INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russia's state-owned gas company on Monday announced an unexpected, drastic cut in supply to Europe, leading Ukraine to call the West to
under a breakthrough deal that was called into question by a strike by Moscow on the key port of Odesa.Gazprom, the Russian energy giant,
maintaining the turbine, also said in a statement to AFP that it saw "no link between the turbine and the gas cuts that have been
implemented or announced."Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the cuts showed that Europe should bolster sanctions
the people, how they will suffer -- from hunger due to blocked ports, from winter cold and poverty..
These are just different forms of terror," he said in his daily video message."That is why you have to hit back
Do not think about how to bring back the turbine, but strengthen the sanctions," he said.The Russian announcement came on the same day that
by Turkey and the United Nations to release some 25 million tons of wheat and other grain that had been trapped in Ukraine's Black Sea
ports.The breakthrough raised hopes of relieving a spike in global food prices that has hit poor nations hardest
said Monday that it still expected implementation of the deal in the coming days."We are preparing for everything to start this week,"
Ukraine's infrastructure minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, who led Ukraine's delegation at last week's grain talks in Istanbul.Ukrainian
officials said the port of Chornomorsk in southwestern Ukraine would be the first to be opened and insisted on the importance of security
an amphibious assault.Kubrakov said de-mining will take place only in the shipping lanes required for grain exports, while Ukrainian ships
will accompany the departing convoys that will transport not only grain but also fertilizer.After speaking to Kubrakov by phone, Turkish
Defence Minister Hulusi Akar welcomed Ukraine's resolve to resume the shipments."It is important that the first ship starts sailing as soon
as possible," Akar said in a statement.Kremlin's shifting narrativeThe Kremlin insisted Monday that its strikes in Odesa, which it initially
denied to Turkey, "should not affect" the Turkish-brokered push to send the grain to world markets
artificial hunger and then come to cheer people up," he said on Twitter, assuring that Ukrainian grain will reach its destinations.In
Washington, State Department spokesman Ned Price voiced hope that grain shipments would come out in the coming days but said the United
States was "clear-eyed.""Moscow's track record when it comes to previous deals that it has struck is not exactly a cause for optimism,"
military aid shipments.The Ukrainian presidency said Monday that a Russian strike trapped seven people under the rubble of a collapsed
cultural center in the northeastern Kharkiv region
officials said Ukrainian forces stopped a Russian push in several villages.Ukraine's bid to oust the Kremlin's forces has been bolstered by
longer range Western weapons that have allowed Kyiv to target Russian supply lines deeper in occupied areas.
