Today we will talk about War in Ukraine from the perspective of natural resources, especially natural gas.
Before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Germany got 55% of its gas from Russia. It has managed to reduce this to 35% a couple of months ago and as we speak there is no natural gas flooding from Russia to Germany. Main gas pipes were shut down by Putin in response to sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine and recently we have had explosions in 2 gas pipes on the Baltic sea, North Stream 1 and North Stream 2.
Gas prices are set globally and are now approximately 450% higher than they were this time last year. After nearly ten months of fighting, Moscow’s sloppy war has yielded at least one big reward: gave Russia control over some of the most mineral-rich lands in Europe. Ukraine harbors some of the world’s largest reserves of titanium and iron ore, fields of untapped lithium and massive deposits of coal. Collectively, they are worth tens of trillions of dollars. At least $12.4 trillion worth of Ukraine’s energy deposits, metals and minerals are now under Russian control. Since the invasion began in February Kremlin has seized: 41 coal fields, 27 natural gas sites, 14 propane sites, nine oil fields, six iron ore deposits, two titanium ore sites, two zirconium ore sites, one strontium site, one lithium site, one uranium site, one gold deposit and a significant quarry of limestone previously used for Ukrainian steel production.