EU ready to mediate in latest Russia-Ukraine gas dispute:
By RFE/RL
BRUSSELS -- The European Union is ready to mediate in the latest natural-gas dispute between Ukraine and Russia, with European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic expected to contact the energy ministers of the two countries this afternoon.
Speaking at a press briefing in Brussels on March 2, the vice president's spokeswoman, Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, said: "Vice President Sefcovic yesterday was contacted by the minister of foreign affairs of Ukraine who asked him to activate consultations regarding possible trilateral negotiations with the Russians and Ukrainians. As always, the commission stands ready to facilitate such talks when there is a request from both sides. Vice president Sefcovic is going to get in touch today with both the energy minister of Ukraine and Russia to touch base on this."
Kyiv and Moscow were drawn into a new gas dispute on March 1, after Russia's state-owned Gazprom unexpectedly decided not to restart supplies to Ukraine, forcing Kyiv to reduce supplies despite freezing temperatures. Gazprom said that it had returned a prepayment to Ukraine and would not restart gas supplies because an additional agreement to the existing arrangements had yet to be reached.
Gazprom's move follows a decision on February 28 by the Stockholm arbitration court stating that Gazprom had to pay $2.56 billion to the Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz after weighing mutual claims and counterclaims related to gas supplies and transit after several years of commercial disputes.
The row, which is a by-product of broader political tensions between the two countries after Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea and its support for separatists in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, is also threatening to have an impact on gas supplies to the EU.
Itkonen did, however, indicate that gas supplies to the bloc are not being affected yet.
"According to the information that we have at the moment, gas flows to the EU are normal and stable but of course we monitor the situation very closely. What I can add about the storage level in Ukraine, it is just below 10 billion cubic meters, which is very good for this time of the year, so there are no anomalies there for the time being."
Yanukovych calls for direct talks between Kyiv, separatists:
By RFE/RL
Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has called for "direct peace talks" between Kyiv and Russia-backed separatists in Ukraine's east to end a conflict that has killed more than 10,300 people since April 2014.
At a press conference in Moscow on March 2, Yanukovych vowed to ask the European Union, the United States, and Russia to assist in organizing the talks to reintegrate the territories controlled by the separatists into Ukraine.
"There is only one way to stop the war, which is to start peace talks with the mandatory participation of Donbas [separatists] and international observers," Yanukovych said.
According to Yanukovych, the law on reintegration of the territories under separatist control recently adopted by Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada contradicts the Minsk peace agreements and "clearly shows" that Kyiv "has no desire to solve the crisis peacefully."
Russia-friendly Yanukovych fled Ukraine in February 2014 following months of mass street protests in Ukraine and has been residing in Russia since.
Russia’s subsequent seizure of Crimea and its backing of the separatists in eastern Ukraine have triggered waves of U.S. and EU sanctions targeting Russian officials, companies, and economic sectors.
Yanukovych also said at the press conference that in the note he wrote to Russian President Vladimir Putin in February 2014, he never asked Putin to send troops to Ukraine.
"I proposed to hold consultations in accordance with a procedure that is stipulated in the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Ukraine and the Russian Federation," Yanukovych said.
Answering a question about the investigation of the killings of Euromaidan activists in February 2014 by snipers in downtown Kyiv, Yanukovych placed the blame on the protesters themselves, saying the buildings that the snipers shot the protesters from were under the activists' control.
Yanukovych has been charged in absentia with high treason, violation of Ukraine's territorial integrity, and other crimes. His trial is under way in Kyiv. (w/TASS, Interfax)
Moscow, Kyiv swap detained border guards:
By RFE/RL
Russia has returned to Ukraine two of its border guards captured in October 2017, in exchange for two Russian border guards.
The swap took place on March 2 near the Hoptivka checkpoint along the Ukrainian-Russian border, Interfax-Ukraine reported.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko welcomed the news, writing on Facebook that Kyiv would continue to do "everything possible" to secure the release of other Ukrainian citizens either being held in Russia-backed-separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine or in Russia.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) confirmed it had handed over two Ukrainian border guards, Ihor Dzyubak and Bohdan Martson, who have been missing since October and were later reported to have been detained by the Russian authorities for allegedly crossing the border illegally.
Kyiv handed to the Russian side two Russian border guards, Askar Kulub and Vladimir Kuznetsov, whom Ukrainian authorities detained in Ukraine's Kherson region in June. The Kherson region borders Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia seized in 2014 after sending in masked troops without insignia and staging a referendum considered illegitimate by Ukraine, the United States, and most of the international community.
Russian authorities have said that Kulub and Kuznetsov lost their way and crossed the border by accident. (w/Interfax-Ukraine)
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
Formidable weapon: U.S. soldiers/Marines fire an FGM-148 Javelin antitank missile during live fire training exercise: