In Germany, the share of Norwegian natural gas is now around 30 percent. The country has thus overtaken Russia as the most important supplier country. Nevertheless, according to Prime Minister Jonas Gahr, the country cannot expand its current delivery capacities. “Norway delivers at most what we can deliver,” Store said on Monday in Oslo after a meeting with Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Only about 20 percent of the promised volume is currently coming from Russia via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. (Reuters)
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According to British military experts, the danger of Russian troops landing in the Ukrainian port of Odessa from the sea has largely been averted. That’s according to the daily intelligence update from the Ministry of Defense in London. “This means Ukraine can move resources to pressure Russian ground forces elsewhere,” the British concluded. No port is required for a so-called amphibious landing of troops and material using special ships.
According to London, the Russian ships are only partially able to effectively support Moscow’s invasion efforts in Ukraine. Accordingly, they adopt an “extremely defensive attitude”. Apart from the submarines, they always stayed within sight of the coast of the Russian-held Crimean Peninsula. This is in contrast to the increased activity of Russian ships in other seas this time of year, the statement said. (dpa)
According to Britain, Russia has trouble controlling the Black Sea from the sea. Patrols are limited to the waters around Crimea, the British Ministry of Defense announced, citing the secret services. The Black Sea Fleet uses long-range missiles to support ground offensives, but behaves rather defensively. The restrictions on the fleet undermined Russia’s strategy, the bulletin said. (Reuters)
According to Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, Norway currently has no way of expanding its gas supplies to Germany and Europe. “Norway delivers at most what we can deliver,” Store said on Monday in Oslo after a meeting with Chancellor Olaf Scholz. This means that after Qatar, another country’s hope of quickly finding additional suppliers to replace Russian gas has been dashed. Scholz thanked Store for Norway being a very reliable supplier.
The Norwegian Prime Minister emphasized that production had already been increased by almost ten percent after the Russian attack on Ukraine. It is also not up to the Norwegian government to decide whether production can be safely expanded. “We can’t decide politically, we just do more.” This is a company decision. For higher production, new gas deposits would have to be developed. (Reuters)
For the first time since the beginning of the war, a freighter with grain is on its way to Africa. The “Brave Commander” with 23,000 tons of wheat left the port of Pivdennyj in Ukraine, as data from Refinitiv Eikon show. Their destination is the port of Djibouti, the wheat is destined for Ethiopia, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure.
Since the agreement to resume grain exports by ship, 17 ships have left Ukrainian ports with a total of 475,000 tons of agricultural goods. (Reuters)
As the American military think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) writes, pro-Russian separatists from the Luhansk region apparently refuse to continue fighting for Russia in the neighboring Donetsk region. The ISW refers to a video of a corresponding military battalion. There, the soldiers call their work done, as they had already completely conquered their region on July 3rd.
Although the authenticity of the video could not be proven, it follows the recent trend, according to which fighters from Luhansk in particular are showing ever lower morale and combat readiness, the analysts write. This development is particularly dangerous for Russia’s plans to continue recruiting soldiers from Luhansk. (tsp)
This is Putin’s war, not the Russians’ war.
