February 22, 2022 Ukraine-Russia crisis news

The deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, has responded to Germany’s announcement on Tuesday that it would halt the certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, warning of a severe hike in natural gas prices for Europe.

Earlier on Tuesday, Scholz announced that the certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline would be halted in response to Moscow’s actions in eastern Ukraine. 

“With regards to the latest developments, we need to reassess the situation also with regards to Nord Stream 2. It sounds very technocratic, but it is the necessary administrative step in order to stop certification of the pipeline,” Scholz said in Berlin.

Some background: The 750-mile pipeline was completed in September but has not yet received final certification from German regulators. Without that, natural gas cannot flow through the Baltic Sea pipeline from Russia to Germany.                        

Nord Stream 2 could deliver 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year. That's more than 50% of Germany's annual consumption and could be worth as much as $15 billion to Gazprom, the Russian state owned company that controls the pipeline.

The United States, the United Kingdom, Ukraine and several EU countries have opposed the pipeline since it was announced in 2015, warning the project would increase Moscow's influence in Europe.

Germany: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stopped the progression of the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline following Moscow’s actions in eastern Ukraine. The pipeline, which would have increased European reliance on energy from Russia, has been a major source of contention in Europe and the United States for years. Without undergoing the certification or approval process, the pipeline cannot start running. 

United Kingdom: Prime Minister Boris Johnson has unveiled the "first tranche" of British sanctions on Russia, condemning Vladimir Putin's Ukraine aggression. The UK will sanction five Russian banks and three "very high net worth" individuals, Johnson said in Parliament.

"What (Putin) is doing is going to be a disaster for Russia," he said, predicting "pariah status" for the nation if it continues to further invade Ukraine.

European Union: The European Commission proposed sanctions to EU members states and placed a particular emphasis that would mirror sanctions taken in Crimea after the 2014 annexation by Moscow. Sources say US and European officials have been in intense discussions over the several past hours over how to proceed with additional sanctions against Russia.

United States: After its first set of announced sanctions on Monday, the White House has said it will impose additional "significant" sanctions on Tuesday. Monday's sanctions were cautious in nature and Tuesday's sanctions are expected to go further but it will not be the full blow that the US has previewed, pending "further actions" by Russia.

Turkey: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to recognize breakaway eastern Ukrainian territories, calling it “unacceptable," and saying it is contrary to the Minsk Agreements.

China: China's Foreign Ministry evaded more than a dozen questions on Ukraine in its daily briefing on Tuesday. In his responses, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin reiterated that any country’s “legitimate security concerns should be respected” and urged all parties to "exercise restraint.” Beijing is navigating a complex position as it attempts to balance deepening ties with Moscow with its practiced foreign policy of staunchly defending state sovereignty.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has hailed Germany's decision to halt certification of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline as a "brave step."

Some background: Earlier today, Germany said it was halting certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline following Moscow's actions in eastern Ukraine on Monday.

The 750-mile pipeline was completed in September but has not yet received final certification from German regulators. Without that, natural gas cannot flow through the Baltic Sea pipeline from Russia to Germany.

The United States, the United Kingdom, Ukraine and several EU countries have opposed the pipeline since it was announced in 2015, warning the project would increase Moscow's influence in Europe.

Nord Stream 2 could deliver 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year. That's more than 50% of Germany's annual consumption and could be worth as much as $15 billion to Gazprom, the Russian state owned company that controls the pipeline.

There are few energy projects in the world as controversial as Nord Stream 2, and on Tuesday, it all but died in the water as Germany’s leader halted its approval process. 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s announcement was the strongest concrete response yet from the West to Russia’s military action in eastern Ukraine. But it puts Europe in an uncomfortable position — Russia could simply turn off its other gas taps that power most of the continent and leave millions of people in the dark and cold. 

Fears that Russia would use Nord Stream 2 as a geopolitical weapon to push it interests — and expansionism — in Europe were well founded. But loading the weapon with actual gas will weaken Europe’s position even further.

Whether or not Germany officially scraps Nord Stream 2, Russia’s actions in Ukraine make the project politically untenable. 

The pipeline was already running into political problems. The 1,230-kilometer pipeline was supposed to ferry huge amounts of Russian gas to Europe via Germany, and although it has been sitting there, built for more than five months, not a single delivery has passed through it.

Germany’s new coalition government has a strong Greens presence that opposed the increased reliance on natural gas – a fossil fuel that is now contributing more greenhouse gas emissions in the EU than coal, so reliant it has become on what was supposed to be a fuel to transition to renewables. 

Nord Stream 2 was set to add 100 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year, not to mention the inevitable leaks of methane, a greenhouse gas with more than 80 times the planet-warming power of CO2 in the short term.

Now Europe — Germany in particular – has an opportunity to use this moment to move away not just from Nord Stream 2 but its growing reliance on fossil gas altogether. 

Germany is one of few developed nations that opposes nuclear power and is in the process of shutting down its few reactors. Without it, it will need a radical rethink to speed up energy generation from renewables. And considering the environmental concerns around dealing with the radioactive waste that nuclear energy brings, its role in the future energy mix has its limitations. A rapid scale-up of renewables – solar, wind and hydropower – offer security in both energy and climate protection. Moving subsidies away from fossil fuels to renewables would be an easy first step.

In the short term, Europe can scramble gas from other countries — unlikely enough to replace Russia, but perhaps enough to get by — and deal with the immediate Russian threat.

But the forever problem of the climate crisis will keep churning and will ultimately be deadlier and costlier than military confrontation is likely to be.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that while Russia has sought to cooperate with all the independent nations which emerged after the fall of the Soviet Union, the situation in Ukraine “is different” due to intervention by foreign nations.

“We intend to work this way with all our neighbors, but with Ukraine, the situation is different,” he continued. “This is because, unfortunately, the territory of this country is being used by third countries to create threats against the Russian Federation itself. That is the only reason.”

Addressing the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, in Moscow, Putin spoke of his decision to recognize the separatist-controlled Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic on Monday. 

“I shall say straight away that we foresaw speculation on this subject that ‘Russia is going is restore an empire within imperial borders.’ That is absolutely not true,” Putin said, adding that he will discuss the situation in Ukraine in further detail during his meeting with Aliyev.

Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 12 others injured in shelling by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine on Monday, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday in a statement. 

The ministry said the Ukrainian Defense Forces recorded 84 ceasefire violations on Monday, 64 of which involved weapons prohibited by the 2015 Minsk Peace agreement. Most of the violence was recorded along the contact line in Luhansk.

In a separate statement on Tuesday, the ministry said it has so far recorded 152 attacks on civilian objects in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk over the past five days. 

It said one civilian was killed, two were injured and three more suffered concussions. 

In total, the ministry said 48 homes, four schools and educational institutions and 11 infrastructure facilities were damaged over the past five days. 

The shelling on Monday follows a weekend of violations: the Ukrainian Border Guards saidthat Shchastia, a crossing point for international humanitarian organizations at the Line of Contact, had been closed since 8 a.m. local time Sunday due to shelling. A UNHCR convoy that used the crossing point Friday said it had been caught in crossfire.

Some residents of Donetsk — which is controlled by pro-Russian separatists — reported heavy shelling early Sunday, ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement on Monday that Donetsk would be recognized as a Russian republic.  

The authorities in the breakaway republics persistently claim shelling by Ukrainian forces, who in turn regularly deny firing artillery across the front lines.

On Saturday, the EU condemned the "use of heavy weaponry and indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas," saying they constituted a "clear violation of the Minsk agreements and international humanitarian law."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to recognize breakaway eastern Ukrainian territories, calling it “unacceptable.”

“Russia's decision to recognize the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk Republics is contrary to the Minsk Agreements,” Erdogan told reporters during a trip to Senegal on Tuesday.  

“It was emphasized that this decision constitutes a clear violation of Ukraine's political unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he added.

“We consider this decision of Russia unacceptable,” Erdogan said.

The Turkish leader called on the parties to “respect common sense” and announced that Turkey is open to attending a summit proposal by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Erdogan added that Turkey is taking precautions in case of an escalation in hostility around the Black Sea.

“Since we are a Black Sea country, many precautions must be taken,” he said.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has unveiled the "first tranche" of British sanctions on Russia, condemning Vladimir Putin's Ukraine aggression and saying Europe must "brace ourselves" for his next steps.

Johnson told lawmakers that people "will struggle to understand or to contemplate how, in the year 2022, a national leader might calmly and deliberately plot the destruction of a peaceful neighbor."

"Yet the evidence of his own words suggest that is exactly what President Putin is doing," he said.

The UK will sanction five Russian banks and three "very high net worth" individuals, Johnson said in Parliament.

"What (Putin) is doing is going to be a disaster for Russia," he said, predicting "pariah status" for the nation if it continues to further invade Ukraine.

Johnson's predecessor as prime minister, Theresa May, told Parliament that Britain must defend "the right to democracy itself," adding: "What lies behind this is a wider, worldwide trend of authoritarian states trying to impose their way of thinking on others."

Earlier, Johnson's spokesperson supported Germany's move to halt certification of the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline. "Europe has to wean itself off Russian hydrocarbons," the spokesperson told reporters, according to PA Media.

The White House will be imposing additional sanctions on Russia in the coming hours, a top Biden national security official said Tuesday, after Russia President Vladimir Putin recognized two pro-Moscow territories in Ukraine on Monday.

“The United States is going to have significant announcements of its own a bit later today, including sanctions that we will impose in response to what Russia did yesterday,” deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said during an appearance on MSNBC.

He also offered a little more detail on the additional sanctions announcements coming later Tuesday, suggesting that this could stop short of the severe sanctions the US has previewed, pending “further actions” by Russia.

“If Russia takes further actions, we will have further significant and severe consequences that we can impose via sanctions on Russia, in addition to the other elements of our response, including security assistance to the Ukrainians to help them defend themselves, and the force posture, troop movements that you have seen the United States take, in the coming days,” Finer said, adding that the US remains open to diplomacy.

For now, an entire array of sanctions against Russia is not expected because, "if you are going to deter [Putin] from taking Kyiv and the country — still a serious probability — you have to hold some threats of sanctions against that,” a senior administration official told CNN.

However, sanctions announced today are still expected to go further than the limited package, the White House announced on Monday.

A senior US official told CNN the cautious nature of Monday's package was due, in part, to the need to consult with Europeans about their willingness to go further, and to gauge whether Russia's actions Monday should trigger the full sanctions package the West has prepared in the event of an invasion.

US and European officials have been in intense discussions over the several past hours over how to proceed with additional sanctions against Russia for ordering troops into Ukraine, according to officials familiar with the matter.

The European Commission has also proposed sanctions to EU member states on Tuesday. The proposals will place sanctions on 27 persons and entities including political figures, propagandists, military personnel and financial entities who the EU deems to be linked to “illegal activities” in the regions. There will also be sanctions for the 351 Russian lawmakers who voted for the recognition and the 11 who proposed it – and the installation of Russian troops.

The Commission has placed a particular emphasis that would mirror sanctions taken in Crimea after the 2014 annexation by Moscow.