Free Republic

The chairman of the African Union said on July 28 that proposals by Russian President Vladimir Putin to provide grain to Africa were insufficient. In a closing address to a Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg, Azali Assoumani also said that a cease-fire is necessary in Ukraine. Putin earlier told the African leaders that Russia was ready to supply Africa with grain, some of it for free, after refusing last week to extend the Black Sea Grain Initiative before it expired. The deal, brokered last year by the United Nations and Turkey, allowed Ukraine to export grain safely from Black Sea...

Germany will shut down its three remaining nuclear plants on Saturday, betting that it can fulfil its green ambitions without atomic power despite the energy crisis caused by the Ukraine war. The cloud of white steam that has risen since 1989 over the river in Neckarwestheim, near Stuttgart, will soon be a distant memory, as will the Isar 2 complex in Bavaria and the Emsland plant in the north. At a time when many Western countries are ramping up nuclear power in their transition to greener energy sources, Europe’s biggest economy is resolutely sticking to its plans — though not...

Ukrainian soldiers are being pummelled on three sides by Russian forces who are trying to capture Bakhmut, a city in the eastern Donetsk region that has become the focus of the longest and one of the bloodiest battles since the war began. Ukraine’s authorities insist they will continue to try to hold the city despite them suffering an estimated 100-200 casualties a day – with some saying the reason is more political and symbolic than practical. Retreating from the city now, after so many soldiers died fighting to keep it, would be a hard reality to face. The Russian push...

(AFP) – Ukraine pledged on Monday to bolster its defences in frontline Bakhmut, after reports that Kyiv was withdrawing from the city that’s become a symbolic prize in the war. The eastern Ukrainian city has been virtually flattened in what has become the longest and bloodiest battle since Russia’s more than year-long invasion. Ukraine has reported an increasingly difficult situation around Bakhmut in recent days and some analysts said its forces may have initiated a strategic retreat.

Upcoming sanctions on Russian oil are set to be “really disruptive” for energy markets if European nations fail to set a cap on prices, analysts warned.The 27 countries of the European Union agreed in June to ban the purchase of Russian crude oil from Dec. 5. In practical terms, the EU — together with the United States, Japan, Canada and the U.K. — want to drastically cut Russia’s oil revenues in a bid to drain the Kremlin’s war chest following its invasion of Ukraine.However, concerns that a complete ban would send crude prices soaring led the G-7 to consider setting...

Germany could be completely out of gas by February, the country’s gas agency has said, with some experts saying that the country needs to cut consumption by 30 per cent to make it through the crisis intact. A reduction in gas consumption of up to 30 per cent may be required if Germany wants to make it through the coming winter intact, some experts have claimed, while the country’s gas agency has expressed concern that the nation could run out of the hydrocarbon by February.

The European Union is preparing the eighth round of sanctions against Russia as Moscow escalated its war in Ukraine by holding illegal referendums in four Ukrainian regions... On Thursday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the Commission’s proposals for the eighth package of sanctions in response to Russia’s escalation of the war in Ukraine. “Today, in this package, here, we are laying the legal basis for this oil price cap,” von der Leyen said, commenting on the G7-led idea of banning Russian crude oil from imports by sea unless the oil is sold at or below a certain...

[G]athered in a basement on a quiet, tree-lined street, the Belarusians preparing to leave Warsaw to join the Ukrainian army look more like a bunch of computer programmers getting ready for a long car trip. Maybe that’s because they are a bunch of computer programmers—or anyway, some of them are—gathered in a basement on a quiet, tree-lined street, getting ready for a long car trip...If they are identified, members of their families could be visited, harassed, even arrested by the Belarusian police. “Our relatives are hostages,” one of them told me. Already, mothers of Belarusian soldiers fighting in Ukraine have...

... The stand-off with Russia has forced countries like Germany to find supplies elsewhere, and its stores have increased from less than half full in June to 84% full today. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told journalists Germany would get through the winter, adding that Russia was "no longer a reliable energy partner". He said the government would make one-off payments to pensioners, people on benefits and students. There would also be caps on energy bills. Some 9,000 energy-intensive businesses would receive tax breaks to the tune of €1.7bn. A windfall tax on energy company profits would also be used to...

Germany could be forced to scrap Oktoberfest celebrations and its famous Christmas markets as officials desperately search for ways to save energy after Russia began throttling gas supplies to Europe. Hanover yesterday became the first major city on the continent to announce it will turn off all hot water in public buildings to conserve energy, while Berlin has begun dimming streetlights and Augsburg has turned off public water fountains.

Germany's leading energy expert says she's living in a nightmare. What's worse, she saw it coming. Germany had vowed to ditch coal but is now restarting mothballed, coal-fired power stations For 15 years Claudia Kemfert says she tried to warn politicians and the public that the country was too reliant on Russian energy. Until recently Germany bought more than half of its gas from Russia. She advised Berlin to find other sources and focus more on renewables. And she warned against the construction of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline through which Germany receives much of its gas. "That's what I...

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia tightened its gas squeeze on Europe on Monday as Gazprom said supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany would drop to just 20% of capacity. Gazprom said flows would fall to 33 million cubic metres per day from 0400 GMT on Wednesday - a halving of the current, already reduced level - because it needed to halt the operation of a Siemens gas turbine at a compressor station on instructions from an industry watchdog. Germany said it saw no technical reason for the latest reduction, which comes as Russia and the West exchange economic blows...

Russian President Vladimir Putin can afford to cut off natural-gas exports to Europe thanks to ample revenues from other commodities, but such a move would come with longer-term risks for Russia’s sanctions-stricken economy and its prolific energy industry. Earlier this week, Moscow resumed gas supplies via the Nord Stream pipeline after annual maintenance ended, easing worries in Europe that Mr. Putin would further crimp exports at a time when the continent is filling up its storage ahead of winter. The restarted pipeline, however, is pumping at just 40% capacity, after a separate, still-unresolved technical issue that Moscow blames on Western...

Hackers on Friday delayed the start of President Vladimir Putin's speech to Russia's flagship economic forum, shorn of strong Western participation as Russia adjusts to the "new reality" of life under Western sanctions. -snip- But the Western investors and investment bankers who had turned up in previous years were conspicuously absent. -snip- Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said a denial of service attack, which works by flooding servers with bogus traffic, had struck the forum's accreditation and admission systems. -snip- Internet connectivity and speeds suffered at the forum, and Putin's speech, in which he accused the West of trying to crush...

A U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq is now volunteering in Ukraine’s fight against Russia, training troops before they head to the front lines in defense of their country."These are ordinary civilians who, 1776 style, have decided to answer their nation’s call to duty," the Army veteran, who talked to Fox News on condition of anonymity due to concerns for his safety, saidBut now the American finds himself close to the front lines of a different war, choosing to voluntarily travel to Ukraine to train their forces before potentially joining them on the front lines of the war against...

The European Union has reached a deal to ban the import of Russian oil , EU council president Charles Michel said late on Tuesday. In a tweet, he said it would immediately covers more than two thirds of oil imports from Russia, “cutting a huge source of financing for its war machine”.A proposed exception for oil delivered by pipeline earlier edged the EU towards finalising the deal to sanction Russia and squeeze its financial ability to wage war in Ukraine.

Norway’s excess oil and gas profits will exceed one hundred billion euros. It is indirectly preying on Putin’s induced war. It is unfair, they should share, said Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Saturday at a meeting with young people. He called on young people to “write to their friends in Norway” about this. On Saturday, the head of government participated in a question and answer session during the National Youth Dialogue Congress. He said the surplus – in excess of the annual average of recent years – oil and gas profits from “a small country of five million like Norway...

Days after taking office as Germany’s vice chancellor and economy minister in December, Robert Habeck asked his most senior officials for a detailed assessment of his country’s dependence on Russian energy. The result shocked him. The country heavily relied on Russian hydrocarbons to power vehicles and factories and heat homes, and there was no contingency plan to secure other supplies, Mr. Habeck said. The government had no viable alternative to Russian imports.

Ten more European gas buyers have opened accounts in Gazprombank JSC, doubling the total number of clients preparing to pay in rubles for Russian gas as President Vladimir Putin demanded.A total of twenty European companies have opened accounts, with another 14 clients asking for the paperwork needed to set them up, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential matters. He declined to identify the companies.

Ukraine has driven Russian troops back to their own border near Kharkiv and now threatens supply lines into Donbas as Putin's army suffers another humiliating loss. Commanders said late Tuesday they had recaptured four small towns to the north of Ukraine's second-largest city, with reports overnight suggesting they had pushed to within three miles of the Russian border. If confirmed, it would put the city of Vovchans'k - a key supply hub linking Russia's Belgorod to its frontlines in Donbas - within artillery range, threatening to cut supply lines and hamper Putin's efforts to take the region. Meanwhile, Ukraine's gas...