Russia suspends gas supplies after deadly prison strike

Russian energy giant Gazprom yesterday suspended gas supplies to Latvia, a day after a jail holding Ukrainian prisoners of war was bombed leaving scores dead.“Today, Gazprom suspended its gas supplies to Latvia... due to violations of the conditions” of purchase, the company said on Telegram.Gazprom drastically cut gas deliveries to Europe via the Nord Stream pipeline on Wednesday to about 20% of its capacity. It had reduced gas flows to Europe twice in June.The Russian state-run company had earlier announced it would choke supply to 33mn cubic metres a day — half the amount it has been delivering since service resumed last week after 10 days of maintenance work.European Union states have accused Russia of squeezing supplies in retaliation for Western sanctions over Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine.Gazprom cited the halted operation of one of the last two operating turbines for the pipeline due to the “technical condition of the engine”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has blamed EU sanctions for the limited supply.The European Union this week agreed a plan to reduce gas consumption in solidarity with Germany, where the Nord Stream pipeline runs to, warning of Russian “blackmail”.The company Conexus Baltic Grid confirmed to Latvian news agency LETA that Gazprom had informed it of the suspension of deliveries, but said other suppliers were continuing them.“Latvia was not counting on natural gas flows from Russia,” Economy Minister Ilze Indriksone told LETA.Russian strikes continued to rain down on Ukrainian towns and cities yesterday, a day after Russia’s defence ministry accused Kyiv of striking a prison in Russian-held territory with US-supplied long-range missiles, in an “egregious provocation” designed to stop captured soldiers from surrendering.It said yesterday that the dead included Ukrainian forces who had surrendered after weeks of fighting off Russia’s brutal bombardment of the sprawling Azovstal steelworks in the port city of Mariupol.The defence ministry said 50 Ukrainian prisoners were killed and 73 were taken to hospital with serious injuries, adding: “All political, legal and moral responsibility for this bloody massacre of Ukrainians lies with (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky personally, his criminal regime and Washington which backs them.”Zelensky laid the blame squarely on Russia.“This was a deliberate Russian war crime, a deliberate mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war,” he said. “Over 50 are dead.”Zelensky said an agreement for the Azovstal fighters to lay down their arms, brokered by the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, included guarantees for their health and safety and called on those two organisations to intervene as guarantors. Zelensky also urged the international community, especially the United States, to have Russia officially declared as a “state sponsor of terrorism”. Members of the Azov regiment were among those who surrendered from Azovstal.Azov regiment commander Mykyta Nadtochiy said he considered the attack on the jail in Kremlin-controlled Olenivka to have been “an act of public execution”.The mayor of the southern city of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Sienkevych, said one person died and six were injured following Russian shelling in two residential districts overnight yesterday.