Vladimir Putin claims he wants peace in Ukraine, but state-owned Gazprom threatens to cut off gas supplies to the country and therefore Europe after Kiev failed to make a pre-payment. The announcement came just hours before a new meeting in Paris between foreign ministers of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine.
Gazprom said in a statement that there were “serious” risks to gas transit to Europe because half of the Russian gas is being pumped via Ukraine. This might happen in the next two days, according to Reuters.
Ukraine has 219 million cubic meters of gas left and Russia will stop the supplies if no payment is made, even though state energy firm Naftogaz paid for more in advance last Thursday. But that gas apparently ended up in the separatist regions after Kiev cut supplies to the regions held by pro-Russians and Moscow began supplying Donetsk and Luhansk regions directly for the first time. Now, Gazprom even explained that the gas was shipped to the rebel regions under the contract with Naftogaz.
Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin was saying on television that he hoped for a peaceful resolution to the conflict and that trust was returning between Russia, France and Germany.
Supply stoppages to Ukraine have led to cuts in gas deliveries to the EU twice in recent years, during cold winter months, but the European Commission doesn’t think the gas transit to the EU will be affected by the situation, said a spokeswoman for the EU’s executive. And even with a new gas dispute, analysts think the warm weather will help the consumers.
“A new gas dispute is inevitable before the end of this week Still, European consumers are unlikely to suffer because of the warm weather,” said Alexander Paraschiy, an analyst at Concorde Capital in Kiev cited by Bloomberg.
The crisis between the two countries has implications for the rest of Europe because Ukraine’s pipe network carries about 40 percent of Gazprom’s exports to the rest of the continent.