View of the business tower “Lakhta Center”, the headquarters of Russian gas monopoly Gazprom in St. Petersburg, Russia. Dmitri Lavetsky/AP Hide caption
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Dmitri Labetsky/AP
KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine on Wednesday cut off supplies of Russian gas to European customers transiting through the country, nearly three years after Moscow’s all-out invasion of its neighbor, after a pre-war transit agreement expired late last year. It stopped.
At a summit in Brussels last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kiev would not allow Russia to use its transportation facilities to earn “billions more with our blood and the lives of our people.” I swore. But he tentatively clarified that gas leaks could continue if payments to Russia are withheld until the end of the war.
Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Khrushchenko confirmed Wednesday morning that Kiev had suspended the shipment “in the interest of national security.”
“This is a historic event. Russia will lose markets and suffer economic losses. Europe has already decided to phase out Russian gas,” Khrushchenko said in an update on the messaging app Telegram. “(This) is consistent with Ukraine’s actions today.” .
Russia’s Gazprom said in a statement Wednesday morning that there is “no technical or legal possibility” to transport gas through Ukraine as Kiev refuses to extend the deal.
Even as Russian troops and tanks move into Ukraine in 2022, Russian natural gas will be transferred to the country’s pipeline network (built when Ukraine and Russia were both part of the Soviet Union) under a five-year agreement. ) and continued to flow into Europe. Gazprom made money from the gas, and Ukraine collected transit fees.
Before the war, Russia supplied nearly 40% of the European Union’s pipeline natural gas. The gas flowed through a four-pipeline system. One under the Baltic Sea, one through Belarus and Poland, one through Ukraine, and one under the Black Sea through Turkey to Bulgaria.
After the war began, Russia cut off most supplies through the Belarusian-Polish pipeline between the Baltic states and the Belarusian-Polish pipeline, citing a dispute over demands for payment in rubles. A Baltic pipeline was blown up in an act of sabotage, but details of the attack remain unclear.
Russia’s energy supply cutoff caused an energy crisis in Europe. Germany has had to spend billions of euros setting up floating terminals to import liquefied natural gas, which is imported by ship rather than by pipeline. Users refrained from using the service as prices skyrocketed. Norway and the United States filled the gap and became the two largest suppliers.
Europe views Russia’s energy supply cutoffs as a threat and has outlined plans to completely eliminate gas imports from Russia by 2027.
Russia’s share of the EU’s pipeline natural gas market plummeted to around 8% in 2023, according to European Commission data. Ukraine’s shipping routes serve EU members Austria and Slovakia, which have long sourced most of their natural gas from Russia but have recently been working to diversify their supply. .
Gazprom suspended supplies to Austria’s OMV in mid-November, citing a contractual dispute, but gas continued to flow through the Ukrainian pipeline as other customers intervened. This year, Slovakia began purchasing natural gas from Azerbaijan and signed a deal to import U.S. liquefied natural gas through Azerbaijan. Pipeline from Poland.
The hardest hit will be Moldova, an EU candidate country. Moldova, which receives gas from Russia via Ukraine, has introduced emergency measures as residents prepare for a harsh winter and looming power outages.
Apart from Kyiv’s decision to allow the transit agreement to expire, Gazprom announced last month that it would suspend gas supplies to Moldova from January 1, citing unpaid debts. Gazprom said Moldova owes nearly $709 million for past gas supplies, a figure the country strongly disputes, citing international audits.
Politicians from Moldova, Ukraine and the EU have repeatedly accused Russia of weaponizing energy supplies.
Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said Wednesday that Ukraine’s move to cut off supplies was a “victory” for Russia’s adversaries. In a post on denounced.
Moscow can still send gas to Hungary, non-EU countries, Turkey and Serbia through the Turkish Stream pipeline across the Black Sea.
Natural gas is used to generate electricity, power industrial processes, and sometimes heat homes.
Separately, two people were killed under the rubble of a damaged building in a Russian drone attack on Kiev over New Year’s Day, city authorities announced. At least six people were injured across the Ukrainian capital, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
