Ukraine halts transit of Russian gas to Europe

Kyiv, Ukraine Jan. 2: Ukraine on Wednesday halted Russian gas supplies to European customers that pass through the country, almost three years into Moscow's all-out invasion of its neighbor, after a prewar transit deal expired at the end of last year.

At a summit in Brussels last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed that Kyiv would not allow Moscow to use the transits to earn "additional billions ... on our blood, on the lives of our citizens." But he briefly held open the possibility of the gas flows continuing if payments to Russia were withheld until the war ends.

Ukraine's energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, confirmed on Wednesday morning that Kyiv had stopped the transit "in the interest of national security."

"This is a historic event. Russia is losing markets and will incur financial losses. Europe has already decided to phase out Russian gas, and (this) aligns with what Ukraine has done today," Halushchenko said in an update on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia's Gazprom said in a statement on Wednesday morning that it "has no technical and legal possibility" of sending gas through Ukraine, due to Kyiv's refusal to extend the deal.

Even as Russian troops and tanks moved into Ukraine in 2022, Russian natural gas kept flowing through the country's pipeline network — set up 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% 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 Ukraine and one under the Black Sea through Turkey to Bulgaria.

After the war started, Russia cut off most supplies through the Baltic and Belarus-Poland pipelines, citing disputes over a demand for payment in rubles. (AP)