war country
Russia continues to supply gas in bulk through Ukraine
A gas compressor station in the village of Myn, north of Kyiv (stock image). Photo: Roman Pilipey/epa/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Europe is still dependent on Russian natural gas. Lines also run through the embattled Ukraine – which are also used, as Russia emphasizes.
Despite the war in Ukraine, the Russian state-owned company Gazprom continues to pump gas through the neighboring country to the West on a large scale. This Saturday, 108 million cubic meters are to be delivered through the neighboring country’s pipeline system, as the group announced in Moscow.
According to Russian information, this corresponds to the quantity ordered. The deliveries were confirmed by the operator of the Ukrainian gas transit network, as reported by the Interfax agency. The contractually possible maximum utilization is 109 million cubic meters of gas per day. Ukraine receives important transit fees from the transit of Russian gas for its own state budget. According to Interfax, however, no gas is currently flowing through the Russian-European “Yamal-Europe” pipeline via Belarus and Poland to Germany. Rather, gas is diverted from Germany to Poland in the so-called reverse process from European storage facilities.
This means that deliveries through the other lines will continue even after the transfer of payments to rubles. President Vladimir Putin had instructed that gas should only be sold to Western countries for rubles, which they strictly rejected. As a result, Putin issued a decree obliging Western customers to open a ruble account with Gazprombank and process payments through it.
In this way, Russia wants to support its currency, but also ensure that the money deposited actually arrives. Previously, payments could also be made via other accounts. Putin had threatened Germany and other countries with stopping deliveries if payments were not made.