Ukraine
Forces a Halt to Flow of Natural Gas From Russia to Europe
A
transnational pipeline was shut down on Wednesday after Kyiv refused to renew
an agreement that allowed for the transit of Russian gas through its territory.
Marc Santora Andrew Higgins Mike Ives
By Marc
Santora Andrew Higgins
and Mike Ives
Marc Santora
reported from Kyiv, Ukraine, and Andrew Higgins from Warsaw.
Jan. 1, 2025
Updated 3:37
a.m. ET
The flow of
natural gas from Russia to Europe was cut off early Wednesday after Ukraine
refused to renew an agreement that allowed for the transit of Russian gas
through its territory, according to officials in both countries.
The move to
suspend the flow of gas through a pipeline that had carried Soviet and then
Russian gas to Europe for nearly six decades is part of a broader campaign by
Ukraine and its Western allies to undermine Moscow’s ability to fund its war
effort and limit the Kremlin’s ability to use energy as leverage in Europe.
“This is a
historic event,” Ukraine’s energy minister, Herman Galushchenko, said in a
statement. “Russia is losing markets, it will suffer financial losses.”
President
Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine vowed last month to shut down the pipeline
despite threats of retaliation, including from Slovakia and Hungary, two of the
European countries that most depend on Russian gas.
The Russian
energy giant, Gazprom, issued a statement early
on Wednesday confirming that it was no longer sending gas from the
Siberian plains through the pipeline.
Even before
the move, which was widely anticipated, Europe had sharply reduced its
consumption of Russian gas in response to
Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago. Volumes through the
Ukrainian transit pipeline had fallen to around a quarter of their prewar
levels.
Austria,
Hungary, Slovakia and several Balkan countries still rely on Russian gas
delivered through Ukraine, but experts say gas in storage facilities and
alternative supplies should prevent any immediate disruptions to electricity
and heating in these countries.
More
vulnerable is Moldova. In December it declared a state of emergency amid fears
that an end to supplies of Russian gas through Ukraine would endanger its main
source of electricity, a gas-fueled power plant in the breakaway
Russian-speaking region of Transnistria.
Gazprom
warned Moldova this week that it would halt all gas deliveries on Jan. 1 even
if the pipeline through Ukraine kept working, citing a long-running dispute
over unpaid bills.
Transnistria,
a sliver of Moldovan territory next to Ukraine, with support from Moscow,
declared itself an independent microstate after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet
Union.
This is a
developing story.
Marc Santora
has been reporting from Ukraine since the beginning of the war with Russia. He
was previously based in London as an international news editor focused on
breaking news events and earlier the bureau chief for East and Central Europe,
based in Warsaw. He has also reported extensively from Iraq and Africa. More
about Marc Santora
Andrew
Higgins is the East and Central Europe bureau chief for The Times based in
Warsaw. He covers a region that stretches from the Baltic republics of Estonia,
Latvia and Lithuania to Kosovo, Serbia and other parts of former Yugoslavia.
More about Andrew Higgins
Mike Ives is
a reporter for The Times based in Seoul, covering breaking news around the
world. More about Mike Ives
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