Gas prices have risen on fears that Russia could halt supplies to Europe through Ukraine, adding to turmoil caused by damage to the Nord Stream pipelines under the Baltic Sea.
The Kremlin-controlled gas company Gazprom said it could impose sanctions on Ukraine’s Naftogaz due to ongoing arbitration.
The statement came after the discovery of leaks on the two Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea near the Danish island of Bornholm in a suspected act of sabotage, although exactly by whom or why remains unconfirmed.
Aerial footage of leak in Danish waters from Nord Stream 1 pipeline – video
Gazprom said it had rejected all claims from Naftogaz in arbitration proceedings over Russian gas transit, and had notified the arbitration court. It also said Russia could introduce sanctions against the Ukrainian energy company, which would prohibit Gazprom from paying Kyiv the transit fees if it further pursues an arbitration case over gas transit.
Russian gas travels into Europe via Ukraine via several key routes, including the Brotherhood, Soyuz and Yamal-Europe pipelines. Transgas, which starts in the west of Ukraine and flows into Germany, could also be affected.
US embassy warns Americans to leave Russia 'immediately'
The US embassy in Moscow has issued a security alert and urged American citizens to leave Russia immediately.
In a statement on its website, the US embassy warned that dual Russian-US nationals may be called up as part of the Russian government’s mobilisation in support of its invasion of Ukraine.
It said:
Russia may refuse to acknowledge dual nationals’ U.S. citizenship, deny their access to U.S. consular assistance, prevent their departure from Russia, and conscript dual nationals for military service.
The embassy warned that its citizens “should not travel to Russia” and that those residing or travelling in the country “should depart Russia immediately while limited commercial travel options remain”.
Commercial flight options from Russia are “extremely limited at present” and often unavailable on short notice, it warned.
It added:
If you wish to depart Russia, you should make independent arrangements as soon as possible.
Sweden’s national police force has opened an investigation into leaks from the Nord Stream pipeline after authorities in Stockholm suggested the “blasts” were “probably a deliberate act”.
A police report about the incident has been filed and the case is currently being reviewed by the Swedish public prosecutor’s office, CNN has reported.
The police told the news channel:
The legal qualification is currently gross sabotage, but this could be subject to change.
On Tuesday, Sweden’s prime minister Magdalena Andersson told reporters that the government was taking what she described as “blasts” at the pipeline “very seriously”.
Andersson said:
We have Swedish intelligence, but we have also received information in our contacts with Denmark, and based on this, concluded that this is probably a deliberate act. It is probably a matter of sabotage.
Russian-backed officials ask Putin to annex Ukrainian regions
The Russian-installed leaders of Ukraine’s Luhansk and Kherson regions have formally asked President Vladimir Putin to annex the occupied territories into Russia.
The appeals came following hastily organised “referendums” in occupied Ukraine that Kyiv and the west have denounced as illegitimate.
The Kremlin-backed leader of the breakaway Luhansk region, Leonid Pasechnik, made the appeal to Putin claiming residents there had been under attack for eight years by Ukraine’s army.
In a statement, Pasechnik said:
Taking into account the decision of the republic’s population at the referendum, I am asking you to consider making the Luhansk People’s Republic a subject of the Russian Federation.
His announcement was followed soon after by a similar appeal from the Moscow-installed leader of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo.
In a letter published on his Telegram account, Saldo claimed residents in Kherson had made “a historic choice” in favour of Russia.
Leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines from Russia to Europe appear to be “very serious” and “definitely looks highly suspicious”, a western official has said.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the official said:
On the pipelines, clearly, this looks very serious. The multiple explosions at the same time – it’s very serious, and is going to have to be investigated.
The official did not blame Russia for the leaks but said Vladimir Putin should undo his recent series of escalations, in particular the Russian. leader’s “deeply irresponsible” nuclear rhetoric.
They added:
It definitely looks highly suspicious, but I think we need to establish the facts and then attribute.
Kremlin dismisses ‘predictably stupid’ claims Russia attacked Nord Stream
Claims that Russia was behind the attack on the Nord Stream gas pipeline were “predictably stupid”, the Kremlin has said.
European leaders have said sabotage is the most likely cause of leaks in the two Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Europe, after seismologists reported explosions around the Baltic Sea lines.
In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was asked about the claims. He replied:
That’s quite predictable and also predictably stupid.
He added:
This is a big problem for us because, firstly, both lines of Nord Stream 2 are filled with gas – the entire system is ready to pump gas and the gas is very expensive … Now the gas is flying off into the air.
He said the incident needed to be investigated and that the timings for the repair of the damaged pipelines were not clear.
Information on the incident could be expected from Denmark and Sweden, he added.
Peskov also told reporters that the military campaign in Ukraine would continue “at a minimum” until the “liberation” of the “Donetsk People’s Republic”.
Hello everyone, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong here taking over the live blog from Martin Belam to bring you all the latest developments from the Russia-Ukraine war. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry has said the “propaganda show called ‘referendums’ in the temporarily occupied territories” are “yet another Russian crime” and that it considers them “null and worthless”.
It said: “Forcing people in these territories to fill out some papers at the barrel of a gun is yet another Russian crime in the course of its aggression against Ukraine. The Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, like the Ukrainian Crimea, remain the sovereign territories of Ukraine. Ukraine has every right to restore its territorial integrity by military and diplomatic means, and will continue to liberate the temporarily occupied territories. Ukraine will never agree to any Russian ultimatums.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine will defend its citizens in Moscow-held regions that authorities have claimed voted in favour of merging with Russia. Zelenskiy said in a video on Telegram: “We will act to protect our people, both in the Kherson region, in the Zaporizhzhia region, in the Donbas, in the currently occupied areas of the Kharkiv region, and in the Crimea.”
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the west would never recognise Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian territory, which he called part of a “diabolical scheme” by Moscow. Nato denounced the referendums as a “sham” and “violation of international law”.
As expected, the official figures given by Russian proxy authorities in occupied Ukraine for the outcome of the votes show support for annexation. Denis Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik, the pro-Russian leaders of the chiefly unrecognised self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), have headed to Moscow where they are expected to start the procedure to have the areas of Ukrainian territory that they occupy annexed by the Russian Federation.
It is anticipated that the next planned session of Russia’s Federation Council will take place on 4 October, and could see the legislative moves from Moscow to absorb the four areas of Ukraine that its forces at least partially occupy. Vyacheslav Volodin, the chair of Russia’s state Duma, has hailed the “results”, saying they will “save millions of people from genocide”.
Josep Borrell, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, has condemned both the “illegal ‘referenda’ and their falsified outcome”, and the suspected sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, promising “a robust and united response” from the EU over attacks on energy infrastructure.
European leaders have said sabotage is the most likely cause of leaks in two Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Europe, after seismologists reported explosions around the Baltic Sea lines.
Norway’s foreign minister Anniken Huitfeldt has said “the explosions and gas leakage in the Baltic Sea are a matter of deep concern to the Norwegian government” and confirmed that she has spoken to her counterparts from Sweden and Denmark.
Denmark’s defence minister Morten Bodskov has said there is reason to be concerned about the security situation in the Baltic Sea region, noting “Russia has a significant military presence in the Baltic Sea region and we expect them to continue their sabre-rattling”.
The UK Ministry of Defence says in its daily intelligence briefing that “Russia is mounting a more substantive defence than previously” as Ukraine attempts to press forward “on at least two axes east”.
The governments of Bulgaria and Poland are urging any citizens that remain in the Russian federation to leave urgently. That may be in anticipation of border crossings becoming much more difficult as routes out of the country close, and more people flee forced mobilisation in Russia.
The US said overnight it will introduce a resolution at the UN security council calling on member states not to recognise any change to Ukraine and obliging Russia to withdraw its troops, US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said. Russia holds a permanent seat on the security council that comes with a veto.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later on. Léonie Chao-Fong will be here shortly to continue our coverage.
Denis Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik, the pro-Russian leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) have headed to Moscow, according to reports from Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
RIA states that they have gone there to “complete the procedure for joining Russia”.
It quotes Pushilin saying that after the necessary procedures in the Russian Duma and in the Federation Council, “that’s all, officially we are part of Russia . And then – creation, development, and, of course, all this intersects with our victory. We really need it – a common victory.”
The official channel of the LPR’s pro-Russian government on Telegram confirmed: “Leonid Pasechnik said that he had left for Moscow to complete the legal part of the LPR joining Russia.”
Russia, Syria and North Korea are the only three UN member states to recognise the DPR and LPR as legitimate authorities. The two self-proclaimed republics were formed in 2014, and in the last few days have been staging so-called “referendums” on the annexation of the territory they occupy. Ukraine’s authorities have said that the results are “null and worthless” and that the widely derided vote is illegal.
Norway’s foreign minister Anniken Huitfeldt has said “the explosions and gas leakage in the Baltic Sea are a matter of deep concern to the Norwegian government” and confirmed that she has spoken to her counterparts from Sweden and Denmark. She added: “Cooperation is key and Norway is ready to support.”
The explosions and gas leakage in the Baltic Sea are a matter of deep concern to the Norwegian government. Today I have spoken to my colleagues @AnnLinde in 🇸🇪 & @JeppeKofod in 🇩🇰. Cooperation is key and Norway is ready to support.
