01 May 2024, Wednesday, 13:24 608

Transit of russian gas through Ukraine accounts for 5% of total volume of supplies to EU - Chernyshov

Editor: Daria Zubkova

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Russian gas coming through Ukraine currently accounts for less than 5% of the total volume of supplies to the European Union.

Oleksii Chernyshov, chairman of the board of Naftogaz, said this in an interview with the Financial Times, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

He noted that Naftogaz's contract with Gazprom expires at the end of this year, while Naftogaz will not continue its operation.

According to Chernyshov, this means that, most likely, in 2025, russian gas will not be supplied through Ukraine, which will force countries such as Austria and Slovakia to look for alternative sources of supply.

"The reason why Naftogaz continued to work under this transit agreement (even in the face of war with russia) is to meet the EU's gas needs and remain a reliable partner (for the bloc). The money that Naftogaz receives from Gazprom do not cover our costs for organizing this transit, because Gazprom has not paid the full price almost since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, and our cash flow for this operation is constantly negative," he noted.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in March, Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said that Ukraine does not plan to extend the transit contract with russia's Gazprom after December 31, 2024.

Earlier, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that Ukraine does not plan to negotiate with russia on the extension of the contract for the transit of russian natural gas after its completion, but if European partners are interested in it, Kyiv is ready to consider transit options.

In December 2019, the Naftogaz of Ukraine, GTS Operator of Ukraine and russia's Gazprom companies signed an agreement on the transit of russian gas to Europe through the territory of Ukraine from 2020.

Ukraine and russia have agreed that, according to the new gas transit contract for 5 years, which can be extended after 2024, the volume of transit in 2020 will be 65 billion cubic meters of gas, and in 2021-2024 - 40 billion cubic meters each.