War

One thousand four hundred seventy-sixth day. The pause in negotiations is prolonged due to the war in the Middle East. Putin invites Europe to buy gas again

Since February 24, 2022, Meduza has been broadcasting live about the Russian-Ukrainian war. We publish your letters every day because we are sure that we need to continue talking about the war. On February 28, the United States and Israel went to war with Iran. Do you think this will affect the world's attitude towards the Russian-Ukrainian war? Will she “fade into the background”, as some believe? Will it become even more difficult for Ukraine? And is it possible to compare an attack on Iran with a Russian attack on Ukraine? The feedback form is at the end of this article. A review of the previous day can be read here .

World

The next round of peace negotiations between Russia, Ukraine and the United States is postponed due to “the situation around Iran,” Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said .

As follows from his statement, American negotiators made it clear that the priority for the United States now is a war in the Middle East. He confirmed that Ukraine is ready for a meeting “at any moment” and in any format that will help end the war.

Zelensky stressed that Ukraine and the United States remain in touch “virtually 24/7.”

The last round of negotiations between Russia, Ukraine and the United States took place in Geneva on February 17-18. As a result, no breakthroughs were publicly announced, but unofficially the media wrote that the negotiating groups managed to agree on almost all controversial issues within the framework of their powers, so their work was essentially completed, and further decisions to end the war should be made by political leaders.

It was assumed that the next meeting of the negotiating teams could be decisive - either it would open the way to organizing a summit with the participation of Vladimir Zelensky, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, as a result of which a deal and a ceasefire could be announced, or it would finally show that any agreement is fundamentally unattainable at the moment.

The head of the office of the President of Ukraine, Kirill Budanov, who participated in the negotiations, ten days after the meeting in Geneva, actually confirmed that the negotiators had found options for compromise on the most controversial points - guarantees of the security of Ukraine and the status of Donbass. At the same time, Budanov argued that Moscow still does not agree to hold a meeting between Zelensky and Putin.

On March 6, after the start of the war in the Middle East, US Presidential Special Envoy Steven Witkoff expressed optimism about further negotiations, emphasizing that Trump continues to personally supervise the process.

Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow is ready to resume full energy supplies to European countries against the backdrop of an expected fuel shortage due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

As Putin noted, Russia has never refused to export energy resources to the EU, and is now waiting for “some signals” from European countries about the desire to resume “long-term, sustainable joint work, devoid of political considerations.”

Officials in the European Union have not yet commented on Putin’s statement. At the same time, in Germany, due to the expected sharp rise in gas prices, for the first time since the start of the great war, non-public conversations began about the possible “rehabilitation” of Russian supplies.

In 2021, the European Union was the largest buyer of Russian gas - supplies from the Russian Federation to the EU provided 45% of imports. After the start of the big war, the community countries began to gradually abandon the purchase of gas from the Russian Federation through pipelines, replacing it with LNG (liquefied gas) from the USA and Qatar (it was the supplies from Qatar that were primarily under threat due to the new war in the Middle East). At the same time, liquefied gas from Russia in Europe also continues to be purchased, but its share by 2025 has fallen to approximately 15% of all supplies.

A few months ago, the European Union, at the supranational level, adopted a strategy of completely abandoning all types of Russian gas: this will finally be done by the end of 2027. Hungary, which now remains the largest buyer of Russian energy resources in the EU (in addition to gas, Budapest also buys pipeline oil from Russia), promised to challenge this ban in court.

As part of the program to abandon Russian gas, at the end of April, EU countries will be prohibited from entering into new short-term contracts for the purchase of LNG. Vladimir Putin said on March 4 that Russia could unilaterally stop supplies even before this time. “If we are going to be closed in a month, or two, anyway, wouldn’t it be better to stop now and go there, to those countries that are reliable partners? And gain a foothold there,” said the Russian President.

War in photographs. Russian soldiers surrender in the Donetsk region

War through the eyes of Meduza readers

Evgeniy (Kharkov) . Lisa passed away yesterday . Lisa was 13. A rocket hit her house in Kharkov. They passed away along with their mother. Our children studied together. We left, they didn't. I feel so sorry for Lisa, she has just begun to live...

I think we ourselves are to blame for this war. I myself lost everything because of the war. I only blame myself for this. I wanted to return to restore what was left. Even though my family will never come back. Those who cannot protect themselves die. The most defenseless, who do not have the opportunity or mental strength to leave.

It seems to me that we can stop this if a hundred people come out, even if they are women. Others will pick up. We must rely only on ourselves. Nobody will help us. And we have a better chance here than hoping that the dissatisfied will gather in Russia. After all, only heads of state fight; they don’t care about ordinary people. Unfortunately, we ourselves allowed this to happen.

They say to me: “Do you want Ukraine to be under Russia?” No - I want more Liz alive...

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