Russia has opened a new front in its war over Ukraine.
It has decided to shut off gas today to two European Union nations that staunchly back the Ukrainian government -- Poland and Bulgaria.
That represents a dramatic escalation in a conflict increasingly becoming a wider battle with the West.
A day after the U-S, Canada and other Western allies vowed to hasten the delivery of more and better military supplies to Ukraine, the Kremlin upped the ante, using its most essential export as leverage.
This while U-N Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Russian President Vladimir Putin have met one-on-one for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine.
The United Nations says they agreed in principle on arranging evacuations from a besieged steel plant in the battered Ukrainian city of Mariupol (mar-ee-OO'-puhl).
Two-thousand Ukrainian troops and one-thousand civilians are said to be holed up in bunkers underneath the sprawling wrecked structure.
Meantime, the U-N General Assembly has taken a step to put the five permanent members of the Security Council under the spotlight when they use their veto power.
The issue has been highlighted by Russia's veto paralyzing any action by the powerful U-N body on the Ukraine war.
Canada's U-N ambassador Bob Rae denounced the Council's veto power as undemocratic.