Ukraine on Wednesday suspended the supply of Russian gas to European customers through its pipeline network after a prewar transit deal expired at the end of last year.
Ukraine's energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, confirmed Wednesday morning that Kyiv had suspended the move “for national security.”
“This is a historic event. Russia is losing markets and will suffer financial losses. Europe has already decided to stop Russian gas, and (this) is in line with what Ukraine has done today,” Halushchenko said in an update on the Telegram messaging app.
At a summit in Brussels last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pledged that Kyiv would not allow Moscow to use the moves to “earn billions more … on our blood, on the lives of our citizens .” But it had been open for a short time that the gas flows could continue if payments to Russia were withheld until the end of the war.
Kyiv refuses to extend the agreement
Russian gas company Gazprom said in a statement on Wednesday morning that it does not have the “technical and legal capacity” to send gas through Ukraine, due to Kyiv's refusal to extend the agreement.
Even as Russian troops and tanks moved into Ukraine in 2022, Russian natural gas continued to flow through the country's pipeline network – established when Ukraine and Russia were both part of the Soviet Union – to Europe, under a five-year agreement. Gazprom earned money from the gas and Ukraine collected transit fees.
Before the war, Russia supplied nearly 40 percent of the European Union's pipeline natural gas. Gas flowed through four pipeline systems, one under the Baltic Sea, one through Belarus and Poland, one through the Ukraine and one under the Black Sea through Turkey to Bulgaria.
The Russian gas cut caused a European energy crisis
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 remain murky.
The Russian cut caused an energy crisis in Europe. Germany had to shell out billions of euros to set up floating terminals to import liquefied natural gas that comes by ship, not by pipeline. Consumers cut back as prices rose. Norway and the US filled the gap, and became the two largest suppliers.
Europe viewed Russia's cut-off as an energy blackout and has outlined plans to completely eliminate Russian gas imports by 2027.
Russia's share of the EU pipeline natural gas market fell sharply to around eight percent in 2023, according to data from the EU Commission. The Ukraine transit route served EU members Austria and Slovakia, which have long received most of their natural gas from Russia but have been seeking to diversify supplies from recently.
Among the hardest hit will be EU candidate country Moldova, which has been receiving Russian gas through Ukraine and has introduced emergency measures as residents prepare for a harsh winter and impending power cuts.
Ukrainian prisoners of war were reunited with their families in an emotional scene Monday after being released in a major swap between their country and Russia. A former prisoner said his five-year-old son may not have recognized him when he last saw him when he was two.
On Wednesday, Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski called Ukraine's decision to freeze supplies a “victory” for those who oppose the Kremlin's policies. In a post on X, 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.
'We will all be affected in the EU': Slovakian PM
Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Wednesday that the end of gas flows through Ukraine “will have a big impact on all of us in the EU but not on Russia.”
Fico, whose views on Russia have been at odds with the European mainstream, has previously criticized Kyiv's refusal to extend the transfer deal, and has threatened to suspend on the supply of electricity to Ukraine in response.
Moscow can still send gas to Hungary, as well as non-EU states Turkey and Serbia, via the TurkStream pipeline across the Black Sea.
The steady reduction in Russian gas supplies to European countries has also encouraged them to accelerate the integration of Ukraine's energy grids with its western neighbors.
