Breaking News, 3rd of March, 2018

The US State Department urged the Russian company Gazprom to comply with the decision of the Stockholm Arbitration and resume the gas supply through Ukraine. This was stated at the briefing by the State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert. «The deliveries and the transit of gas should never be a political weapon, and we expect that Gazprom will supply gas via the transit pipeline in Ukraine, in accordance with the decision of the Stockholm Arbitration. Russia must prove itself a reliable gas supplier» — Interfax quoted Nauert.

The main commercial director of the Ukrainian company Naftogaz Yuri Vitrenko announced the intention of the company to demand Gazprom to pay compensation for the difference in the cost of gas that is supplied to Ukraine from Europe, and to sell the gas by the price given by Stockholm arbitration. According to him, due to the decision of the Russian concern — Naftogaz is forced to buy gas in Europe at a higher price, RIA NEWS reports. Vitrenko also said that Naftogaz will be able to arrest Russian gas in Germany if Gazprom refuses to pay compensation of $2.6 billion dollars by the decision of the Stockholm Arbitration.

Near the tent camp close to the Verkhovna Rada building in Kiev, clashes between the police and protesters occurred, the Ukrainian media reports. During the clashes, the protesters set car tires on fire. The police detained about 30 people. It is reported that there are wounded on both sides with head traumas and gas burns. Eyewitnesses report that the police came to the tent camp to conduct investigations in a number of criminal cases. In response, the people from the tent camp started burning tires. At the moment, the tent camp is surrounded by police from all sides.

Poland believes that Germany must pay for the damage caused during the Second World War, and Poland estimates the damage at $850 billions of dollars. This was reported by the head of the specially created commission on reparations, Arkadyush Mulyarchik. In the near future, the commission must provide the government with a report on the basis of which Warsaw can officially demand the payment of reparations. Germany considers its obligations to Poland fully fulfilled and does not intend to consider the issue of payment of reparations.

Kazakhstan signed the Treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons, the press service of the Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry reports. «The agreement was signed by Kazakhstan’s permanent representative to the UN Kairat Umarov in accordance with the authority granted to him by Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s decree No. 617 of January 9, 2018,» — the report said. The treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons was adopted on July 7, 2017 at the UN headquarters in the city of New York. It was signed by 56 states, Kazakhstan became the 57th state-subscriber.

Ukrainian forces fired at the LPR positions twice over the past day. The Kalinovo settlement was shelled from mortars. In the DPR during the same period, Ukrainian troops violated the ceasefire agreements 12 times, firing 239 shells at the territory of the front-line settlements of the DPR. The western and northern outskirts of Donetsk — the village of ‘Abakumov mine’, Staromikhailovka, Trudovsky, the «Volvo-Center» district and the airport, as well as Yasinovataya, Dokuchaevsk and Petrovskoye, October and Leninskoye, were under fire.