Gas Transit to Europe Will Continue. Ukraine and Russia Signed a New Deal

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Ukraine and Russia have signed agreements needed to continue the Russian gas transit to Europe through Ukraine for the next five years. The agreement will enter into force on January 1, 2020. The talks  lasted about four days in a row, hromadske.ua. reports. The Ukrainian side signed the deal on December 30 in Vienna, and the Russian side in the evening in St. Petersburg. Gas transit agreements were signed as part of Minsk arrangements of December 20. According to them, Russia agreed to continue gas transit through Ukraine for a period of five years with a possible extension of the contract for another ten years. In turn, Ukraine agreed to cede part of its claims to Gazprom within the framework of arbitration and antimonopoly investigations. In 2020, the transit volume will be 65 billion cubic meters of gas, and over the next four years - 40 billion cubic meters. By comparison, the gas transit agreements that were in effect until the end of 2019 provided for a transit volume of 60 billion cubic meters (with the possibility of increasing transit capacities to 80-90 billion cubic meters). In addition, in the framework of transit deals, Ukraine waived the fine of about $ 7.4 billion imposed on Gazprom by Antimonopoly Committee. In turn, Gazprom paid $ 2.9 billion of debt to Naftogaz under Stockholm arbitration ruling.