Russia has, as expected, stopped its gas deliveries to Europe through Ukraine as of the New Year’s turn. The corresponding transit agreement expired at 6 a.m. German time (8 a.m. Moscow time) on Wednesday, according to Russia’s energy company Gazprom.
In detail, it’s about the transit contract between Gazprom and the Ukrainian energy supplier Naftogaz. Due to the “repeated and explicit refusal” of the Ukrainian side to extend these agreements, Gazprom has been deprived of the technical and legal possibility of delivering gas for transit through Ukraine starting from January 1, 2025, the Russian company said.
“We have stopped the transit of Russian gas, it’s a historical event” said Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Haluschtschenko in the meantime. Russia will lose markets and suffer financial losses. “Europe has already made a decision to reject Russian gas.” And the European “Repower EU” initiative sees exactly what Ukraine did on Wednesday, Haluschtschenko said.
Until the last moment, several European countries, including Slovakia and Hungary, were still supplied with Russian gas through Ukraine.