live blog | The United Nations can direct the nuclear power plant mission

It’s the 174th day of the war in Ukraine. In this live blog you will find the latest updates on the ongoing conflict and all its consequences.

‘Filling gas storage kiosks at Norg’

05:40 | The filling of the Great Norg gas storage in Drenthe has stopped for a week and a half. De Volkskrant writes that gas trading house GasTerra, the trade organization of the Dutch petroleum company (NAM), wants to expand only if the Dutch government provides financial guarantees.

At the beginning of July, the government put in place a guarantee scheme to fill Norg’s storage to “more than 80 percent”. This target was reached on August 5th: Underground storage is 80.5 percent full. The spokesperson explains that additional fillings without government guarantee is a risky business for GasTerra. “The price of gas is now so high that you are pretty sure you won’t be able to get it back when you sell it.”

Only if the government comes up with “additional financial terms” will the company buy more gas. It’s not certain if the closet will ever again dig into its pockets. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate said the filling rate at all Dutch storage facilities is currently sufficient “to achieve the set targets”.

The United Nations can accompany the IAEA mission to Zaporizhia

05:10 | A UN spokesman said Monday that the United Nations has the logistical and security capacity to accompany the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) mission to Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. Such a task should leave Kyiv.

But a Russian official told RIA Novosti news agency that leaving Kyiv would be very dangerous. “This means crossing the front line to reach the nuclear power plant,” the official said.

The UN spokesman said it could only accompany the IAEA mission if Ukraine and Russia agreed. Both countries indicated earlier that they would welcome the IAEA mission.

The nuclear power plant on the Dnieper River fell into the hands of the Russians at the beginning of the Russian invasion, after the withdrawal of Ukrainian units. The plant continued to work with Ukrainian employees. Ukrainian militias remained active in the area.

Since then, Kyiv has regularly accused the Russians of deliberately threatening the plant. According to Moscow, Ukrainian militias are bombing the factory to blame the Russians.

‘Greening is too expensive for many companies’

02:30 | Not every company can go green to escape rising energy costs. It is precisely in industries where there is no room for investment in sustainable energy most. This is what Trouw wrote.

It was considered one of the few, if not the only, advantages of the war that Russia started this year in Ukraine: it would enhance sustainability in the West. Because the EU member states want to get rid of Putin’s gas and oil, in principle, of course. But especially because polluting companies have a hard economic reason to quickly switch to savings and green energy due to the massive increase in energy prices.

But precisely because of the rising gas and electricity bill, many small and medium-sized businesses no longer have the financial scope for green investments. Of course, these investments pay off quickly with these gas prices, but then the money should be there to get you started.