DIRECT. War in Ukraine: Macron talks to Olaf Scholz on the energy crisis

At the beginning of the month, the local authorities installed by Moscow had announced the forthcoming organization of a referendum on the membership of the Ukrainian region of Zaporijjia, in the south-east of Ukraine, to the Russian Federation.

The European Union announces a new envelope of 500 million euros for Ukraine. It will be devoted to housing and education for displaced people as well as agriculture in this country at war, announced the European executive.

This financing, announced on the sidelines of a meeting of the EU-Ukraine Association Council in Brussels in which Prime Minister Denys Chmygal is taking part, falls within the framework of European commitments announced in the spring.

Emmanuel Macron will meet this Monday by videoconference with his German counterpart Olaf Scholz, concerning the energy crisis, announces the Elysée. Their exchange, scheduled for 3 p.m., “will focus on the energy situation in Europe and on the actions already taken, at national and European level, to preserve security of supply, act on electricity prices and maintain full solidarity. between Member States. They will address the additional measures that can be taken to protect households and businesses, ”said the French presidency.

The Kremlin has blamed European politicians for shutting down the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, one of its main gas supply routes. Moscow claimed that the economic sanctions against Russia had hampered the maintenance of the gas pipeline by Gazprom. “If the Europeans take the absolutely absurd decision to refuse to maintain their equipment, or rather equipment that belongs to Gazprom, but which they are contractually obliged to maintain, it is not Gazprom’s fault,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in an interview on Russian state television.

According to the officials of the State Bureau of Investigations, two soldiers implicated in the injuries of children during an arms exhibition in Chernihiv (Ukraine) have been arrested. “During a weapons demonstration, one of the servicemen allowed a child to pick up a loaded rocket-propelled grenade (RPG-26) and pull the trigger. As a result of the shooting, at least nine people were injured, including six children. The soldier who allowed the child to pull the trigger was informed that he was suspected of violating the rules of the handling of weapons, as was his commander”. The soldier faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

According to Energoatom, the Ukrainian state company operating the country’s four nuclear power plants, four of the six members of the IAEA mission at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant have left the territory. The two observers still in the plant will stay permanently.

The results of the IAEA’s mission to the plant should be presented during the day.

The duration of training for Ukrainian soldiers in the UK has been extended from three to five weeks. Around 4,700 soldiers have already been trained at military bases across the country.

According to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, the European Union’s decision to suspend the visa facilitation agreement with Russia is insufficient. “Visas should be stopped or suspended for now while Russia is waging a terrorist war,” he told POLITICO. He rejected the EU’s tentative first step on Russian visas, when foreign ministers agreed to suspend a 2007 visa facilitation deal with Russia, a step that will make the visa process more onerous and costly , but will not completely eliminate it.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the EU’s 8th sanctions package against Russia should include decisions on pan-European visas for Russian citizens, stressing that “Europe is a territory of values, not a Disneyland for supporters of terrorism”.

Nord Stream cut, gas prices jump

Natural gas prices in Europe jumped in response to Gazprom’s announcement of the complete shutdown of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, through which most of the Russian gas delivered to Europe passes. Thus, the October contract of the Dutch TTF, a benchmark for natural gas in Europe, rose by 18.9%, to 255.25 euros per megawatt hour (MWh). However, gas prices are still below the historic highs reached at the end of August.

While the Blues are playing in the round of 16 of the World Volleyball event against Japan, their libero, Jenia Grebennikov, assumes to return to her club in Saint Petersburg, Russia, at the end of the competition. “I’m here to work, not to play politics,” he explains. Read our article

Ukrainian hackers have registered a number of fake female social media accounts. Russian soldiers gave in to temptation and sent photos which were geotagged. A few days later, according to the Financial Times, a base identified 🇷🇺near occupied Melitopol was blasted by Ukrainian artillery.

Since the start of the year, the European currency, which has reached its lowest point in 20 years against the dollar, has continued to weaken against the American currency.

Asked about RTL, Catherine Colonna, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, estimated that “the sanctions against Russia are working, and they will work more and more and have more and more effects. The Russian GDP is in decline, it reduces its capacity to finance its war effort”. According to her, “Russia has violated the most fundamental principles of international law, nevertheless we speak to all parties”, she added.

Catherine Colonna announced going to Turkey today to encourage him to continue his “positive” action on the war in Ukraine and to “stay consistent with the efforts of the United Nations”.

The British Ministry of Defense in its daily update affirms that the Donbass remains the main objective of Russia. “Despite the efforts of the Russian army to contain the Ukrainian counter-offensive in the south, it is concentrating on the conquest of the Donbass region”, explains British intelligence. The main “Russian axes of advance remain at Avdiivka near the city of Donetsk and, 60 km to the north, around Bakhmut”.

A new unit of German soldiers has arrived in Lithuania as NATO has promised to strengthen its eastern flank amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This unit composed of a hundred soldiers and military equipment arrived in Klaipeda. Now, around 1,500 German soldiers are currently deployed in Lithuania. The country also hosts a rotating American battalion, which was reinforced after the invasion of Ukraine as well as Hungarian and Czech fighter jets.

This information is difficult to verify, but according to the Ukrainian “South” operational command, the 127th Russian regiment of the 1st army corps refused to fight “due to a lack of support and poor conditions, in particular a lack of water “. According to the Ukrainians, the special services of the Russian forces took “measures against the personnel and removed them from their positions”.

“Today it is not worth sitting down at the negotiating table with Russia because it would give the latter a chance to freeze the conflict and build up its forces”, explained the former Lithuanian minister of Defense and Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevičius. “The Kremlin is hinting at negotiations, this means that the gunpowder has run out and they want to freeze the occupied territories. Under no circumstances should they be allowed to breathe,” Linkevičius tweeted.

Faced with fears of recession, the OPEC+ countries are meeting to adjust production quotas for the month of October. Faced with a fall in prices, producing countries could be tempted to turn off the taps a little despite the opposite pressure from Western countries.

According to the Ministry of Energy, nearly 600,000 Ukrainians are still without electricity and 235,700 gas. A worrying situation as winter approaches.

In his daily video message, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky believes that Ukrainian forces are advancing in the south and east of the country. “We received good information from the military staff,” he said, thanking the Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk region and the Kherson region in the south.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the office of the Ukrainian president, estimated that despite the presence on the spot of members of the IAEA, “we do not have clear data to know if everything is normal”. He asked for a more specific audit. However, he welcomed the permanent presence of the IAEA on site, which should make it possible to “protect” the personnel of the plant.

Local authorities announced on Sunday that Russian forces had continued since the previous day to bombard the region of Mykolaiv (south), causing in particular the death of a child and a woman following the collapse of a house, also injuring six.

The first soldiers of the German brigade arrived in Lithuania on Sunday, as NATO promised to strengthen its eastern flank amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The brigade command unit, consisting of about a hundred soldiers and military equipment, arrived by ferry from Kiel (Germany) to Klaipeda (Lithuania).

About 1,500 German soldiers are currently deployed in Lithuania as part of NATO’s multinational battlegroup in the country, which was established in 2017.

The Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhya, occupied by the Russian army, has “lost connection again” to the electricity grid on Saturday. It occurred “after new bombardments in the area”, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but the plant continues to operate “thanks to a backup line”.