Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on January 1 that stopping natural gas deliveries to Europe via a major pipeline through Ukraine was a major defeat for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
When Mr. Putin became president of Russia more than 25 years ago, the amount of natural gas flowing through Ukraine to Europe amounted to more than 130 billion cubic meters a year, Mr. Zelenskiy on X. Today this quantity is zero.
“This is one of Moscow’s greatest defeats. “As Russia has militarized energy and resorted to cynical blackmail against its partners, Moscow has lost one of the most profitable and geographically accessible markets,” he added.
Mr Zelenskiy’s comments came after Russian gas giant Gazprom said it had suspended gas deliveries to Europe via the pipeline after kyiv refused to renew a transit contract signed before the all-out invasion from Moscow in 2022.
The ruling means Ukraine will forgo about $800 million a year in transit fees. Gazprom, meanwhile, will lose nearly $5 billion in gas sales.
Zelenskiy said the majority of European countries had adapted to the changes, but he stressed that Ukraine and its allies must “support Moldova during the period of energy transformation.” Moldova is still partially dependent on Russian gas.
He also said Ukraine hoped for an increase in US gas supplies to Europe, saying US President-elect Donald Trump, who is due to be inaugurated on January 20, had already raised the possibility.
“The more gas available on the market from Europe’s true partners, the sooner the last consequences of Europe’s dependence on Russia will be eliminated,” he said. .
The interruption, announced by Gazprom early on January 1 on Telegram, was expected after Ukraine repeatedly said it would not renew the contract. It is not expected to cause major immediate problems for most European customers, due to years of efforts by many countries to wean themselves off Russian gas.
Slovakia, Hungary, Austria and several Balkan countries continued to use Russian gas transported via Ukraine, but in lower volumes.
Moldova, on the other hand, was more threatened, due to a major power plant fueled by Russian gas. Moldovan authorities declared a state of emergency last month in anticipation of the expiration of the transit contract between Moscow and kyiv.
The Transnistrian Regional Power Plant, located in the breakaway Transdniester region, began shutting down early on January 1, and its operator, Tirasteploenergo, said it was cutting off central heating and hot water supplies to all households and administrative buildings of Transdniester, with the exception of hospitals.
Residents of the area were informed of where they could buy firewood and charcoal and were allowed to collect tree trunks, fallen branches and other dry wood from the forests for their personal use, but they must inform the forest authorities in advance.
Residents have access to electricity from the plant, but it is unclear how long it will last. Authorities in the breakaway region said it could be around 50 days, depending on coal supplies. However, according to estimates by Energy Ministry officials in Chisinau, this duration would be closer to 20 days.
Ukraine’s energy ministry said the flow of Russian natural gas through Ukrainian territory was interrupted for national security reasons and that it had informed its international partners.
“We have stopped the transit of Russian gas, this is a historic event,” Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said in a statement. “Russia is losing its markets and will suffer financial losses.
The Soviet-era pipeline, which carried gas from Siberia to the Russian border town of Sudzha and then on to Ukraine, was the last major Russian gas pipeline to Europe in operation following the destruction of the pipeline under -marin Nord Stream at the end of 2022.
The Yamal-Europe pipeline, which carried gas to Poland via Belarus, was also closed due to the invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022.
Many European customers have turned to other sources of supply, including liquefied natural gas supplied by the United States, Qatar and Norway.
Austria’s energy ministry said its supplies were secure thanks to purchases of gas transiting through Italy and Germany and previous efforts to fill storage containers.
Hungary and other countries continue to receive Russian gas from the south via the TurkStream Black Sea pipeline.
Slovakia, whose Prime Minister, Robert Fico, made an unusual visit to Moscow last month, is also unlikely to experience any shortages, although authorities have indicated that alternative supplies would cost 177 million euros (184 million dollars) additional.
In a statement released hours after the gas supply cutoff, Mr Fico predicted the move would have “dramatic consequences for all of us in the European Union”, but not for Russia.
“Whether two elephants love each other or fight each other, it’s always the grass that gets hurt,” he said.
He added that he did not want Slovakia to be “that grass” and that for this reason he would continue to develop a “dual-track” foreign policy towards the EU and Russia simultaneously and “would not intervene in the internal affairs of others”.
In his message on
Last week, Mr Zelenskiy was outraged by Mr Fico’s meeting with Mr Putin, following which he threatened to cut off emergency power supplies to Ukraine during the winter months , due to kyiv’s decision not to renew the contract relating to the pipeline.
Mr Zelenskiy accused Mr Fico of receiving “orders” from the Kremlin to harm Ukraine and his own people, as Russia attacks Ukraine’s power plants and its energy grid.
Reprinted with permission from RFE/RL Copyright(c)2007 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.1201 Connecticut Ave, t N.W. Washington DC 20 avec Reuters et l’AFP
