LONDON – Ukraine has halted the flow of Russian natural gas through its territory to Europe at 7 a.m. Wednesday, following the expiration of a longstanding transit agreement, Ukrainian officials confirmed.
“This is a historic event. We have stopped the transit of Russian gas,” said Herman Galushchenko, Ukraine’s energy minister. “Russia is losing markets, and it will face significant financial losses.”
The move was anticipated, as officials, including Galushchenko, had signaled plans to suspend the transnational pipelines and discussed the decision with neighboring countries.
“We conducted a series of stress tests on our gas system to ensure that we can maintain stable functioning and continue supplying gas to consumers after the transit ends,” Galushchenko said on Ukrainian television last week.
Russia’s state-owned energy company Gazprom confirmed the stoppage, stating that Kyiv had refused to extend the agreement. “The supply of Russian gas for its transportation through Ukraine ceased at 8:00 a.m. Moscow time,” Gazprom told TASS news agency.
The deal had previously allowed the transit of about 40 billion cubic meters of Russian gas through Ukraine annually to European countries, including Slovakia, which had advocated for the continuation of the arrangement.
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