Zelenskyy Urges U.S. To Supply More Gas To Europe After Ukraine Halts Flow Of Russian Gas

This pool image distributed by Sputnik agency shows Gazprom’s Amur Gas Processing Plant, near the town of Svobodny, on September 13, 2023.

After decades of supplying European nations with Russian gas, Russian gas exports through Ukraine have been halted, leading Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to urge the United States to supply Europe with more gas.

Ukraine’s energy minister explained that Ukraine’s refusal to renew the longstanding deal was “in the interests of national security.”

“We have stopped the transit of Russian gas. This is a historic event. Russia is losing markets and will incur financial losses.” stated Herman Halushchenko, Ukraine’s energy minister. “Europe has already decided to phase out Russian gas, and [this] aligns with what Ukraine has done today.”

Despite Russia’s gas being removed from European markets, the stoppage is not expected to raise gas prices for those living in the European Union (EU), officials claim, as the stoppage of Russian gas was previously expected and prepared for.

“The European gas infrastructure is flexible enough to provide gas of non-Russian origin,” stated a spokesperson for the European Commission. “It has been reinforced with significant new LNG (liquefied natural gas) import capacities since 2022.”

“We did our homework and were well prepared for this scenario,” added Austria’s Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler in an X post.

Die #Ukraine hat lange im Voraus klargestellt, dass sie den Transitvertrag mit dem Aggressor Russland nicht verlängern wird. Wir haben unsere Hausaufgaben gemacht und waren auf dieses Szenario gut vorbereitet: Die österreichische #Gasversorgung ist gesichert. (1/2)

— Leonore Gewessler (@lgewessler) January 1, 2025

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksyy said that Ukraine would no longer allow Moscow to earn “additional billions … on our blood, on the lives of our citizens.”

Zelenskyy continued, stating that the end of Russian gas flowing through Ukraine will be “one of Moscow’s biggest defeats,” while putting pressure on the United States to increase its supply of gas to Europe. He also claimed that Moscow was “turning energy into a weapon and engaging in cynical energy blackmail against its partners.”

“The more there is on the market from Europe’s real partners, the faster we will overcome the last negative consequences of European energy dependence on Russia,” he added.

Prior to the Ukraine-Russia war, Russia supplied nearly 40% of Europe’s natural gas through four pipeline systems, with a major one passing through Ukraine.

Russia then reportedly began to cut off gas supplies coming from the Baltic and Belarus-Poland pipelines following the start of the war, demanding that the payment be sent in rubles. The ruble, or “rouble,” is the currency of the Russian Federation.

As a result of a decrease in Russian gas in the supply chain, European gas prices skyrocketed, causing European countries to scramble to fill in the gaps, spending billions of euros to import liquefied natural gas by ship.

Russia’s capshare in the European Union’s supply of natural gas plummeted to around 8% in 2023.

Additionally, Ukraine will now face a loss of roughly $800 million a year in transit fees from the Russian gas, while Russia’s gas company faces losses of around $5 billion in gas sales.

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