EXPLAINER: What's the fallout from Ukraine's pipe shutdown?
The shutdown of a gas pipeline in eastern Ukraine has sent a fresh wave of energy jitters through Europe.
The price of gas jumped — then fell. The cutoff is in sharp focus because it’s the first time that the war has disrupted the Russian natural gas that flows through Ukraine to get to Europe, where it powers factories and generates electricity.
Here are key things to know:
WHAT HAPPENED IN UKRAINE?
The operator of the gas pipeline system, Gas TSO of Ukraine, said it could no longer transport gas through a compressor station in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, near the border with Russia. It said it had no operational control over the station in Russian-held territory, with occupying forces interfering in the station’s operation and diverting gas in a way that endangered the stability of the pipeline system.
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-prices-475a47cd609fa3e2c478e13f16f95c87
Ukraine shuts off Russian pipeline amid talk of annexation
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine shut down a pipeline Wednesday that carries Russian natural gas to homes and industries in Western Europe, while a Kremlin-installed official in a southern region seized by Russian troops said the area will ask Moscow to annex it.
The immediate effect of the energy cutoff is likely to be limited, in part because Russia can divert the gas to another pipeline and because Europe relies on a variety of suppliers. But it marked the first time since the start of the war that Ukraine disrupted the flow westward of one of Moscow’s most lucrative exports.
Meanwhile, the talk of annexation in Kherson — and Russia’s apparent willingness to consider such a request — raised the possibility that the Kremlin will seek to break off another piece of Ukraine as it tries to salvage an invasion gone awry. Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
“The city of Kherson is Russia,” Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Kherson regional administration installed by Moscow, told Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency. He said regional officials want Russian President Vladimir Putin to make Kherson a “proper region” of Russia.
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-zelenskyy-kyiv-europe-d38703c060c6b066f2bd9012d147c6e1
