Ukraine halts Russian gas transit to Europe

Kyiv: Ukraineon Wednesday halted Russian gas supplies to European customers through its pipeline network after a prewar transit deal expired at the end of last year.

Ukraine's energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, confirmed on Wednesday morning that Kyiv had stopped the transit “in the interest of national security.”

Even as Russian troops and tanks moved into Ukraine in 2022, Russian natural gas kept flowing through the country's pipeline network — set up when Ukraine and Russia were both part of the Soviet Union — to Europe, under a five-year agreement. Gazprom earned money from the gas and Ukraine collected transit fees. Before the war, Russia supplied nearly 40 per cent of the European Union's pipeline natural gas.

Gas flowed through four pipeline systems, one under the Baltic Sea, one through Belarus and Poland, one through Ukraine and one under the Black Sea through Turkiye to Bulgaria.

After the war started, Russia cut off most supplies through the Baltic and Belarus-Poland pipelines, citing disputes over a demand for payment in rubles.