Europe
Russia denies attacks on Ukrainian port after grain deal: Turkish minister
Russian officials had told Ankara that Russia had "nothing to do" with the attacks on Ukraine's key Black Sea port of Odessa, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Saturday.
"In our contact with Russia, the Russians told us that they had absolutely nothing to do with these attacks and that they were examining the issue very closely and in detail," Akar told Türkiye's state-run Anadolu Agency.
"The fact that such an incident happened right after the agreement we made yesterday regarding the grain shipment worried us," he said.
Akar said he also had phone conversations with Ukrainian ministers and received information regarding the incident.
The Ukrainian military said that Russian missiles hit infrastructure in Odesa on Saturday. A missile hit one of the silos in Odesa and another fell in an area close to the silo.
The attack had not compromised the port's ability to load cargo and that grain exports could go on, according to Akar.
Türkiye has sent the two countries a message, in which it said it would like to see both sides continue their cooperation "calmly and patiently" under the agreement signed on Friday, the minister said.
Türkiye would continue to fulfil its responsibilities in the agreement, he stressed.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative, signed respectively by Russia and Ukraine on Friday with Türkiye under the auspices of the UN in Istanbul, would allow significant volumes of commercial food and fertilizer exports from three key ports in the Black Sea -- Odesa, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhny, the UN said in a statement on its website.
Read: Russia hits Ukraine's Black Sea port despite grain deal
Russia hits Ukraine's Black Sea port despite grain deal
Russian missiles hit Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa just hours after Moscow and Kyiv signed deals to allow grain exports to resume from there. Ukraine's Foreign Ministry denounced Saturday's airstrikes as “spit in the face” of Turkey and the United Nations, which brokered the agreements.
Two Russian Kalibr cruise missiles hit the port's infrastructure and Ukrainian air defenses brought down two others, the Ukrainian military’s Southern Command said. Command spokeswoman Nataliya Humenyuk said no grain storage facilities were hit and she said there were no immediate reports of injuries.
“It took less than 24 hours for Russia to launch a missile attack on Odesa’s port, breaking its promises and undermining its commitments before the U.N. and Turkey under the Istanbul agreement,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said. “In case of non-fulfillment, Russia will bear full responsibility for a global food crisis.”
Nikolenko described the missile strike on the 150th day of Russia’s war in Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putin's “spit in the face of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who made great efforts to reach agreement.”
Guterres' office said the U.N. chief “unequivocally condemns” the strikes.
“Yesterday, all parties made clear commitments on the global stage to ensure the safe movement of Ukrainian grain and related products to global markets,” the Guterres statement said. “These products are desperately needed to address the global food crisis and ease the suffering of millions of people in need around the globe. Full implementation by the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Turkey is imperative.”
During a Friday signing ceremony in Istanbul, Guterres hailed the deals to open Ukraine's ports in Odesa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny to commercial food exports as "a beacon of hope, a beacon of possibility, a beacon of relief in a world that needs it more than ever.”
Read: ‘A beacon of hope’: Ukraine, Russia sign grain export deal
The agreements sought to clear the way for the shipment of millions of tons of Ukrainian grain and some Russian exports of grain and fertilizer that have been blocked by the war. Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but Russia’s invasion of the country and naval blockade of its ports halted shipments.
Documents obtained by The Associated Press showed the deals called for the creation of a U.N.-led joint coordination center in Istanbul where officials from Ukraine, Russia, Turkey would oversee the scheduling and searches of cargo ships.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address that the agreements offered “a chance to prevent a global catastrophe – a famine that could lead to political chaos in many countries of the world, in particular in the countries that help us.”
The head of Zelenskyy's office, Andriy Yermak, said on Twitter that the Odesa strike coming so soon after the endorsement of the Black Sea ports deal illustrated "the Russian diplomatic dichotomy.”
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, denounced the Russian strike on the port of Odesa as “outrageous.” "The Kremlin continues to weaponize food," she tweeted. “Russia must be held to account.”
Along with the strike on Odesa, Russia's military fired a barrage of missiles Saturday at an airfield and a railway facility in central Ukraine, killing at least three people, while Ukrainian forces launched rocket strikes on river crossings in a Russian-occupied southern region.
The attacks on key infrastructure marked new attempts by the warring parties to tip the scales of the grinding conflict in their favor.
In Ukraine's central Kirovohradska region, 13 Russian missiles struck an airfield and a railway facility. Gov. Andriy Raikovych said at least one serviceman and two guards were killed and another 16 people were wounded in the strikes near the city of Kirovohrad.
In the southern Kherson region, which Russian troops seized early in the invasion, Ukrainian forces preparing for a potential counteroffensive fired rockets at Dnieper River crossings to try to disrupt supplies to the Russians. Still, Russian troops have largely held their ground in the Kherson region just north of the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014.
Fighting raged unabated in eastern Ukraine's industrial heartland of the Donbas, where Russian forces tried to make new gains in the face of stiff Ukrainian resistance.
Earlier this week, the Ukrainians bombarded the Antonivskyi Bridge across the Dnieper River using the U.S.-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russia-appointed regional administration in Kherson, said.
Stremousov told Russian state news agency Tass that the only other crossing of the Dnieper, the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant, also came under attack from rockets launched with the weapons supplied by Washington but wasn't damaged.
HIMARS, which can fire GPS-guided rockets at targets 80 kilometers (50 miles) away, out of reach of most Russian artillery systems, have significantly bolstered the Ukrainian strike capability.
In addition, Ukrainian forces shelled an automobile bridge across the Inhulets River in the village of Darivka, Stremousov told Tass. He said the bridge just east of the regional capital of Kherson sustained seven hits but remained open. Stremousov said that unlike the Antonivskyi Bridge, the small bridge in Darivka has no strategic value.
Since April, the Kremlin has concentrated on capturing the Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking region of eastern Ukraine where pro-Russia separatists have proclaimed independence.
However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized Wednesday that Moscow plans to retain control of other areas in Ukraine that its forces have occupied during the war.
White House announces $270M military package for Ukraine
The White House announced Friday that the U.S. is sending an additional $270 million in security assistance to Ukraine, a package that will include additional medium range rocket systems and tactical drones.
The latest tranche brings the total U.S. security assistance committed to Ukraine by the Biden administration to $8.2 billion, and is being paid for through $40 billion in economic and security aid f or Ukraine approved. by Congress in May.
The new package includes four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS and will allow Kyiv to acquire up to 580 Phoenix Ghost drones, both crucial weapon systems that have allowed the Ukrainians to stay in the fight despite Russian artillery supremacy, according to John Kirby, the White House National Security Council’s coordinator for strategic communications. The latest assistance also includes some 36,000 rounds of artillery ammunition and additional ammunition for the HIMARS.
“The president has been clear that we’re going to continue to support the government of Ukraine and its people for as long as it takes,” Kirby said.
Ukrainian forces have used U.S.-made rocket launchers and tactical drones to destroy dozens of Russian targets and hold at bay Russia’s larger and more heavily equipped forces.
Russia can fire far more ammunition but has sustained huge losses of troops and equipment as Ukrainian forces have been equipped with precision weaponry from the U.S. and other Western allies. CIA Director William Burns on Wednesday said the U.S. estimates roughly 15,000 Russian forces have been killed. That death toll would be equivalent to the Soviet Union’s military losses in its 1980s war in Afghanistan, which lasted nearly a decade.
To try to equalize the conflict, Ukraine has made ample use of Western-supplied technologies as it defends its eastern lines.
Read: US and Germany agree to supply advanced weapons to Ukraine
Ukraine has long sought more HIMARS launchers, which fire medium-range rockets and also can be quickly moved before Russia can target them. On Wednesday, Ukrainian forces reportedly used a HIMARS to hit a strategic bridge in the Russia-occupied southern region of Kherson. One military expert told The Associated Press that the systems have “hardly had any rest during the day or at night.”
U.S. authorities also are providing Ukraine with more guided rockets known as GMLRS. The Pentagon continues to rule out sending longer-range rockets that Ukraine could potentially use to strike deep into Russian territory. That’s a nod to the U.S. trying to manage the risk of Russia instigating a broader war.
The U.S. has already sent 12 truck-mounted HIMARS to Ukraine. The United Kingdom has also provided three launchers of a different kind with GMLRS rockets as well.
Both sides in the war have made ample use of drones. The U.S. had previously committed to sending 121 Phoenix Ghosts to Ukraine. Pentagon officials have not fully disclosed the capabilities of those drones, which were developed by the U.S. Air Force and produced by Aevex Aerospace, which describes itself as a leader in “full-spectrum airborne intelligence solutions.” The drones have onboard cameras and can be used to attack targets.
The U.S. disclosed earlier this month that it believes Russia is planning to obtain several hundred drones from Iran. Iranian drones have previously penetrated Saudi and Emirati air defense systems in the Middle East that were supplied by the U.S. Biden administration officials have tried to publicly discourage Iran from moving forward with the transfer.
The White House released satellite imagery that indicates Russian officials twice visited Iran in June or July for a showcase of weapons-capable drones it is looking to acquire.
‘A beacon of hope’: Ukraine, Russia sign grain export deal
Russia and Ukraine signed separate agreements Friday with Turkey and the United Nations clearing the way for exporting millions of tons of desperately needed Ukrainian grain — as well as Russian grain and fertilizer — ending a wartime standoff that had threatened food security around the globe.
The deal will enable Ukraine — one of the world’s key breadbaskets — to export 22 million tons of grain and other agricultural products that have been stuck in Black Sea ports due to Russia’s invasion. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres called it “a beacon of hope” for millions of hungry people who have faced huge increases in food costs.
“A deal that allows grain to leave Black Sea ports is nothing short of lifesaving for people across the world who are struggling to feed their families,” said Red Cross Director-General Robert Mardini, who noted that over the past six months prices for food staples have risen 187% in Sudan, 86% in Syria, 60% in Yemen and 54% in Ethiopia.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov signed separate, identical deals with Guterres and Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar at a ceremony in Istanbul that was witnessed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“Today, there is a beacon on the Black Sea,” Guterres said. “A beacon of hope, a beacon of possibility, a beacon of relief in a world that needs it more than ever.”
“You have overcome obstacles and put aside differences to pave the way for an initiative that will serve the common interests of all,” he told the Russian and Ukrainian envoys.
Guterres described the deal as an unprecedented agreement between two parties engaged in a bloody conflict. Erdogan said he hoped the initiative would be “a new turning point that will revive hopes for peace.”
The European Union and the U.K. immediately welcomed the agreements.
“This is a critical step forward in efforts to overcome the global food insecurity caused by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,” said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. “Its success will depend on the swift and good faith implementation of today’s agreement.”
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said her country applauded Turkey and the U.N. for brokering the agreement.
“We will be watching to ensure Russia’s actions match its words,” Truss said. “To enable a lasting return to global security and economic stability, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin must end the war and withdraw from Ukraine.”
Read: Türkiye says deal on Ukraine's grain exports to be signed in Istanbul
Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but Russia’s invasion of the country and naval blockade of its ports have halted shipments. Some Ukrainian grain is being transported through Europe by rail, road and river, but the prices of vital commodities like wheat and barley have soared during the nearly five-month war.
Although international sanctions against Russia did not target food exports, the war has disrupted shipments of Russian products because shipping and insurance companies did not want to deal with Russia.
Guterres said the plan, known as the Black Sea Initiative, opens a path for significant volumes of commercial food exports from three key Ukrainian ports: Odesa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny.
“It will help stabilize global food prices, which were already at record levels even before the war – a true nightmare for developing countries,” Guterres added.
The deal makes provisions for the safe passage of ships through the heavily mined waters. A coordination center will be established in Istanbul, staffed by U.N., Turkish, Russian and Ukrainian officials, to monitor the ships and run the process through specific corridors. Ships would undergo inspections to ensure they are not carrying weapons.
A senior U.N. official said cargo ships would use “safe channels” identified by Ukraine as they sail in and out of ports and would be guided by Ukrainian pilots. The plan does not foresee a further demining of Ukraine’s territorial waters, which would have delayed the process.
No military ships would be used as escorts but a minesweeper could be on standby in case the safe channels “need occasional verification,” the official said.
Ships entering the Ukrainian ports would be scrutinized by inspection teams that would include representatives of all parties involved to make sure there are no weapons on board. The unloading of grain onto the vessels will also be monitored.
A key element of the deal is an agreement by both Russia and Ukraine that there will be no attacks on any of the vessels, according to the official.
It will take a few weeks before the deal is fully working, the official noted, saying Ukraine needs about 10 days to get the ports ready and also needs time to “identify and be clear about those safe corridors.”
An initial movement of ships could be possible before then “just to show that they can work,” the official said.
The aim is to export about 5 million tons of grains per month to empty Ukraine’s silos in time for the new harvest, according to the U.N. official. The agreement is for a renewable 120-day period.
Read: EXPLAINER: How did Russia-Ukraine war trigger a food crisis?
Guterres first raised the critical need to get Ukraine’s agricultural production and Russia’s grain and fertilizer back into world markets in late April during meetings with Putin in Moscow and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.
He proposed a package deal in early June amid fears that the war was endangering food supplies for many developing nations and could worsen hunger for up to 181 million people.
Peter Meyer, head of grain and oilseed analytics at S&P Global Platts, said the deal does not “mean that the global supply crisis is over.”
Traders anticipated a deal for the past several weeks, he said, so its effect might already have shown up in grain prices, which means they may not drop sharply. And the agreement covers the 2021 crop. There’s still considerable uncertainty about Ukrainian production this year and even next, Meyer said.
Before the deal, Russian and Ukrainian officials blamed each other for the blocked grain shipments. Moscow accused Ukraine of failing to remove sea mines at the ports to allow safe shipping and insisted on its right to check incoming ships for weapons. Ukraine argued that Russia’s port blockade and launching of missiles from the Black Sea made any safe shipments impossible.
Ukraine has sought international guarantees that the Kremlin wouldn’t use the safe corridors to attack the key Black Sea port of Odesa. Ukrainian authorities have also accused Russia of stealing grain from eastern Ukraine and deliberately shelling Ukrainian fields to set them on fire.
Volodymyr Sidenko, an expert with the Kyiv-based Razumkov Center think tank, said it appeared that Ukraine did not raise in the negotiations the issue of grain stolen from occupied territories in the talks.
“Apparently, it was part of a deal: Kyiv doesn’t raise the issue of stolen grain and Moscow doesn’t insist on checking Ukrainian ships. Kyiv and Moscow were forced to make a deal and compromise on many differences,” he said.
The deal was also important for Russia’s geopolitical relations, the analyst noted.
“Russia decided not to fuel a new crisis in Africa and provoke a hunger and government changes there,” Sidenko said. “The African Union asked Putin to quickly ease the crisis with grain supplies and put pressure on the Kremlin, which has its interests in Africa.”
Volkswagen CEO will step down by Sept. 1
Herbert Diess, the CEO of the German automaker Volkswagen, is stepping down, the company announced Friday.
The Wolfsburg, Germany-based company said Diess, who took over as CEO in 2018, will depart Sept. 1 “by mutual consent” with the board. His contract was set to expire in 2025.
Diess presided over the automaker at a time of significant change in the industry, including a shift toward producing more electric vehicles.
Hans Dieter Pötsch, chairman of Volkswagen’s supervisory board, thanked Diess in a statement and praised his role in “advancing the transformation of the company.”
“Not only did he steer the company through extremely turbulent waters, but he also implemented a fundamentally new strategy,” Pötsch said.
Oliver Blume, who is now CEO of Porsche, will succeed Diess. Volkswagen also said the company’s chief financial officer, Arno Antlitz, will become the new chief operating officer.
Read: Volkswagen triples electric car sales ahead of climate rules
Türkiye says deal on Ukraine's grain exports to be signed in Istanbul
An agreement for shipping grain from Ukrainian ports through the Black Sea will be signed on Friday with the participation of Russia, Ukraine, the United Nations and Türkiye, the Turkish presidency said on Thursday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres are expected to attend the signing ceremony, which will be held at the Dolmabahce Presidential Office in Istanbul on Friday at 18:30 local time (15:30 GMT), it said.
The agreement comes at a time when there are growing concerns about a global food shortage as a result of the protracted crisis in Ukraine, which is partially blamed for the food price hikes across the world.
Last week, the four parties held their first round of negotiations in Istanbul with an aim to ship Ukraine's grain to the world market to ease the supply.
Read: Turkey again asks Sweden, Finland to extradite suspects
Türkiye has long served as a mediator in the effort to establish a mechanism that will prevent a food crisis by enabling Ukraine to export its grain to the global market via sea routes.
Istanbul will become an operational hub where the entire shipping process will be carried out, Turkish officials have said.
Türkiye controls maritime traffic entering and exiting the Black Sea through the Bosphorus Strait. ■
BBC pays damages to former royal nanny over false claims
The BBC on Thursday apologized to the former nanny of Princes William and Harry over “false and malicious” claims made against her as part of a journalist’s attempt to obtain an exclusive television interview with Princess Diana.
Alexandra Pettifer, formerly known as Tiggy Legge-Bourke, appeared at London’s High Court Thursday for a public apology from the broadcaster over false claims that she had an affair with Prince Charles while working as his personal assistant in 1995.
Her lawyer told the court the allegations caused “serious personal consequences for all concerned.”
BBC director-general Tim Davie said the corporation has agreed to pay “substantial damages” to Pettifer. The broadcaster had “failed to ask the tough questions” about how the Diana interview was obtained, he added.
“I would like to take this opportunity to apologize publicly to her, to The Prince of Wales, and to the Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex, for the way in which Princess Diana was deceived and the subsequent impact on all their lives,” Davie said in a statement.
Read: BBC Media Action Job Circular: bbcmediaaction.org
William and Harry have strongly criticized the BBC for its shortcomings after an investigation found that one of its journalists, Martin Bashir, used deceitful means to secure the explosive Diana interview in 1995.
In the interview, a major scoop for Bashir, Diana famously said that “there were three of us in this marriage” — referring to Prince Charles’ relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles. Her candid account of her failing marriage with Charles was watched by millions of people and sent shockwaves through the monarchy.
Pettifer’s lawyer, Louise Prince, said the former nanny hadn’t known the source of the allegations against her over the past 25 years. But it now appeared likely that the claims arose as part of the BBC’s efforts to procure the Diana interview, Prince said.
The false claims — including an allegation that Pettifer became pregnant with Charles’ baby and had an abortion — appeared to exploit prior false media speculation, the lawyer said.
She said Diana confronted Pettifer about the allegation in late 1995, and told a member of the royal household that she had a hospital letter proving the abortion happened.
“As the allegation of an abortion was totally false, any such letter could only have been fabricated,” Prince said.
Davie said the broadcaster would never show the Diana interview again or license it to other broadcasters.
Pettifer said after the hearing that she was disappointed legal action was needed.
The BBC has already paid damages to Diana’s former aide as well as a former BBC producer who was dismissed after he alerted editors to faked documents that Bashir used to gain access to Diana.
Key gas pipeline from Russia to Europe restarts after break
Natural gas started flowing through a major pipeline from Russia to Europe on Thursday after a 10-day shutdown for maintenance — but the gas flow remained well short of full capacity and the outlook was uncertain, which leaves Europe still facing the prospect of a hard winter.
The Nord Stream 1 pipeline under the Baltic Sea to Germany had been closed since July 11 for annual maintenance work. Amid growing tensions over Russia’s war in Ukraine, German officials had feared that the pipeline — the country’s main source of Russian gas, which recently has accounted for around a third of Germany’s gas supplies — might not reopen at all.
Network data showed gas beginning to arrive through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline as scheduled after 6 a.m., and the operator said that it had “successfully completed all planned maintenance works.” But deliveries were still far below the pipeline's full capacity, as they were for weeks before the maintenance break.
Also read: Nord Stream 1 resumes gas deliveries to Germany after maintenance
The head of Germany's network regulator, Klaus Mueller, said Russia’s Gazprom had notified deliveries Thursday of about 30% of the pipeline's capacity. He later tweeted that actual deliveries were above that amount and could reach the pre-maintenance level of some 40%.
That wouldn't be enough to resolve Europe's energy crisis. “The political uncertainty and the 60% reduction from mid-June unfortunately remain,” Mueller wrote.
When Gazprom reduced the flow last month, it cited alleged technical problems involving equipment that partner Siemens Energy sent to Canada for overhaul and couldn’t be returned because of sanctions imposed over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Canadian government earlier this month gave permission for the turbine that powers a compressor station at the Russian end of the pipeline to be delivered to Germany.
The German government has rejected Gazprom’s technical explanation for the gas reduction, charging repeatedly that it was only a pretext for a political decision to sow uncertainty and further push up energy prices. It has said the turbine was a replacement that was only supposed to be installed in September, but that it’s doing everything to deprive Russia of the pretext to reduce supplies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Gazprom still hadn’t received the relevant documents for the turbine’s return, and on Wednesday questioned the quality of the repair work. Putin said that Gazprom was to shut another turbine for repairs in late July, and if the one that was sent to Canada wasn’t returned by then the flow of gas would decline even further.
The head of the European Union’s executive Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Wednesday that the turbine was “in transit” and there was “no pretext not to deliver” gas.
Simone Tagliapietra, an energy policy expert at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels, said that Russia was playing a “strategic game."
Also read: Canada imposes new sanctions on Russia’s oil and gas sector, chemical industry
“Keeping low flows going is better than cutoff. It decreases Europe’s resolve to reduce gas demand,” he said. He warned that Europe must go into crisis mode anyway "because an interruption is likely to happen in the winter. And each cubic meter of gas saved now, makes Europe more resilient in the next months.”
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said “today underlines — even if there's an announcement that gas is flowing again — that this war isn't only being conducted with weapons against Ukraine, but that hybrid warfare means also using energy dependency as a means of war.”
The European Commission proposed this week that member countries cut their gas use by 15% over the coming months as the bloc braces for a possible full Russian cutoff of gas supplies.
Germany and the rest of Europe are scrambling to fill gas storage in time for winter and reduce their dependence on Russian energy imports. Germany has Europe’s biggest economy; gas is important to power its industries, provide heating and, to some extent, generate electricity.
Last month, the government activated the second phase of Germany’s three-stage emergency plan for natural gas supplies, warning that Europe’s biggest economy faced a “crisis” and winter storage targets were at risk. As of Wednesday, Germany's gas storage was 65.1% full.
To make up for shortfalls, the German government has given the green light for utility companies to fire up 10 dormant coal-fired power plants and six that are oil-fueled. Another 11 coal-fired power plants scheduled to be shut down in November will be allowed to keep operating.
Nord Stream 1 resumes gas deliveries to Germany after maintenance
Gas deliveries through the German-Russian pipeline Nord Stream 1 resumed on Thursday morning after 10 days of maintenance, the German news agency dpa reported.
Gas is flowing again and the gas transport level via Nord Stream 1 has resumed at the pre-maintenance level, around 40 percent of the pipeline's transport capacity, a spokesman for Nord Stream AG was quoted as saying.
However, he added that the registered volumes could also change in the course of a day, and it would take some time before full transport capacity is reached.
Read: Economics of war: Pain for Europe now, later for Russia
Meanwhile, Klaus Mueller, chief of the federal network agency Bundesnetzagentur, said on Wednesday evening that 30 percent of the maximum transport capacity was to flow through the pipeline.
The Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which went into operation in 2011, transports gas from Vyborg in Russia to Lubmin in northeastern Germany. From there, gas is further transported to other European countries such as Belgium, Denmark, France and the Netherlands, according to the operator.
Italian PM resigns
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Thursday officially resigned, remitting his mandate to the hands of the president, and putting an end to his national unity government after 17 months in office.
"President Sergio Mattarella has received Mario Draghi, who ... has reiterated the resignation of the government he leads," a statement from Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic Ugo Zampetti read.
Read: Italian Premier Draghi's resignation is rebuffed , for now
"The President has taken note (of the resignation). The current government remains in office to take care of current affairs," it added. ■