Ukraine Named the Guilty One on Russian Gas Delivery Deficiency

The Ukrainian officials or politics are not to be blamed for the deficiency of direct russian gas delivery to Ukraine – there’s no prohibition from their side. The executive director of Naftogaz Yuriy Vitrenko stated in a comment to Radio Svoboda (Radio Freedom). The ground of such a situation he called the Gazprom’s decision several years ago to stop gas delivery. According to Vitrenko the task of Naftogaz in this situation would be to find a way to make state provisions and agree on alternative delivery routes. The top manager of Naftogaz answered the question whether the company could have some kind of subsidiary to buy gas directly from Gazprom. He pointed out that this is possible, but it’s premature to discuss such decisions, because there are no such “plans, negotiations, thoughts”. Direct deliveries of Russian gas to Ukraine ceased in 2015. During negotiations on a new contract for transit to the EU, Moscow linked the agreement with the possibility of resuming supplies. However, on December 30, 2019, the parties signed a contract without mentioning the sale of gas to Ukraine, Moscow and Kiev agreed to discuss this issue later. For the Ukrainian authorities, the resumption of supplies also carries political risks, as the party of former President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko “European Solidarity” demands a ban on such contracts. Earlier Vitrenko called the transit contract the most profitable in the history of Ukraine. He explained that for the first time Kiev achieved guarantees of pumping a certain amount of gas, and therefore it would in any case receive a guaranteed income for five years in the amount of 7.2 billion dollars.