On Wednesday, Ukraine suspended deliveries of Russian gas to European customers through its pipeline network after the pre-war transit agreement expired at the end of last year.
Ukraine's Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko confirmed on Wednesday morning that Kiev had suspended transit “in the interest of national security.”
“This is a historic event. Russia is losing markets and will suffer financial losses. “Europe has already made the decision to withdraw from Russian gas and (this is) consistent with what Ukraine has done today,” Halushchenko said in an update to the Telegram messaging app.
Last month at a summit in Brussels, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promised that Kiev would not allow Moscow to use the transit to make “additional billions… from our blood, from the lives of our citizens.” However, for a short time he left no doubt about the possibility of continuing gas supplies if payments to Russia were suspended until the end of the war.
Kyiv refuses to extend the contract
Russian gas company Gazprom said in a statement on Wednesday morning that there is “no technical and legal possibility” to transmit gas through Ukraine due to Kiev's refusal to extend the contract.
Even as Russian troops and tanks entered Ukraine in 2022, Russian natural gas continued to flow through the country's pipeline network – established when Ukraine and Russia were part of the Soviet Union – to Europe under a five-year agreement. Gazprom made money on gas, and Ukraine collected transit fees.
Before the war, Russia supplied almost 40 percent of its natural gas through European Union pipelines. The gas flowed through four pipeline systems, one under the Baltic Sea, one through Belarus and Poland, one through Ukraine and one under the Black Sea through Turkey to Bulgaria.
The cutting off of gas in Russia caused the European energy crisis
After the war broke out, Russia cut off most supplies through the Baltic and Belarus-Poland pipelines, citing disputes over the demand for payment in rubles. A Baltic pipeline was blown up in an act of sabotage, but the details of the attack remain unclear.
Russia's cutting off of supplies caused an energy crisis in Europe. Germany had to spend billions of euros to build floating terminals to import liquefied natural gas sent by ship rather than by pipeline. Users cut back when prices rose. Norway and the USA filled the gap, becoming the two largest suppliers.
Europe regarded Russia's cutting off supplies as energy blackmail and outlined plans to completely eliminate Russian gas imports by 2027.
According to European Commission data, Russia's share of the EU pipeline natural gas market has fallen sharply to about 8% in 2023. The Ukrainian transit route served EU members Austria and Slovakia, which have long obtained most of their natural gas from Russia but have recently begun trying to diversify supplies.
Among the hardest hit will be EU candidate Moldova, which received Russian gas through Ukraine and has introduced emergency measures as residents brace for a harsh winter and looming power cuts.
Ukrainian prisoners of war were reunited with their families on Monday in an emotional scene after being released as part of a major exchange between their country and Russia. One former inmate said his five-year-old son probably didn't recognize him because he last saw him when he was two.
On Wednesday, Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski called Ukraine's decision to suspend deliveries a “victory” for opponents of the Kremlin's policy. In a post on the X website, Sikorski accused Moscow of systematic attempts to “blackmail Eastern Europe with the threat of cutting off gas supplies”, including through the Baltic pipeline bypassing Ukraine and Poland and running directly to Germany.
“Impact on all of us in the EU”: Prime Minister of Slovakia
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Wednesday that ending gas flows through Ukraine would “drastically affect all of us in the EU, but not Russia.”
Fico, whose views on Russia differ significantly from the European mainstream, has previously sharply criticized Kiev's refusal to extend the transit agreement and in response threatened to end electricity supplies to Ukraine.
Moscow can continue to send gas to Hungary, as well as to non-EU countries Turkey and Serbia, via the TurkStream pipeline across the Black Sea.
The constant reduction of Russian gas supplies to European countries also prompted them to accelerate the integration of Ukraine's energy networks with its western neighbors.