Ukraine does not plan to negotiate with russia to extend the contract for the transit of russian natural gas after its completion at the end of 2023, but if European partners are interested in it, it is ready to consider options for transit.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced this at a press conference, Ukrainian News Agency reports.
"Of course, we are not going to negotiate with the aggressor country regarding gas transit... But we had repeated negotiations at European sites with European leaders on the basis of the European Commission. Either if European countries act as a consortium or one of the European partners acts as a transit for their gas, we are ready to provide such a service, as we have done so by this time responsibly to European partners. Here the initiative is on the side of the EU, on the side of our European partners," he said.
At the same time, Shmyhal noted that there are options for using the domestic gas transmission system in the absence of transit of russian gas.
"If not, we will use our GTS for our purposes, we have a plan B, the system will not disappear, it is needed for our state, and we have other opportunities to use it, in particular for transit, of course," he said.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the EU is not interested in extending the contract for the transit of russian gas through Ukraine.
Ukrainian gas infrastructure is ready to work without transit of russian gas.
In August 2023, Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said that after the completion of the gas transit contract with russia, Ukraine would not negotiate its extension.
In December 2019, Naftogaz of Ukraine, GTS Operator of Ukraine and russian Gazprom signed an agreement on the transit of russian gas to Europe through Ukraine since 2020.
Ukraine and russia agreed that, under a new gas transit contract for 5 years, which can be extended after 2024, the transit volume in 2020 will be 65 billion cubic meters of gas, and in 2021-2024 - 40 billion cubic meters each year.
Who we are: About us, Contacts. How we write news and our principles: Editorial code. We did our best. If you found this valuable – please support us.
To request a correction, please send an email.