Russia: Gas sales to Europe have become very complicated

Russia has described the situation with European countries that buy gas from it via a transit agreement through Ukraine as “very complicated.” This came after talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Ukraine announced that it will not renew the agreement on the transit of Russian gas to Europe, which is valid for 5 years and expires at the end of this year.

Flows passing through Ukraine account for about half of Russia’s total gas exports via pipelines to Europe. Countries such as Slovakia, Italy, Austria and the Czech Republic are expected to be the most affected if these flows stop, according to Reuters.

Russian state-owned Gazprom continues to export gas to Europe via the TurkStream pipeline, which runs across the Black Sea.

The Slovak Prime Minister had said that Putin had confirmed Russia’s readiness to continue supplying gas to Slovakia, but Fico described this as “practically impossible” once the current gas transit agreement between Russia and Ukraine expires.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week that the deal could be renewed on condition that Russia not be paid for the gas until the war is over, a condition Moscow is unlikely to accept.