KIEV, October 5. /TASS/. The Zelensky administration is not going to hold direct negotiations with Moscow on the supply of Russian gas to Ukraine, the country’s Prime Minister Denis Shmygal said an interview with the Ukrainian newspaper Levy Bereg (Left Bank) on Tuesday.
When asked if Kiev is considering direct talks with Russia on gas supplies, for example, should a very cold winter set in, he replied: "We do not intend [to hold] such negotiations."
On Monday, Yuri Boiko, a co-leader of the Opposition Platform For Life, said in the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) of Ukraine that the country should follow in Hungary’s footsteps and return to direct gas supplies contracts with Gazprom.
When asked if Moscow and Kiev could return to the negotiation table on direct supplies from Russia to Ukraine, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied that Moscow considered gas supplies from Russia to Ukraine to be a matter of economic viability. He added that Moscow had never refuted the possibility of negotiations on this issue.
On October 1, Gazprom began supplying gas to Hungary under a long-term contract through the Balkan Stream gas pipeline (an extension of TurkStream) and pipelines in Southeastern Europe. According to the gas giant, two contracts were signed, with a total volume of up to 4.5 bln cubic meters per year, the term of each contract is 15 years.
On the same day, Ukraine’s Gas Transmission System Operator announced that the transit of Russian natural gas to Hungary through Ukraine had been suspended. It was also reported that Kiev forfeited imports from Hungary through the so-called ‘virtual reverse flow’ due to the termination of the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine to the Hungarian side.