Russian natural gas exports via Ukraine to several European countries have been halted after Kyiv refused to renew a transit deal that expired on Wednesday.
Ukraine had warned that it would not renew the five-year transit deal amid the ongoing military conflict with Russia.
“We stopped the transit of Russian gas. This is a historic event. Russia is losing its markets, it will suffer financial losses. Europe has already made the decision to abandon Russian gas,” Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko said in a statement.
Russia’s energy giant Gazprom said gas exports to Europe had been halted from 8am Moscow time (05:00 GMT) as the transit deal had expired.
“Due to the repeated and clearly expressed refusal of the Ukrainian side to renew these agreements, Gazprom was deprived of the technical and legal ability to supply gas for transit through the territory of Ukraine from January 1, 2025,” Gazprom said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukraine pumps Russian natural gas through its territory to several European countries, including Slovakia, Moldova and Hungary.
Brussels downplayed the impact the loss of Russian gas supply will have on the 27-member bloc.
“The Commission has been working for more than a year specifically on preparing for a scenario without Russian gas transiting via Ukraine,” it told the AFP news agency on Tuesday.
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico blasted the move on Wednesday, warning it would be Europe that pays the price.
“Halting gas transit via Ukraine will have a drastic impact on us all in the EU but not on the Russian Federation,” Fico said in a video message on Facebook.
Fico, who has been critical of the European Union’s support to Kyiv, last week travelled to Moscow to meet Putin, anticipating a stoppage of the gas flow.
In a separate dispute over payments, Gazprom also said it would halt gas supplies to Moldova, forcing Chisinau to introduce a state of emergency.
The Moldovan government said the breakaway pro-Russian region of Transnistria was in a “difficult situation” after gas supplies were cut off on Wednesday.
Government spokesperson Daniel Voda said that “Russian blackmail in the Transnistrian region must stop.”
Local media reported heating outages in the region, while an energy supplier urged residents to “dress warmly”, gather into a single room, seal doors and windows with curtains and blankets and avoid using homemade heating equipment.
The rest of Moldova has been spared blackouts for now, able to secure power imports from neighbouring Romania.
It was already cut off from direct Russian gas, but still relied on a major Russian-supplied power plant in Transnistria for its electricity.
The shutdown of Russia’s oldest gas route to Europe ends a decade of fraught relations prompted by Russia’s seizure of Crimea in 2014.
“It brings to a final end what was once Russia’s dominance of the EU energy market. It used that dominance in the past to economically damaging effect when it would call for higher prices unexpectedly or threatened to turn off the taps in the midst of winter,” Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull reported from Kyiv.
“And of course, that has come with a price for the European Union itself, diversifying supply away towards more expensive liquid natural gas products. In turn, harming economic output of the bloc and causing real worries about its future global competitiveness.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that halting the transits would see Moscow lose “one of the most profitable and geographically accessible markets” for its gas. In a post on X, he said Russia was “resorting to cynical blackmail of partners.”
The EU redoubled its efforts to reduce its dependence on Russian energy after the outbreak of the military conflict in Ukraine in 2022 by seeking alternative sources.
As of December 1, the EU received less than 14 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas from Russia via Ukraine, down from 65bcm a year when the latest five-year contract began in 2020. The European Commission has said that volume can be fully replaced by liquefied natural gas and non-Russian pipeline imports.
Russia still exports gas via the TurkStream pipeline on the bed of the Black Sea.
Hungary – which like Slovakia has remained friendly to Moscow – receives most of its Russian gas imports via the Black Sea pipeline. As a result, Budapest will remain largely unaffected by Ukraine’s decision.
