President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine will not continue the transit of Russian gas to Europe, so it is considering other options. Delivery of Azerbaijani gas to the EU via transit is "one of the proposals" currently being discussed.
He told about this in an interview with Bloomberg.
The president emphasized that Ukraine does not want to extend the gas contract with Russia.
"We donʼt want them to make money here," he said.
Currently, the government is working to ensure that Ukraine retains its role as a transit country. Today, several Eastern European states continue to receive Russian gas through a pipeline that crosses Ukraine, but the transit agreement expires at the end of this year.
Until now, Russia supplies approximately 15 billion cubic meters of gas per year to Europe through Ukraine. Slovakia, Austria, and Hungary remain the largest consumers of Russian gas.
- Energy Minister of Ukraine Herman Halushchenko said that the chances that Kyiv and Moscow will agree to extend the five-year transit contract, first signed in 2019, are very small, although the route through Ukraine accounts for almost 5% of all gas imports to Europe.
- Serhii Makogon, the former head of the "HTS Operator" company, said that now 35-37 million cubic meters are transiting from Russia to Europe through Ukraine every day, thatʼs about 13 billion every year. And this is a lot of money — Ukraine needs new contracts that will help fill the budget.
- In June 2024, Bloomberg, citing sources, wrote that Europe wants to pump gas from Azerbaijan through the Russia-Ukraine gas pipeline.