Russia Cuts Off a Major Supply of Natural Gas to Poland

WARSAW — Russia’s state fuel firm has introduced the “complete suspension” of pure fuel deliveries to Poland by means of a main pipeline, its Polish counterpart stated on Tuesday, in an escalation of the financial battle stemming from the conflict in Ukraine.

Poland will get greater than 45 p.c of its pure fuel from Russia, and chopping off that offer might significantly wound Poland’s potential to warmth properties and run companies. Unlike some of its neighbors, Poland burns coal, not fuel, for many of its electrical energy, so it’s much less weak on that entrance.

Since the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, the United States and its allies have imposed more and more stringent financial sanctions on Russia, badly damaging the Russian economic system. For the European Union, the hardest half of that marketing campaign has been attempting to wean itself off Russian fossil fuels, Moscow’s fundamental supply of international income.

The bloc has vowed to lower off its giant imports of Russian oil and coal, although over a interval of months because it searches for replacements and adjusts to larger gas prices. But Europe is much more depending on Russian fuel, and ending these imports could be extra economically damaging; E.U. ministers have stated they are going to scale back the circulation from Russia, however not shut it off till 2030.

PGNiG, the state-owned firm that’s Poland’s fundamental purchaser of Russian fuel, stated that it had acquired a letter from Russia’s state-controlled vitality behemoth, Gazprom, informing it that every one deliveries by means of the Yamal pipeline could be halted. It didn’t specify when this could occur.

Yamal stretches from northern Siberia to Poland and Germany. Most of the circulation from Russia to Poland passes by means of it. It is just not clear the transfer would have an effect on provides to Germany, by far the most important importer of Russian fuel, as there are different main pipelines connecting the 2 international locations, together with Nord Stream 1.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has demanded that vitality gross sales be paid for in rubles to prop up his faltering foreign money, although the contracts for international gross sales usually require cost in {dollars}. Poland and different international locations have refused to pay in rubles.

Russia has been notably offended at Poland as a result of of Warsaw’s sturdy assist for Ukraine, which has acquired many of its NATO-supplied arms by means of Polish territory.