By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-01-01 11:11:30 | Updated at 2025-01-04 06:33:06
2 days ago
Russian gas exports via Soviet-era pipelines running through Ukraine came to a halt on New Year’s Day, marking the end of decades of Moscow’s dominance over Europe’s energy markets.
The gas had kept flowing despite nearly three years of war, but Russia’s gas firm Gazprom said it had stopped at 0500 GMT after Ukraine refused to renew a transit agreement. The five-year gas transit deal between Russia and Ukraine expired early on January 1.
The shutdown of Russia’s oldest gas route to Europe ends a decade of fraught relations sparked by Russia’s seizure of Crimea in 2014. Ukraine stopped buying Russian gas the following year.
The widely expected stoppage will not impact prices for consumers in the European Union – unlike in 2022, when falling supplies from Russia sent prices to record highs, worsened a cost-of-living crisis and hit the bloc’s competitiveness.
The last remaining EU buyers of Russian gas via Ukraine, such as Slovakia and Austria, have arranged alternative supply. Hungary will keep receiving Russian gas via TurkStream, which runs two pipelines under the Black Sea.
Austria was ready for the ending of the gas transit deal and supplies to the country continue through other sources such as feed-in points in Germany or Italy and from storage facilities, the government said on Wednesday.
