The agreement between Russian state-owned Gazprom and Ukraine to transport gas to European countries via pipeline is now broken. According to Al Jazeera, Gazprom confirmed this. Thus, the latest trade and political agreement between Russia and Ukraine is now complete.
Due to the breakdown of the agreement, exports of Russian natural gas to many countries in Europe are now halted. The Russian company Gazprom sent natural gas to many countries, including Slovakia, Moldova and Hungary, even during the war, under a transit agreement. Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushenko said in a statement:
We have stopped the transit of Russian gas. This is a historic event. Russia loses its markets, it will suffer financial losses.
Urengoy-Pommery-Uzhgorod oil pipeline. Thanks to this, Russia supplied gas to European countries.
Ukraine refused to extend the agreement, Slovakia threatened
The transit agreement to transport gas to European countries was launched in 2019. It was due to end on December 31, 2024. Ukraine had refused to renew this agreement.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had been trying for several weeks to persuade Ukraine not to cancel the transit agreement. His efforts proved insufficient. These two European leaders are considered Putin supporters.
Fearing he would run out of gas, Robert Fico traveled to Moscow last week to meet Putin. He said that if Ukraine did not renew the transit agreement, Slovakia would stop supplying electricity to Ukraine. Regarding this threat, Ukraine declared that it was not concerned about it.
Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushenko said on Monday that if Slovakia did so, Ukraine would compensate by importing electricity from Romania and Poland.
Russian President Putin and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. The photo is from December 22.
Moldova’s situation is the worst
The situation in Moldova is very serious. It is a country cut off from the border with Ukraine and struggling with Russian-backed separatists. Due to fears of a cancellation of the transit agreement, a 60-day state of emergency was imposed in Moldova in early December.
Like Moldova, Slovakia and Hungary do not face as many problems because these countries still buy Russian gas from the Turkstream pipeline laid in the Black Sea.
Russian gas supplies stopped after 60 years
Underground pipelines several thousand kilometers long are being laid in Ukraine. These were laid in Soviet times. For about 60 years, around 150 billion cubic meters (BCM) of Russian natural gas were transported to Western Europe each year using these pipelines.
After the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine, European Union countries reduced their dependence on Russian fossil fuels. At the same time, Russia has reduced gas supplies through these pipelines to 40 billion cubic meters. In 2023, this supply has further reduced to around 15 BCM, which has now become zero.