His call came a day after EU leaders pledged to buy gas together and Germany unveiled targets to quickly reduce its dependence on Russian energy, and Joe Biden said NATO unity was vital to maintaining pressure on Russia to support Ukraine. Berlin has pledged to all but weaning off Russian gas by mid-2024 and said it aims to become “virtually independent” of Russian oil by the end of this year. Speaking at a conference attended by many Gulf Doha officials in Doha, Qatar, the Ukrainian president called on “responsible states, especially Qatar” as “reliable and credible energy suppliers who can help stabilize the situation in Europe”. . “. “They can do much more to restore justice. “Europe’s future depends on your efforts,” he said. “I urge you to increase energy production so that Russia understands that no state can use energy as a weapon and blackmail the world.” Speaking at the same conference, Saad al-Kaabi, Qatar’s energy minister, who is also QatarEnergy’s chief executive, said: “We are clear that we are trying to support Europeans and Americans. “We have said that tumors that can be diverted away from Europe, even if we can get a higher price for it, will not be diverted.” However, he has previously stated that no other country could replace the total volume produced by Russia. Qatar, the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), estimates that it could divert only about 10-15 percent of its quantities to Europe. The Gulf nation sells most of its LNG to Asian customers who are committed to long-term fixed-term contracts. This week, the United States unveiled plans to divert gas to Europe as Western allies step up efforts to reform global energy markets and punish Moscow. Washington said on Friday it would seek to deliver at least 15 billion cubic meters (bcm) of extra LNG to the EU this year along with other producers. Washington is pushing Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to increase crude production to help lower oil prices. However, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, which coordinate oil production levels through OPEC +, which includes Russia, have so far resisted. Saudi officials say the rise in oil prices is not due to a shortage of supply and that rising production would have little effect on prices. They also warn that there is a lack of production capacity worldwide. Zelensky said it was “a matter of time” for European countries to refuse to buy Russian oil and gas, adding that sanctions against Russia “aim at only one thing – for Russia to start pursuing peace so that it is not a common one.” threatening. “. The US president told the Polish head of state that the NATO mutual defense clause was a sacred commitment. © Marcin Obara / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock US President Joe Biden was in Warsaw for his last all-day visit to Europe. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who are accompanying him, met with Ukrainian counterparts Dmitry Kuleba and Oleksiy Reznikov. The US president assured Poland that NATO would defend it from any Russian attack, telling President Andrei Duda that the alliance’s mutual defense clause was a sacred commitment. “We take Article 5 as a sacred commitment, not a rejection, a sacred commitment associated with every member of NATO,” Biden said during a meeting with Duda in Warsaw. “For your freedom and ours.” Biden’s comments came ahead of the US president’s visit to a stadium housing Ukrainian refugees and after meeting with top Ukrainian officials to discuss further support for their defense against the Russian invasion, according to the White House. US officials have expressed concern that Poland could be vulnerable to Russian aggression, although there is no indication of a specific attack. Biden said NATO unity would be vital to help Ukraine. The alliance had to remain “absolutely, fully, fully united” without “any division in terms,” he said. “Everything we do we do together and everyone comes together,” Biden said. The Ukrainian military says its forces have continued to maintain their defensive positions, while Russia “continues to regroup and build forces to continue its offensive operations.” Russia has deployed “almost all” of its units stationed in Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, and in some areas of Kherson, Zaporizhia and Donetsk, in order to “suppress the resistance of the people of Kherson, Henichesk, Berdyansk and parts of the besieged. city of Mariupol, said Ukrainian forces. Kharkiv officials said the city was bombed overnight. A British intelligence source said Russia had continued to pound Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol, adding that its forces were “reluctant” to engage in large-scale civilian infantry operations. “It is possible that Russia will continue to use its heavy firepower in urban areas as it seeks to reduce its own already significant losses, at the cost of further civilian casualties,” the Pentagon said in a statement. On Friday, Moscow said it was refocusing on a month-long military offensive in the eastern Donbass region of the country. Ukrainian authorities and Western officials have reacted cautiously to the call for a change in military strategy.
