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30 Jan, 15:35

Ukraine to run short on natural gas after halting transit from Russia — Slovak minister

According to Denisa Sakova, the amount of gas in Ukrainian storage facilities has fallen to a critical mark of 10%

PRAGUE, January 30. /TASS/. Ukraine will run too low on natural gas required for its own needs after Vladimir Zelensky halted transit of the fuel from Russia, Slovak Economy Minister Denisa Sakova said.

"In December <...> Zelensky stopped all efforts by Slovakia to transit gas to our territory via Ukraine. Back in December, we warned that this decision was unilateral, unreasonable, unpragmatic and would have serious consequences in the form of higher gas prices for the whole of Europe. However, our second negative expectation related to this decision also came true: It’s that Ukraine will not have enough gas for its own consumption," Sakova wrote on Facebook (banned in Russia as it's owned by Meta Corporation, which is designated an extremist organization in Russia).

"The amount of gas in Ukrainian storage facilities has fallen to a critical mark of 10%. After the termination of Russian transit, Ukraine needs to import at least 100 million cubic meters per month. In addition, the weather forecast for February points to lower temperatures. As a consequence, gas prices are rising, reaching the highest year-to-date level across the whole of Europe," Sakova continued.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico earlier said that Zelensky sought to curry favor with US President Donald Trump by halting the transit of gas and offered Washington all of Europe on a golden platter so that the US could supply the European market with increasingly expensive liquefied natural gas. Shipments across Ukraine stopped on January 1 after Kiev refused to extend the transit deal. Slovakia was one of the recipients of the fuel.