A cold winter in Ukraine’s rebel east has gotten a bit more manageable today, with OAO Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller announcing that his company will be shipping 12 million cubic meters per day into Donetsk and Luhansk.
Exactly how this is going to work, financially, for the world’s largest natural gas company is unclear. Miller said the shipments were made according to the existing purchase agreement with Ukraine’s Naftogaz monopoly.
But the shipments are going to rebel territory, outside of Naftogaz control, and Luhansk rebel leader Gennady Tsypkalov claimed to have reached a separate agreement with Russia on allowing Gazprom to sell to them.
Russian Premier Dmitry Medvedev had suggested earlier today that his government was considering “humanitarian aid” to the eastern rebels in the form of natural gas shipments, which may ultimately be the basis for Gazprom’s shipments.
Meanwhile, western Ukraine is struggling through a fresh natural gas shortage, as their offensives against the east badly damaged the pipelines through which the gas is shipped from Russia, effectively cutting their territory off from Gazprom shipments.
Good news.
You forgot to mention that that is because the US backed Nazi junta stopped the gas deliveries to the "subhumans" they are fighting a genocidal war against, which is criminal and not a nice thing to do, in the middle of the winter, after having bombed their houses and livelihood to smithereens….
Ukraine claims that the region is theirs send them the bill, that would be so funny!
This news is a bit out of context. A day before the junta has CUT OFF GAS SUPPLIES via Ukrainian Naftogaz company so Donetsk and Lughask were left without gas. It is against Minsk agreement Kiev was supposed to stop the blockade of pensions and health care payments, and now not only that they are not paying anything to the population, they are cutting off gas. It is also not true that their pipelines are destroyed, as they still deliver gas to Europe and then — instead of just stealing from the pipelines, now they are getting "reverse" gas shipments from Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania. No, pipelines are not the problem — not being able to pay for gas is BIG problem. To prevent bankruptcy, Ukraine is now getting "donated" gas from Europe, and is running its reserves down. I actually do understand that given the situation Kiev is not amused to have to deliver gas to Donetsk and Lughansk. And in fact, if they are not isane, reasonable accommodations could be found. But now that they are big boys and in war "with Russia", they do not even have a grasp as to their reserves. I am sure that it is Russia that must have called and warned them that their reserves are running low — and upon waking up to the reality, decided to cut off those regions. Russia can supply them, just as it was paying pensions and other emergency needs for population. Food, water, blankets, medicine, electric generators for hospitals and other institutions, clothing, etc are continuously delivered by Russia and OSCE.
What puzzles me is the following. The elephant in the room is the status of over 10 million of ethnic Russians living outside of Lughansk and Donetsk. They live as majority in the following regions: Zaporozie, Kharkov, Dniepropetrovsk, Mykolaevo, Herson and Odessa. And as large minority in many other regions. Many people that declared themselves Ukrainian are ethinic Russian, and the reason for identifying themselves as Ukrainian is mainly job privileges, especially in government positions. But these are people who speak Russian as mother tongue. So far, junta — led by Yatsenyuk, Timoshenko, Turchinov, and the slew of more openly right wing extremists had only FEW proposals on table: nuke them (Julia Timoshenko, Yatsenjuk), declare marshal law, take over local government and turn it to military commanders, and let the low level military decide how many Russians to kill in order to "thin" the Russian population. Forbid to speak Russian even at home. If anyone else knows of another proposal as to what to do with ethnic Russians, let me know. They are now close to marshal law, and the population is getting nervous. It is tense in majority Russian Mariupol, and in Odessa.
Fascists — Vicious animals most predictable
There Russia stands, ready, willing and able to supply Ukraine with twice the economical support that the EU and NATO could possibly come up with, yet it is flat out rejected, preferring instead to do harmful damage to Russia. Such is the fascist mindset that seeks the pleasure of enslaving people above all things.