Earlier, the chairman of the board of directors of “Gazprom” Alexey Miller said that the company is ready to continue gas transit through Ukraine after 2024 based on the economic feasibility and the state of the Ukrainian GTS.
“The issues of new volumes of gas purchases from Russia for transit through the territory of Ukraine should be resolved on market conditions and at market prices. For the volume of new purchases of Russian gas via the Ukrainian route, in total above the current transit obligations, Gazprom is even ready to increase the volume of transit through Ukraine, ”Miller said.
According to Vitrenko, these words confirm Moscow’s desire for Ukraine to negotiate directly with Russia, and these agreements should include the import of Russian gas. At the same time, Moscow has always allegedly insisted that Kiev buy a lot of Russian gas at a price significantly higher than the market price, Vitrenko said. As a result, Ukraine used to pay for gas by $ 5 billion more than it received for transit, he added.
“We don’t need such a continuation of transit, when Ukraine still has to pay extra to Russia. We now spend less on all imported gas than we get for transit. Now Ukraine is in positive territory, we receive money in the state budget. We do not need any agreements that lead to the fact that money from Ukraine goes to Russia, ”Vitrenko said.
Earlier, the German Foreign Ministry published a joint statement with the United States, which partly discusses the conditions for the operation of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. In particular, it says about the need to extend the transit contract between Gazprom and the Ukrainian Naftogaz after 2024 for 10 years. For this purpose, “Germany promises to use all the necessary resources.”
In December 2019, Gazprom and Naftogaz signed a five-year contract for the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine to Europe starting from January 1, 2020. Under the terms of this contract, Gazprom must pump at least 225 billion cubic meters of gas through Ukraine. m of gas in 2020–2024
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