Russia's Natural Gaza Export To Europe Via Ukraine Halted; Transit Deal Expired (image @GazpromEN)
Kyiv, Ukraine: Exports of Russian natural to Europe were halted early hours into New Year 2025. The export via Soviet-era pipelines running through Ukraine to Europe were halted as a transit deal expired and Moscow and Kyiv, which are at war, have failed to reach an agreement to continue the flows. It is one of Moscow’s oldest gas route. The five-year gas transit deal between Russia and Ukraine expired early on January 1.
The shutdown ends a decade-long fraught relations sparked by Russia’s seizure of Crimea in 2014. Kyiv stopped buying Russian gas the following year. Gazprom, a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation, assumed the absence of the gas transit via Ukraine, which accounted for roughly a half of Russia’s total pipeline gas exports to Europe, reported Reuters.
“Due to the repeated and clearly expressed refusal of the Ukrainian side to renew these agreements, Gazprom was deprived of the technical and legal ability to supply gas for transit through the territory of Ukraine from January 1, 2025,” Gazprom said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
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“Starting from 08:00 Moscow time (0500 GMT), the supply of Russian gas for its transportation through the territory of Ukraine is not carried out”, read the statement.
Russia continue to export gas via the TurkStream pipeline on the bed of the Black Sea. TurkStream has two lines – one for the Turkish domestic market and the other supplying central European customers including Hungary and Serbia.
Since Russia started its war on Ukraine in 2022, the European Union redoubled its attempts to educe its dependence on Russian energy, and started seeking alternatives. Slovakia, and Austria are other buyers of Russia through Ukraine, which have arranged for other alternatives.
Moldova, which once was part of the Soviet Union, is among the countries worst affected. It says it will now need to introduce measures to reduce its gas use by a third.
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Ukraine’s energy ministry also said the transportation of Russian gas through Ukraine “has been stopped in the interests of national security”. Kyiv now faces the loss of some $800 million a year in transit fees from Russia, while Gazprom will lose close to $5 billion in gas sales.
Russia and the former Soviet Union spent half a century building up a major share of the European gas market, which at its peak stood at around 35%. But the current Russia-Ukraine war has destroyed that business for Gazprom. The Yamal-Europe pipeline via Belarus has also shut and the Nord Stream route across the Baltic Sea to Germany was blown up in 2022, reported Reuters.
