zelensky said at a press
conference with UN atomic watchdog chief Rafael Grossi, adding that Russian
troops' conduct showed that "no one in the world can feel safe."

"For the Russian military, the Chernobyl zone and the plant was like a
normal battleground, territory where they didn't even try to care about
nuclear safety," he said.

To the east, at the entrance to Barvinkove, six Ukrainian soldiers were
ready at any moment to dive into their trench, which they dig every day with
a shovel.

"Otherwise, we're dead," said Vasyl, 51, who serves with his 22-year-old
son Denys.

Ukraine officials said there was fighting all along the frontlines in the
Donetsk region, and that resistance in the Azovstal factory in the besieged
port city of Mariupol was still holding out.

The country's best-known singer Sviatoslav Vakarchuk made a morale-
boosting visit to the eastern front, where a military press officer admitted
the situation was difficult.

"It's far from rosy," Iryna Rybakova, of the 93rd brigade, told AFP.

"Of course, we were prepared for this war, especially the professional
army, but for those who've been recruited, it's more complicated."

The UN's refugee agency said it now expects more than eight million
Ukrainians to eventually flee their country, with nearly 5.3 million already
out, and that $1.85 billion would be needed to host them in neighbouring
countries.

In a meeting with Putin, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for
Moscow and Kyiv to work together to set up aid and evacuation corridors in
war-torn Ukraine.

He also called for an independent investigation into "possible war crimes"
in Ukraine.

"I am concerned about the repeated reports of violations of international
humanitarian and human rights law and possible war crimes," Guterres said.

"And they require independent investigation for effective accountability."

Source: AFP/BSS

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