The transit of Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine definitively ceased this Wednesday morning, kyiv and Moscow confirmed, marking the end of a five-year contract signed at the end of 2019, AFP reported.
“We have stopped the transit of Russian gas, it is a historic event. Russia is losing markets, it will suffer financial losses,” declared Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko. Gazprom confirmed that “for 8 hours, Russian gas has not been supplied for transit through Ukraine.”
This decision, hailed by Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski as “a new victory” over Moscow, particularly worries Hungary and Slovakia, which are heavily dependent on Russian gas. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico also went to Moscow on December 22 to try to find an emergency solution. From now on, Europe will only be supplied with Russian gas by the TurkStream gas pipeline and its Balkan Stream extension, as well as by LNG imports by LNG tankers. In 2023, transit through Ukraine amounted to 14.65 billion cubic meters, according to official figures.
