Europe no longer receives Russian gas via Ukraine
The supply of Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine was stopped as expected on New Year's Day. This was confirmed by the Russian state gas company Gazprom on Wednesday.
The stoppage had been announced: the agreement on the transit of Russian gas via Ukraine expired at the end of 2024. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky didn’t want to extend the contract because it finances Russian aggression. Russia has been at war with Ukraine since February 2022.
"Since Ukraine repeatedly and clearly refused to extend the agreements", Gazprom had no choice but to turn off the gas tap for transit via Ukraine, Gazprom wrote in a press release.
The stoppage affects several European countries, with Slovakia in the lead. Prime Minister Robert Fico recently had a personal meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the matter. On Tuesday, Slovakia said that it is prepared and that the gas storage facilities are "100 per cent full". The affected countries will have to rely on more expensive liquefied natural gas (LNG). According to the agreements, up to 40 billion cubic meters of Russian gas could be transported to Europe via Ukraine per year, the Russian news agency Tass reports. But in 2023, according to official figures, this would be less than 15 billion cubic meters.
In recent days, the European gas price had risen - to 50 euros per megawatt hour on Tuesday - in the run-up to the end of the contract.
© PHOTO OLGA MALTSEVA / AFP
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