Russia is preparing for 'energy attack' on Europe, Zelenskyy warns as major gas pipeline stays closed
The Kremlin is preparing an “energy attack” on Europe, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday, a day after Russian energy giant Gazprom
The Kremlin is preparing an “energy attack” on Europe, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday, a day after Russian energy giant Gazprom indefinitely suspended natural gas supplies to Germany through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
“Where Russia cannot do it by force of conventional weapons, it does so by force of energy weapons,” Zelenskyy said in a video address. “Russia is preparing for a decisive energy attack on all Europeans,” he said.
His comments came after Gazprom, the state-controlled company with a monopoly on Russian gas exports through the key pipeline, said Friday that it could no longer provide a time frame for restarting deliveries through Nord Stream 1.
It said an oil leak meant a pipeline turbine could not run safely and that it could not safely resume operations until all malfunctions had been resolved.
Siemens, the German manufacturer of the turbines, however, said in a statement that such leakages “do not usually affect the operation of a turbine and can be sealed on site,” adding that it had never suspended operations in the past. Despite the leak, there were additional turbines to operate the pipeline, the statement said.
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