Russia officially stopped supplying gas to Europe via Ukraine from January 1, 2025, when the 5-year transit agreement expired and the two countries failed to reach a new agreement.
In a statement, Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said that the country has stopped the transit of Russian gas. This is a historic event. Russia will suffer financial losses due to the loss of the European market.
On its Telegram page, the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy stated: “At 7:00 a.m. local time (12:00 p.m. Hanoi time), in the interests of national security, the transportation of Russian natural gas through Ukrainian territory was stopped.” The announcement said that Ukraine had fully informed its international partners about the move.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian media quoted Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha calling on the EU to ban imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG), replacing it with supplies from the US and other partners.
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| Russia officially stopped supplying gas to Europe via Ukraine from January 1, 2025. (Source: Reuters) |
The closure of Russia's oldest gas pipeline to Europe was expected amid the conflict in Ukraine that erupted in February 2022. Ukraine has been adamant that it will not extend the agreement amid the conflict.
Russia’s Gazprom last year assumed there would be no gas transit through Ukraine, according to an industry source. Meanwhile, the European Union has stepped up efforts to reduce its dependence on Russian energy, actively seeking alternative energy sources.
The remaining buyers of Russian gas via Ukraine, such as Slovakia and Austria, have also arranged alternative supplies.
The European Commission (EC) has confirmed that the EU has enough alternative sources after Russia stopped gas supplies via Ukraine. The EC has played down the impact of Russia's suspension of gas exports to Europe via Ukraine, saying the January 1 cutoff was expected and the bloc was prepared.
“The European gas infrastructure is resilient enough to supply non-Russian gas to Central and Eastern Europe via alternative routes. This infrastructure has been significantly enhanced with new liquefied natural gas (LNG) import capacities from 2022,” an EC spokesperson said.
Poland on January 1 hailed the end of Russian gas transit through Ukraine as a “new victory”, while Slovakia warned of “serious” impacts from the decision.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski wrote on the social media platform X that the event marked “a new victory after NATO admitted Finland and Sweden”.
Contrary to the above statement, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico warned on the same day that Kiev's decision to stop the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine would have a "serious" impact on the EU. On his Facebook page, he wrote: "Stopping the transit of gas through Ukraine will have a serious impact on all of us in the EU, but not on the Russian Federation."
According to Slovakia's leading gas importer SPP, Russia's gas exporter Gazprom Export has stopped supplying gas to Slovakia after the transit agreement via Ukraine ended. However, SPP also affirmed that it was prepared for this situation and would supply all customers via alternative routes, mainly by pipeline from Germany and also Hungary, but would face increased transit costs.
Meanwhile, Ukraine now faces losing about $800 million a year in transit fees from Russia, while Gazprom stands to lose nearly $5 billion in gas sales.
Russia and the former Soviet Union spent half a century competing for a large share of the European gas market, peaking at around 35%, but the conflict has affected Gazprom's entire business.
The Yamal-Europe pipeline through Belarus has also been closed, and the Nord Stream route through the Baltic Sea to Germany is set to explode in 2022.
Combined, the routes delivered a record 201 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas to Europe in 2018.
Russia will transport about 15 bcm of gas via Ukraine in 2023, down sharply from 65 bcm when the gas transit contract began in 2020.
Source: https://baoquocte.vn/dong-cua-duong-ong-khi-dot-lau-doi-nhat-cua-nga-toi-chau-au-ba-lan-ca-ngoi-la-chien-thang-moi-299398.html
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