Stopping the export of Russian gas is a “major defeat” for Moscow

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saw the cessation of Russian gas exports through Ukrainian territory as one of the “biggest defeats suffered by Moscow.”
He said in a post on social media: “When Russian President Vladimir Putin took power in Russia 25 years ago, more than 130 billion cubic meters of gas were pumped annually to Europe through Ukraine. Today, this quantity has become zero, and this is considered among the largest… The defeats suffered by Moscow.

Russian gas transit stopped

Russian gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine stopped permanently on Wednesday morning, after the expiration of a contract concluded between Kiev and Moscow at the end of 2019, raising concern among many countries in Eastern Europe.

Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said in a statement: “We stopped the transit of Russian gas. It is a historic event. Russia is losing markets and will suffer financial losses.”
No shipments were scheduled to be delivered on Wednesday, according to data published by the Ukrainian company GTSOU on Tuesday, in line with the expiration of a 5-year contract signed by the Ukrainian company Naftogaz and the giant Russian group Gazprom.
In 2019, upon signing, Zelensky praised an agreement that guaranteed “energy security” and “prosperity for Ukrainians,” but circumstances changed radically with the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which left hundreds of thousands dead and wounded, both civilians and military.

40 million cubic metres

Daily Russian gas exports to Europe via Ukrainian territory in recent weeks amounted to about 40 million cubic meters.
In 2023, 14.65 billion cubic meters of Russian gas was pumped to Europe through Ukrainian pipelines, according to official figures.
In this tense context, the European gas price reached the symbolic threshold of 50 euros per megawatt hour on Tuesday, for the first time in more than a year.