Russian gas has stopped flowing to Europe through Ukraine, ending a key energy route that dates back to Soviet times and withstood three years of all-out war between the two countries.
Ukraine cut off the shipping route after the agreement signed in 2019 expired in the early hours of New Year's Day. This marks a new milestone in Europe, which has been cut off from Russian gas supplies for the past few years, prompting immediate blackouts in hundreds of thousands of areas. People living in breakaway regions of Moldova.
Russia's Gazprom said in a statement that it had suspended gas shipments through Ukraine as of 8 a.m. Moscow time (5 a.m. Japan time) on Wednesday. Ukraine's energy minister, Germany's Galushchenko, called the move “historic,” while President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described it in a social media post as “one of Moscow's biggest defeats.”
Zelensky wrote: “When President Putin came to power in Russia more than 25 years ago, the annual volume of gas pumped through Ukraine to Europe was more than 130 billion cubic meters. Currently, the transit of Russian gas is zero.”
The move drew anger from Slovakia's Prime Minister Roberto Fico, who had campaigned against the decision in recent months. “The suspension of gas transport through Ukraine will have a dramatic impact on all EU member states, but not on the Russian Federation,” he said on Facebook.
But elsewhere there were voices celebrating Russia's further move away from energy dependence. Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said the development was “another victory” for Europe.
The most immediate impact of the move was felt in the Moldova independent region of Transnistria, which lost heating and hot water on Wednesday morning.
The heating reductions took effect at 7 a.m. local time (5 a.m. GMT) on Wednesday, according to a statement posted on the website of local energy company Tirasteproenergo. Residents were urged to dress warmly, gather their families together in one room, hang blankets and thick curtains over windows and balcony doors, and use electric heaters.
“It is prohibited to use gas or electric stoves for heating inside the apartment. This can lead to tragedy,” the company said. One employee told Reuters by phone that he did not know how long the situation would last.
Russian gas has been flowing through Ukraine for decades, mainly through Soviet-made pipelines that begin in the town of Suzha in Russia's Kursk region, now under Ukrainian military control, and end near Uzhgorod, on Ukraine's western border with Slovakia. It flowed through.
This route has often been fraught with difficulties, as Russia has long been accused of using gas flows for political blackmail as relations with Ukraine go through various crises.
a report A report released last month by the Center for European Policy Analysis (Cepa) said: “Russia is exploiting Ukraine's dependence on Europe's gas supplies and transport revenues to force political concessions, spread corruption and influence negative impacts. “There is,” he claimed.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the share of Russian gas in the European market has fallen from about 35% to about 8% as European countries seek to diversify their supply.
The Nord Stream submarine pipeline, which connected Russia and Germany without the need for transit countries, was destroyed in September 2022, and there were reports that a Ukrainian team was behind the attack.
However, Slovakia, Hungary and Austria remain dependent on Russian gas, and shipments continued even as the war has raged in Ukraine for the past three years.
This gas generated revenues for both Russia and Ukraine, including hundreds of millions of euros in annual transit fees to Kiev. Negotiations to extend the agreement took place last year, and various options were proposed, including a plan for Russia and Azerbaijan to sell gas to each other and brand transit gas as Azerbaijani gas. However, these options were rejected by Ukraine because the Ukrainian government determined that the benefits of abolishing the transit outweighed the costs.
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“We will not allow them to earn billions more with our blood,” President Zelenskiy said last month. He said the only option Ukraine would consider would be for consumers to defer payments to Russia until after the end of the war, but said this was unlikely to be an acceptable solution for Gazprom or the Kremlin. Ta.
The only gas route from Russia to Europe still in operation is the Turk Stream, a Black Sea pipeline that sends gas to Hungary and Serbia. Analysts say it is likely that EU countries will find alternative sources to fill the gap without significantly impacting prices, as Ukrainian transit gas accounts for only about 5% of Europe's gas demand. .
Nevertheless, Russia-friendly leaders of Slovakia and Hungary, Fico and Viktor Orbán, criticized the move. Slovakia estimates that the loss of goods via Ukraine could cost it around €150m (about £125m) in increased fees.
Fico traveled to Moscow last month for talks with President Vladimir Putin, an unusual visit by an EU leader since the start of the war. Upon his return, he announced that if Ukraine cut off Russian gas supplies, Slovakia would cut off electricity supplies to Ukraine, which has been forced to rely on imports as Russia continues targeted bombing of the country's energy infrastructure. He also threatened to consider it.
“We are fighting for our lives. Fico is fighting for money,” said President Zelenskiy, furious at the threat. “To be honest, it's a little embarrassing to talk about money during a war, because you're losing people,” he added.
Moldova faces perhaps the most difficult consequences of the European countries due to the suspension of Ukrainian gas shipments. The country declared a state of emergency in December over fears that power outages would affect gas power plants, Transnistria's main source of electricity.
Moldova passed a referendum on EU membership last year by a narrow majority, and Russia has been accused of interfering in the election system. Gazprom had threatened to halt deliveries to Moldova, citing a dispute over unpaid bills, even if an agreement was reached to keep Ukrainian traffic open. On Wednesday, the Moldovan government accused Moscow of “extortion”.
But while most of Moldova can tap into its reserves and supplement Russian gas by importing from Romania, Transnistria, a pro-Russian breakaway region with about 450,000 people, will be hit the hardest. Very likely.
Moldova government spokesperson Daniel Voda said on Wednesday that central authorities were “looking for alternative solutions that can be offered.” [Transnistria residents] using heat and energy. ”
