Dhe Kremlin has dismissed Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s criticism of the reliability of Russian gas supplies and has asserted that it is not interested in a complete halt. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that the serviced gas turbine will be installed in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline as soon as it has been transported back from Canada. According to Peskow, after the installation and completion of the formalities, the amount of natural gas will be increased as much as is “technologically possible”. However, the operator Gazprom said there were still unanswered questions about the turbine. It is also about the sanctions imposed by the EU and Great Britain. Questions also arose regarding the maintenance of other turbines for the Nord Stream 1 compressor station. Gazprom resumed operations on July 21 after completing the annual maintenance work. Since then, the pipeline has been used at 40 percent – that’s the amount before the maintenance work began.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had previously stressed that the Russian government’s goal was regime change in Kyiv. Moscow is determined to help Ukrainians “unburden themselves of the burden of this totally unacceptable regime,” Lavrov said in a speech to the Council of the Arab League in Cairo on Sunday evening. The Russian and Ukrainian people would live together in the future, and Moscow would “certainly” support the Ukrainian people in getting rid of the “absolutely anti-people and anti-history” regime. The statements contrasted sharply with previous statements by Lavrov and other senior Russian officials. As recently as April, the foreign minister denied that Russia was aiming for regime change in Ukraine. Egypt was the first stop on Lavrov’s multi-day trip to Africa. On Monday he traveled to the Republic of Congo, later he wants to visit Ethiopia and Uganda. Moscow supported decolonization in Africa, it promoted national liberation movements and later independent states, he said in an interview with Russian broadcaster RT.
Lavrov wants to reassure allies
One goal of Lavrov’s trip is believed to be to reassure African allies like Egypt over the threatened grain supply. Egypt is the world’s largest importer of wheat, with the North African country getting most of it from Russia and Ukraine. At the joint press conference with Egypt’s Foreign Minister Samih Shukri on Sunday in Cairo, Lavrov reiterated that Russian grain exporters were striving to fulfill their obligations. He described the mines in front of the ports, which the Ukrainian army had laid for defense purposes, as the greatest obstacle to the resumption of Ukrainian grain deliveries agreed on Friday. 70 ships of other countries in Ukrainian ports have practically become “hostages” because of the mines, Lavrov said.
The warring parties made statements on Monday about their recent military successes. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said Ukrainian troops used American HIMARS rocket launchers to destroy 50 Russian ammunition depots. The enemy’s supply chains had been disrupted in such a way that he was losing the ability to actively fight and attack the Ukrainians with heavy artillery. For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry said its own forces had destroyed an ammunition depot in Bogdanovtsy in the Khmelnytskyi region in the western center of the country. American HIMARS were said to have been deposited there. The information cannot be verified.
