Ukraine-News: Guterres appeals to Russians over Zaporizhia nuclear power plant

Ukraine has sharply criticized calls by FDP Vice Wolfgang Kubicki for the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline to be opened. “The demands of some German politicians to start Nord Stream 2 for a short time and to close it later are completely irrational,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter. “It’s similar to a drug addiction when someone says: ‘Just one last time!'” criticizes Kuleba. “Addiction to Russian gas kills!”
In a report, Kubicki had demanded: “We should open Nord Stream 2 as soon as possible to fill our gas storage tanks for the winter.” He told the editorial network Germany (RND) that there was “no good reason not to open Nord Stream 2”. These statements are also met with criticism in Germany, including from Green Party leader Omid Nouripour.

The former subsidiary of the Russian gas company Gazprom, which is managed under the name Sefe by the Federal Network Agency in trust, may need more money from the federal government. Sefe trustee Egbert Laege tells the “Spiegel” that the purchase prices are “significantly higher today than we had set in our original calculation”. Securing the supply will therefore “probably cost more than we thought. We therefore have to see whether the money is enough or not”.
Sefe stands for Securing Energy for Europe. The company is active in the areas of energy trading, gas transport and the operation of gas storage facilities, among other things. She received a loan from the federal government in the amount of 9.8 billion euros, according to “Spiegel”. The Federal Network Agency took over the company in trust in March to prevent it from being closed.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres urges Russia not to disconnect Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant from the Ukrainian power grid. “Of course, the electricity from Zaporizhia is Ukrainian electricity (…). This principle must be fully respected,” Guterres said at a press conference in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa. The Ukrainian power plant operator Energoatom had previously expressed corresponding fears.
“There is information that the Russian occupiers are planning to stop the operation of the reactors and cut them off from the supply lines of the Ukrainian energy system,” Energoatom said in the online service Telegram. Accordingly, the Russian military is looking for supplies for diesel generatorswhich are to be activated after the reactors have been shut down, and has restricted personnel access to the site.

The gas storage facilities in Germany can continue to be filled despite the high gas price. The President of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, points this out in an interview with the German Press Agency. According to the most recent data from European gas storage operators, the filling level of all storage facilities is a good 78 percent.

Together with Russian troops, pro-Russian separatists occupy other towns in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, as they say themselves. The settlements Saytseve and Datscha north of the town of Horliwka were conquered. So far, a total of 270 settlements in Donetsk have been brought under Russian control. This was initially not independently verifiable. The Ukrainian general staff last commented on Zaitseve on Wednesday, emphasizing that all Russian attempts to attack there had been “choked off”.

Much contradiction for Wolfgang Kubicki: FDP leader Christian Lindner is clearly distancing himself from demands from his party deputy to put the Nord Stream 2 pipeline back into operation. Lindner considers the proposal to be “wrong and absurd,” says a spokeswoman for his finance ministry in Berlin. Deputy government spokesman Wolfgang Büchner explains that the federal government has no plans to put the pipeline into operation. Resuming the project is out of the question. Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil also rejects Kubicki’s proposal. “I don’t believe in that,” says the SPD politician.

According to British military experts, Russian attacks on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and its surroundings are aimed at tying down the defenders’ forces and preventing them from counterattacking. This emerges from the daily intelligence update from the Ministry of Defense in London. In a rocket attack on Kharkiv on Wednesday at least twelve civilians were killed, the statement said. Due to its proximity to the front, the metropolis is within range of many Russian weapon systems. “Multiple rocket launchers and generally inaccurate weapons have wreaked havoc across much of the city,” the British experts said.

If Russia’s President Vladimir Putin then stops supplying gas, Germany has lost nothing. “If more gas reaches us in this way, perhaps even the entire contractually guaranteed amount, that will help people not have to freeze in winter and our industry will not suffer serious damage,” emphasizes Kubicki. Ensuring this is the top priority of the federal government.

According to the report, there have been high-level meetings in the Ministry of Defense several times a month since June, in which Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) also took part. The Ukrainian side has always asked for more deliveries of those types of weapons that Germany has already provided, namely the self-propelled howitzer 2000 and the Mars II multiple rocket launcher. So far, Germany has delivered ten self-propelled howitzers and three of the rocket launchers.

Despite the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to attend the G20 summit in Indonesia in November, according to summit host Joko Widodo. Putin told him “that he will come,” the Indonesian president told Bloomberg. China’s head of state Xi Jinping will also arrive.

The Indonesian government, as host, had invited Putin and Xi to the summit in Bali. So far, however, it was unclear whether they would take part in person. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has been partially isolated internationally.