Ukraine cut off supplies of Russian gas to European customers through its pipeline network on Wednesday after a pre-war transit deal expired at the end of last year.
Ukraine's Energy Minister Herman Hlushenko confirmed on Wednesday morning that Kiev had stopped the transit “in the interest of national security”.
“This is a historic event. Russia Losing markets and incurring financial losses. Europe has already decided to phase out Russian gas, and (this) coincides with what. Ukraine Done today,” Hlooshchenko said in an update on the Telegram messaging app.
At a summit in Brussels last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed that Kiev would not allow Moscow to use transit to make extra billions “on our blood, the lives of our citizens.” But he briefly left open the possibility of gas flows continuing if payments to Russia were halted until the end of the war.
Russia's Gazprom said in a statement early Wednesday that it had “no technical and legal possibility” to send gas through Ukraine, citing Kiev's refusal to extend the contract.
Even when Russian troops and tanks moved into Ukraine in 2022, Russian natural gas continued to flow through the country's pipeline network — when both Ukraine and Russia were part of the Soviet Union — to Europe under a five-year deal. Gazprom earned money from gas and Ukraine collected transit fees.
Before the war, Russia supplied about 40 percent of the European Union's pipeline natural gas. The gas traveled 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.
After the war began, Russia cut off most supplies through the Baltic and Belarus-Poland pipelines, citing disputes over demands for payment in rubles. The Baltic Pipeline was blown up in an act of sabotage, but the details of the attack are still unclear.
The Russian cut-off created an energy crisis in Europe. Germany has spent billions of euros to build floating terminals to import liquefied natural gas, which comes by ship rather than by pipeline. Consumers cut back as prices rose. Norway and the US became the two largest suppliers filling the gap.
Europe saw the Russian cut-off as energy blackmail and outlined plans to completely end Russian gas imports by 2027.
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According to EU Commission data, Russia's share of the EU's pipeline natural gas market falls sharply to around 8 percent in 2023. Ukraine's transit route serves EU members Austria and Slovakia, which have long received the bulk of their natural gas from Russia but have recently made efforts to diversify supplies.
Gazprom halted supplies to Austria's OMV in mid-November over a contract dispute, but gas continued to flow through Ukrainian pipelines as other customers stepped in. Slovakia signed an agreement this year to begin buying natural gas from Azerbaijan, and through it also imports U.S. liquefied natural gas. A pipeline from Poland.
Among the hardest hit is EU candidate country Moldova, which has been receiving Russian gas via Ukraine and has taken emergency measures as residents face harsh winters and power cuts.
Separate from Kiev's decision to let the transit deal expire, Gazprom said last month it would stop gas supplies to Moldova from January 1, citing an unpaid debt. Gazprom has said Moldova owes about $709 million for past gas supplies, which the country has hotly disputed, citing international audits.
Local transit operator Tiraspoltransgaz-Transnistria said on Wednesday heating and hot water supplies were suddenly cut off to households in Moldova's breakaway region of Transnistria, which has hosted Russian troops for decades, because of Russian natural disasters. Gas had stopped flowing into the area.
In an online statement, the company urged residents to keep household members in one room, hang blankets over windows and balcony doors, and use electric heaters. It said some critical facilities, including hospitals, have been exempted from the cuts.
On December 13, Moldova's parliament voted to impose a state of emergency in the energy sector, as fears grew that gas shortages could trigger a humanitarian crisis in Transnistria, which has depended on Russian energy supplies for decades. Depends.
Many observers predict that growing energy shortages could force people from the separatist region to travel further afield to Moldova, seeking basic amenities to get them through the harsh winters and putting further pressure on resources. .
Moldovan, Ukrainian and EU politicians have repeatedly accused Moscow of weaponizing energy supplies.
On Wednesday, Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski called Ukraine's move to freeze supplies a “victory” for those opposed to Kremlin policies. In a post on X, Sikorski accused Moscow of a systematic effort to “blackmail Eastern Europe with threats to cut off gas supplies,” bypassing Ukraine and Poland through the Baltic pipeline and Including running directly to Germany.
Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico Slovakia's prime minister claimed on Wednesday that the end of gas flows through Ukraine “will affect all of us in the EU very much, but not Russia.”
Fico, whose views on Russia differ sharply from the European mainstream, has previously criticized Kiev's refusal to extend the transit agreement, threatening to cut off electricity supplies to Ukraine in response. was
Moscow could send gas to Hungary as well as non-EU states Turkey and Serbia via the TurkStream pipeline across the Black Sea.
The continued decline in Russian gas supplies to European countries has also encouraged Ukraine's energy grids to accelerate integration with its neighbors to the west.
Last week, private Ukrainian energy utility DTEK said it had received its first shipment of liquefied natural gas from the U.S., which will be delivered through a new expansion network spanning six countries from Greece to Ukraine — and it It is an important step in reducing regional dependence on Russia. Energy
Also, overnight on New Year's Day, Russia carried out a drone attack on Kiev that killed two people, buried under the rubble of a destroyed building, according to city authorities. At least six people were injured in the Ukrainian capital, according to Mayor Vitaly Klitschko.
One man was killed and two women wounded by Russian shelling in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, regional authorities reported.