Ukraine leaves Europe without Russian gas

Alexey Gromov, Principal Director on Energy Studies of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to the Vzglyad business newspaper on Ukraine's refusal to transit Russian gas to the EU through Sokhranivka.

“I hope that this is not a final and irrevocable decision, and the parties can still find a compromise. Because the consequences of blocking transit will be the most serious,” Alexey Gromov says.

In his opinion, Ukraine contributes another stone to the destruction of Russian-European gas relations that have been developing over the past fifty years. The expert believes that Ukraine's motivation is purely political and it does not act independently, but at the behest of Western forces that want to destroy gas supplies to Europe that have been established for decades.

Why does Gazprom talk about technological difficulties?

“On the scale of the Ukrainian GTS, the redirection of supplies is probably possible, because there are a large number of overlapping gas pipelines on the territory of Ukraine. However, the Russian GTS is technologically unable to do this at the click of a finger. The Russian GTS provides Russian gas supplies not only to Europe, but also to the European part of Russia. Gazprom is technologically unable to solve this issue in a few days. It takes time to transfer transit volumes from Sokhranivka to Sudzha,” the analyst explains the position of the Russian company.

“I think that Gazprom will add gas to Nord Stream 1 for the sake of its consumers, primarily Germany. However, this gas pipeline is already pumping at almost full capacity,” Alexey Gromov notes.