Exports of Russian herbal fuel from Ukraine to several European countries were disrupted after Kiev refused to renew a transit agreement that expired on Wednesday.
Ukraine had warned that it would not renew the five-year transit deal amid the ongoing military conflict with Russia.
“We stopped the transit of Russian gas. This is an ancient event. Russia loses its markets, it will go through monetary losses. Europe has already made the resolution to abandon Russian gas,” Energy Minister Gaulushchenko said in a statement.
Gazprom by Russian Power Gazprom said that fuel exports to Europe had been interrupted at 8 a. m. In Moscow (05:00 GMT) while the Transit Agreement had expired.
“Due to the repeated and obviously expressed refusal of the Ukrainian party to renew those agreements, Gazprom disadvantaged the technical and legal capacity to supply fuel for traffic through the territory of Ukraine since January 1, 2025,” Gazprom said in a statement Press in a press release in a press release. The telegram messaging application.
Ukraine pumps Russian herbal fuel its territory to several European countries, adding Slovakia, Moldova and Hungary.
Brussels has minimized the effect that the loss of the Russian fuel source will have on the 27 members block.
“The Commission has been working for more than a year specifically on preparing for a scenario without Russian gas transiting via Ukraine,” it told the AFP news agency on Tuesday.
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico blasted the move on Wednesday, warning it would be Europe that pays the price.
“Stopping the transit of fuel through Ukraine will have a drastic effect on all of us in the EU, but not on the Russian Federation,” FICO said in a video message on Facebook.
Fico, who has been critical of the European Union’s support to Kyiv, last week travelled to Moscow to meet Putin, anticipating a stoppage of the gas flow.
In a separate dispute over payments, Gazprom also said that he would stop the fuel to Moldova, which forces Chisinau to introduce an emergency state.
The Moldovan government said the breakaway pro-Russian region of Transnistria was in a “difficult situation” after gas supplies were cut off on Wednesday.
Government spokesman Daniel Voda said that “Russian blackmail in the transregist region will have to stop. “
Local media reported heating outages in the region, while an energy supplier urged residents to “dress warmly”, gather into a single room, seal doors and windows with curtains and blankets and avoid using homemade heating equipment.
The rest of Moldova has been saved for the moment, to guarantee the imports of electric energy of neighboring Romania.
It has already been cut off with direct Russian gas, but it was still founded on a giant power plant in Russia in Transnistria for its electricity.
The closure of the oldest gaseous highway from Russia to Europe ends a decade of heavy dealing caused through Russia’s crime crisis in 2014.
“It brings to a final end what was once Russia’s dominance of the EU energy market. It used that dominance in the past to economically damaging effect when it would call for higher prices unexpectedly or threatened to turn off the taps in the midst of winter,” Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull reported from Kyiv.
“And of course, this has had value for the European Union itself, diversifying the source into more beloved liquid herbal fuel products. In turn, damage the bloc’s economic output and cause genuine considerations about its long-term global competitiveness. “
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the transits will make Moscow waste “one of the maximum successful and geographically available markets” for their gas. In an article about X, he said that Russia “covered the cynical blackmail of the partners. “
The EU has stepped up efforts to lessen its dependence on Russian power following the outbreak of the army clash in Ukraine in 2022 through election sources.
As of December 1, the EU won less than 14 billion cubic meters (BCM) of Russian fuel Ukraine, 65 BCM according to the year when the last five -year contract began in 2020. The European Commission said that the volume It can be completely replaced through fuel imports liquefied and non -Russian.
Russia still exports to feed the Turkstream pipe in the Black Sea bed.
Hungary – which like Slovakia has remained friendly to Moscow – receives most of its Russian gas imports via the Black Sea pipeline. As a result, Budapest will remain largely unaffected by Ukraine’s decision.