"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." Northwoods is a ministry dedicated to refreshing Christians and challenging them to search for the truth in Christianity, politics, sociology, and science
"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life"
Father God, thank you for the love of the truth you have given me. Please bless me with the wisdom, knowledge and discernment needed to always present the truth in an attitude of grace and love. Use this blog and Northwoods Ministries for your glory. Help us all to read and to study Your Word without preconceived notions, but rather, let scripture interpret scripture in the presence of the Holy Spirit. All praise to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Please note: All my writings and comments appear in bold italics in this colour
Wednesday, January 1, 2025
Ukraine War > The Dutch protest for peace in Ukraine - go figure; Russo-American gas war 'heating up' in European winter; Shutdowns and bankruptcies in Germany; Severe consequences for smaller EU states
Curious that this would happen in Amsterdam the home of the new NATO chief. Are the Dutch clueing into the fact that this is a proxy war between NATO (read America) and Russia? A war whose purpose is to move as many Western-made weapons as possible from War Industry inventories!
Protest in Amsterdam calls for ‘peace with Russia’
Hundreds rallied in the Dutch capital, demanding an end
to military support for Ukraine
Hundreds of people gathered in Amsterdam’s Dam Square on Sunday to protest the Netherlands’ enduring military support for Ukraine and to urge the government to kickstart dialogue with Russia instead.
The rally and subsequent march were organized by several activist groups and the right-wing Forum for Democracy (FvD) party. The demonstration was expected to attract at least 1,500 people, according to its organizers.
An MP with the FvD , Gideon van Meijeren, delivered a speech during the event, calling for peace with Russia and accusing “elites” of seeking to spark a major war.
“They lie to us, they intimidate us and they want a war with Russia. They say that Russia is dangerous and that Russia wants to attack us, but we know that they are doing this only for their own interests. They want to funnel more money to the military-industrial complex and have more power, therefore they are trying to manipulate us,” Meijeren told TASS, stressing that “peace would be the best option for everyone.”
The speakers at the event delivered their remarks on a small stage with a placard reading “Peace with Russia” and a ribbon depicting the Netherlands flag morphing into Russia’s state ensign.
A member of the Heart for Freedom activist group, Hugo Gitelink, told the demonstrators the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, backed by the collective West, risks devolving into a third world war.
“A third world war would be hell on Earth. Therefore, we’re calling for an immediate ceasefire, [and end to] all arms supplies, and the lifting of economic and cultural sanctions,” he stated.
The Netherlands has been among the most active supporters of Ukraine, supplying assorted sophisticated hardware, making financial contributions for Leopard tanks and pledging US-made F-16 fighter jets from its own fleet. The country provided Ukraine with around €3 billion ($3.15 billion) in military aid this year, with similar amounts earmarked for 2024 and 2025, according to official figures released by the Dutch government.
What could the Netherlands have done with €9.45 bn? Something useful, I suspect.
America has convinced most European countries, against all logic and common sense, to abandon cheap Russian natural gas for costly American gas. That major industries in Germany are shutting down because of it doesn't seem to have made any difference. Germans will continue to elect hapless leaders who kowtow to NATO and Washington as their country falls apart like a bundle of sticks.
American gas sales to Europe along with the movement of war industry inventories are the real reason there is a war in the Ukraine.
Ukraine halts flow of Russian natural gas as prewar deal expires
By Hanna Arhirova And Joanna Kozlowska The Associated Press
Posted January 1, 2025 7:29 am
5 min read
Ukraine on Wednesday halted Russian gas supplies to European customers through its pipeline network after a prewar transit deal expired at the end of last year.
Ukraine’s energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, confirmed on Wednesday morning that Kyiv had stopped the transit “in the interest of national security.”
“This is a historic event. Russia is losing markets and will incur financial losses. Europe has already decided to phase out Russian gas, and (this) aligns with what Ukraine has done today,” Halushchenko said in an update on the Telegram messaging app.
At a summit in Brussels last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed that Kyiv would not allow Moscow to use the transits to earn “additional billions … on our blood, on the lives of our citizens.” But he had briefly held open the possibility of the gas flows continuing if payments to Russia were withheld until the war ends.
Russia’s Gazprom said in a statement on Wednesday morning that it “has no technical and legal possibility” of sending gas through Ukraine, due to Kyiv’s refusal to extend the deal.
Even as Russian troops and tanks moved into Ukraine in 2022, Russian natural gas kept flowing through the country’s pipeline network — set up when Ukraine and Russia were both part of the Soviet Union — to Europe, under a five-year agreement. Gazprom earned money from the gas and Ukraine collected transit fees.
Before the war, Russia supplied nearly 40% of the European Union’s pipeline natural gas. Gas flowed through four pipeline systems, one under the Baltic Sea, one through Belarus and Poland, one through Ukraine and one under the Black Sea through Turkey to Bulgaria.
After the war started, Russia cut off most supplies through the Baltic and Belarus-Poland pipelines, citing disputes over a demand for payment in rubles. The Baltic pipeline was blown up in an act of sabotage, but details of the attack remain murky.
1:48
Russia accused of sabotage after blasts lead to leaks in Nord Stream pipelines
The Russian cutoff caused an energy crisis in Europe. Germany had to shell out billions of euros to set up floating terminals to import liquefied natural gas that comes by ship, not by pipeline. Users cut back as prices soared. Norway and the U.S. filled the gap, becoming the two largest suppliers.
Europe viewed the Russian cutoff as energy blackmail and has outlined plans to completely eliminate Russian gas imports by 2027.
Russia’s share of the EU pipeline natural gas market dropped sharply to about 8% in 2023, according to data from the EU Commission. The Ukrainian transit route served EU members Austria and Slovakia, which long got the bulk of their natural gas from Russia but have recently scrambled to diversify supplies.
Gazprom halted supplies to Austria’s OMV in mid-November over a contractual dispute, but gas flows through Ukraine’s pipelines continued as other customers stepped in. Slovakia this year inked deals to begin buying natural gas from Azerbaijan, and also to import U.S. liquefied natural gas through a pipeline from Poland.
Among the hardest-hit will be EU candidate country Moldova, which was receiving Russian gas via Ukraine and has brought in emergency measures as residents brace for a harsh winter and looming power cuts.
Separately from Kyiv’s decision to let the transit deal expire, Gazprom said last month it will halt gas supplies to Moldova starting on Jan. 1, citing unpaid debt. Gazprom has said Moldova owes close to $709 million for past gas supplies, a figure the country has fiercely disputed, citing international audits.
Heating and hot water supplies were abruptly cut off on Wednesday to households in Transnistria, Moldova’s breakaway region that has for decades hosted Russian troops, as Russian natural gas stopped flowing to the territory, local transit operator Tiraspoltransgaz-Transnistria said.
In an online statement, the company urged residents to gather household members together in a single room, hang blankets over windows and balcony doors, and use electric heaters. It said some key facilities including hospitals were exempt from the cuts.
On Dec. 13, Moldova’s parliament voted in favor of imposing a state of emergency in the energy sector, as fears mounted that the gas shortages could trigger a humanitarian crisis in Transnistria, for decades dependent on Russian energy supplies.
Many observers have predicted that the looming energy shortage could force people in the separatist territory to travel to Moldova proper, seeking basic amenities to get through the harsh winter and placing further strain on resources.
Moldova, Ukraine and EU politicians have repeatedly accused Moscow of weaponizing energy supplies.
On Wednesday, Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski called Ukraine’s move to halt supplies a “victory” for those opposed to the Kremlin’s policies. In a post on X, Sikorski accused Moscow of systematic attempts to “blackmail Eastern Europe with the threat of cutting off gas supplies,” including through a Baltic pipeline bypassing Ukraine and Poland and running directly to Germany.
Slovakian PM Robert Fico Slovakia’s Prime claimed Wednesday that the end of gas flows via Ukraine “will drastically affect us all in the EU but not Russia.”
Fico, whose views on Russia have sharply differed from the European mainstream, has previously hit out at Kyiv’s refusal to extend the transit deal, and threatened to end electricity supplies to Ukraine in response.
Moscow can still send gas to Hungary, as well as non-EU states Turkey and Serbia, through the TurkStream pipeline across the Black Sea.
The steady reduction of Russian gas supplies to European countries has also spurred them to hasten the integration of Ukraine’s energy grids with its neighbors to the west.
Last week, private Ukrainian energy utility DTEK said it had received its first shipment of liquefied natural gas from the U.S., to be delivered through a newly expanded network spanning six countries from Greece to Ukraine – and marking a significant step in reducing regional dependence on Russian energy.
Separately, overnight into New Year’s Day, Russia launched a drone strike on Kyiv that left two people dead under the rubble of a damaged building, according to the city administration. At least six people were wounded across the Ukrainian capital, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Russian shelling also killed a man and wounded two women in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson, regional authorities reported.
German energy official asks citizens to save gas
Consumption jumped by almost 6% in the final three months of 2024, according to grid chief Klaus Muller
German households and businesses should save gas to avoid shortages, the country’s energy regulator, the Federal Network Agency, has requested, Die Welt reported on Wednesday. According to an analysis by the agency, the country has been consuming significantly more gas this heating season than last year.
The agency said total gas consumption in Germany rose by 5.8% from October to December 2024 against the same period the previous year, to 246 terawatt-hours (TWh). Industries recorded an increase in consumption of 9.1% compared to 2023, while the increase in households and businesses was more modest at 1.9%, the report noted.
The agency attributed the spike in gas consumption to colder weather. However, the head of the energy regulator, Klaus Muller, told the news outlet that, given the trend, consumers would be wise to be more frugal with gas use to avoid shortages, and consequently, a rise in prices.
“It is definitely still worth saving gas and thus easing the burden on your wallet,” he was cited as saying. According to Muller, however, the country’s gas supply is not in jeopardy yet, as storage facilities are still 80% full.
“This means we are well prepared for the next three months,” he said, adding that Germany has “come through the first half of the winter well so far.”
When it comes to heating, natural gas is still the most important energy source in Germany, with roughly half of all apartments and single-family homes nationwide heated with gas, Die Welt reports.
Germany relied on Russia for more than half of its gas demand before the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Deliveries were either significantly curtailed or entirely halted after the EU imposed sanctions on Moscow, and the Nord Stream pipelines delivering Russian gas directly to Germany were destroyed by blasts at the bottom of the Baltic Sea in September 2022.
Long considered the EU’s industrial powerhouse, Germany was among the hardest hit by the reduction of Russian energy supplies, with its economy plunging into a recession in 2023. The German government in October revised down its GDP forecast for this year to a further contraction of 0.2%. The loss of cheap Russian gas and reliance on the far more costly liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US has also pushed energy prices in Germany beyond what a lot of industrial enterprises can afford, triggering a wave of shutdowns and bankruptcies.
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently criticized her successors for abandoning Russian gas. In an interview with France 2 TV released in early December, she said buying gas from Russia “was a win-win situation” for both states, as Berlin was able to obtain the much-needed commodity “at a favorable cost,” while “prices exploded” after Germany abandoned Russian supplies.
Slovakia’s leader has blasted “nonsensical geopolitical goals” within the bloc and warned of severe impacts on smaller nations
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has expressed deep concern over Ukraine's decision to end the transit of Russian gas, emphasizing the severe repercussions for Slovakia and the broader European Union. The halt in gas flows, effective January 1, 2025, follows Ukraine’s decision not to renew its transit agreement with Russia’s Gazprom.
In a video published on Wednesday, Fico criticized the dominance of “selfish national interests” and “nonsensical geopolitical goals” within the EU and suggested that the needs of smaller nations like Slovakia are being overlooked.
“In world politics, it absolutely holds true that it does not matter whether the elephants love or fight each other. The grass always suffers,” Fico said. “I do not wish for Slovakia to be such grass, as we see these days with the halt of gas transit through Ukraine, which will have drastic impacts on all of us in the European Union, but not on the Russian Federation.”
He pledged to pursue a globally-engaged foreign policy in 2025 focused on “non-interference in the internal affairs of others” and prioritizing Slovak national interests.
A pipeline running through Ukraine provides Russian gas to Slovakia, which had anticipated a continued supply and urged Ukraine to renew the transit agreement. Following Kiev’s decision not to, Fico threatened last week to cut electricity supplies to Ukraine.
The European Commission has sought to downplay the impact of the gas deal ending, asserting that the EU’s gas infrastructure is sufficiently flexible to accommodate non-Russian gas supplies via alternative routes. Despite these assurances, the sudden halt has led to a surge in gas prices in Europe, reaching €50 per megawatt hour for the first time in over a year.
No comments:
Post a Comment