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Russian gas supplies sent to Europe via Ukraine for more than 40 years came to a stop on Wednesday (January 1) after Kyiv refused to renegotiate a five-year-old transit deal amid war with Moscow.
Here is a look at why the supply has stopped, the European countries that will be affected, and if the Russian gas supply to Europe has entirely stopped.
Despite the ongoing war, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on December 19 said Kyiv might consider allowing the flow of gas if payments to Moscow were withheld until the fighting comes to a halt. While critics said that such a measure was not feasible, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that it was too late to renew the deal.
As a result, the deal, which was signed in 2020 and applicable for five years, was not extended.
On Wednesday, Russian energy giant Gazprom announced that gas supplies to Europe had been halted at 8 am local time.
On the same day, Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko said in a statement, “We stopped the transit of Russian gas. This is a historic event. Russia is losing its markets, it will suffer financial losses. Europe has already made the decision to abandon Russian gas.”
The biggest brunt will be borne by Eastern European countries — primarily Austria, Slovakia, and Moldova.
Austria was receiving most of its gas from Russia via Ukraine, while Slovakia was getting gas amounting to approximately two-thirds of its annual demand, according to a report by Al Jazeera.
According to Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico, the halt in the supply would cost hundreds of millions of dollars in transit revenue and a higher fee for the import of other gas, the report added. He also said that would result in the rise of gas prices across Europe.
Moldova is expected to be the worst affected. The country has already declared a state of emergency over the impending gas shortage.
The gas supply which was halted on Wednesday took place through the Soviet-era Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline. It carried gas from Siberia via the town of Sudzha — currently, under the control of Ukrainian military forces — in Russia’s Kursk region. The pipeline flows through Ukraine to Slovakia where the pipeline splits into branches going to the Czech Republic and Austria.
However, Moscow is still using the TurkStream pipeline on the bed of the Black Sea to export gas. “The pipeline has two lines, one feeds the domestic market in Turkiye, while the other supplies central European customers including Hungary and Serbia,” the Al Jazeera report said.
Before the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022, Moscow’s share of European gas imports stood at 35%. But in the following months, pipelines such as the Yamal-Europe pipeline through Belarus and the Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea which sent gas to Germany were shut down. Currently, Russia’s share of European gas imports is at 8%.
