Ukraine Warns the EU of Gas Crisis

Kyiv calls for European countries to prepare a gloomy scenario, while Russia holds off the negotiations on future gas contracts. EU countries may face a gas crisis due to the absence of the transit deal between Russia and Ukraine, said Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister Olena Zerkal in an interview with Bloomberg. Zerkal noted that there is a high probability that until January 1, 2020, Ukraine and Russia will not do a new deal, as Moscow holds off the negotiations on future contract on gas transit. “While Russia holds off the negotiations on future contract, the gloomy scenario of a gas crisis shall be considered seriously. That is why every European nation, including Ukraine, is increasing gas stock in storage sites.” - said Zerkal. More than a third of Europe’s gas comes from Russia, and most of that goes through Ukraine’s Soviet-era pipelines. Ukraine has proposed that the European Union store as much as 4 billion cubic meters of gas in its underground storage facilities to guarantee security of supply for eastern European countries heavily reliant on Russian gas, pipeline operator Ukrtransgaz said this week. It was reported earlier that the European Commission seeks to organize a new trilateral meeting on gas issue with Russia and Ukraine to get guarantees from Moscow to preserve Ukrainian transit after the expiration of the contract in December 2019. Two previous meetings with the participation of the European Commission did not yield results. A new round of negotiations was to take place in May, but last week the Russian Federation postponed consideration of the issue to September 2019. Korrespondent