10 km into Russian territory! The Ukrainian offensive seriously threatens the supply of natural gas to Europe

Ukraine's offensive in Russia can would enter a new phase after Volodymyr Zelensky announced that the Ukrainian army now controls the city of Suja, the largest in the Kursk region, 10 km into Russian territory, the Associated Press reports.

The reason is that natural gas from Western Siberia passes through Ukraine to Europe through Suja.

A total of 3% of the 15% of total natural gas imports from Russia to Europe passed through Suja last year.

At the same time, however, as the Associated Press notes, Europe continues to walk on a razor's edge when it comes to its energy reserves, given that it is essentially an energy importer and recently experienced an inflationary explosion due to high oil prices. the energy.

The largest quantities of Suez gas come from countries such as Austria, Slovakia and Hungary, which, if something goes wrong, will have to look for a new source of energy.

Suja's role was described most eloquently by Russia's former deputy foreign minister, Andrei Fyodorov, in an interview on Russian state television: "Smart people in Kiev calculated that they had to capture this hub so that the Russian army could be forced to destroy it to get it back. This means that gas supplies to Europe will stop because of the actions of Russia, not Ukraine”.

The European Union has drawn up a plan to completely end Russian imports of fossil fuels by 2027, but progress has been slow. Over the past two years, Austria has increased its imports of Russian gas from 80% to 98%, while Italy, which has reduced direct imports, still supplies Russian gas through Austria.

At the same time, Europe continues to import liquefied natural gas, which made up 6% of imports last year. Trade data shows that supplies of liquefied natural gas to France more than doubled in the first half of this year. Meanwhile, EU members Romania and Hungary signed gas agreements with Turkey, which imports gas from Russia.

In parallel, Kremlin adviser Nikolai Patrushev said today that the US-led military alliance and the West were directly involved in planning Ukraine's attack on Russia's Kursk region.

In an interview with "Notices" Patrushev claimed that US claims that they were not involved in the attack were not true. "The operation in the Kursk region is also planned with the participation of NATO and Western special services," Patrushev said according to the newspaper.

"Statements by the US leadership that it was not involved in Kiev's crimes in the Kursk region are not true ... Without their involvement and direct support, Kiev would not have taken risks on Russian territory.

However, the White House claims that Ukraine did not notify of its raid and that Washington was not involved in the operation.