It’s official, some Russian gas has stopped flowing to Europe via Ukraine, causing power cuts in parts of Moldova and concerns in some EU capitals over the need to fill the deficit.
Deliveries of Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine definitively ceased on Wednesday, after the expiration of a contract signed between the two parties at the end of 2019 and maintained despite Russia’s invasion of the country. This end of transit is “one of Moscow’s biggest defeats,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky immediately welcomed.
While several regions of Moldova are plunged into darkness, Europe is already rushing towards transitional solutions, nevertheless welcoming this new step towards weaning Europe from Russian energy. Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski called the development “a new victory” for the continent.
A historic energy tap
Russian gas has been flowing through Ukraine for decades, primarily via a Soviet-built pipeline that originates in Sudzha, a town in Russia’s Kursk region currently under the control of Ukrainian forces, and ends near Uzhhorod, on Ukraine’s western border with Slovakia.
Gas continued to flow based on a 2019 deal after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, generating revenue for both countries. kyiv earned hundreds of millions of euros per year in transit fees. Negotiations took place last year to extend the deal, but went nowhere.
Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko confirmed that Ukraine had stopped transit flows, calling the decision “historic” in a statement released Wednesday. “Russia loses its markets, it will suffer financial losses,” he said.
However, another Russian gas network is not closed to the EU. Europe will now only be supplied by the Russian supplier TurkStream, and its extension Balkan Stream.
Unprecedented consequences
As for gas transported via Ukraine, the effects of the cut were not long in coming; this Wednesday morning, several Moldovan separatist regions of Transnistria have already lost their heating and hot water.
A statement published on the website of Tirasteploenergo, the local energy company, said the heating cuts took effect at 7 a.m. local time on Wednesday. Residents were advised to dress warmly, gather family members in one room, hang blankets or thick curtains on windows and balcony doors and use electric heaters.
“The year did not start easily”
The leader of the pro-Russian separatists, Vadim Krasnoselskïï quickly recognized a “problem”. “The year did not start easily,” he admitted in a speech at the opening of an emergency meeting, an extract of which he published on Telegram.
The rest of Moldova is spared for the moment, notably thanks to help from neighboring Romania. It has no longer received Russian gas since the start of the war in Ukraine, but depends, for a large part of its electricity needs, on the Transdniestrian thermal power station.
However, some countries, such as Slovakia, still depend largely on Russian gas. Now, the only Russian gas route to Europe still operational is TurkStream, a Black Sea pipeline that carries gas to Hungary and Serbia.
