Ukraine ended transit of Russian gas to Europe

Ukraine has halted the transit of Russian gas to the European Union and Moldova, RBK-Ukraine reported today, citing the gas pipeline operator. The move came after the five-year contract between Gazprom and Naftogaz expired. Russia’s Gazprom confirmed that gas exports to Europe via Ukraine ended at 08:00 Moscow time (06:00 CET), because the transit agreement had expired, Reuters reported. Ukraine’s energy ministry also announced the end of transit from 07:00 Kyiv time (06:00 CET), citing “national security”, Reuters reported. “We have stopped the transit of Russian gas. This is a historic event,” Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said.

The valves were closed at 7 a.m. both at the point where the Ukrainian gas pipeline system enters on the Russian-Ukrainian border and at the exit on Ukraine’s border with Slovakia, RBK-Ukraine reported.

Kyiv had been saying for some time that it did not intend to extend the agreement on the transit of Russian gas. It cites the armed conflict with Russia as the reason for its decision, saying Russia partly finances its war in Ukraine through the sale of raw materials.

Moscow has lost its dominant position in gas supplies to the European Union as a result of the invasion of Ukraine. The loss of cheap Russian gas supplies contributed to slower economic growth and rising inflation in the EU, Reuters reported.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has strongly criticised Kyiv’s decision not to extend the agreement on the transit of Russian gas. Last week, he threatened Ukraine with retaliatory measures, including cutting off electricity supplies, if Kyiv stopped the transit of Russian natural gas to Slovakia.

The five-year contract between Naftogaz and Gazprom, dated 30 December 2019, was the second commercial agreement on the transit of Russian gas, following the 11-year contract covering 2009 to 2019. Ukraine signed that agreement in Moscow under considerable pressure from European Union countries, which had been without Russian gas for almost three weeks because of disagreements over the price of the commodity and transit fees between the governments of Yulia Tymoshenko and Vladimir Putin at the time, RBK-Ukraine recalled. At the time, the issue was much more acute for EU countries because they were incomparably more dependent on Russian gas than they are now. More than 100 billion cubic metres of gas flowed through Ukraine to the EU each year at the time, whereas in the past year the volume transported slightly exceeded 15 billion cubic metres, representing just five per cent of total EU consumption, the outlet added.