MOSCOW, August 14. /TASS/. The West forced Ukraine to refuse from cheap Russian gas and did not allow it to extend the contract with Russia’s gas utility Gazprom, Ukraine’s former Prime Minister (2010-2014) Nikolay Azarov told TASS.
"It was not Kiev’s decision. It was the West’s decision as it forced [Ukraine] to make those, as a matter of fact, anti-Ukrainian decision. We used to receive cheap pipeline gas. Now we receive it from a different direction," he said.
He recalled that Ukraine used to consume 70 billion cubic meters of gas. Now, in his words, gas consumption has shrunk to 1-1.5 billion cubic meters, which means that Ukraine cannot develop but only "is being kept afloat" at the West’s expense. "No one is working to develop economy and industry in Ukraine. Let me tell you, the American embassy doesn’t have any such tasks," he said.
EXPRO, a Ukrainian consulting company, said a week ago that gas reserves in Ukrainian underground storage facilities were holding around 10 billion cubic meters of gas, or only 32.3% of their capacity, a record-low level in the past 12 years. Meanwhile, according to the country’s energy ministry, the country needs to have 13.2 billion cubic meters by November 1 to live through the upcoming heating season. The country’s own production will not meet the demand and Ukraine will have to import around 1.7 billion cubic meters of gas in August-October, EXPRO said.
Gas problems emerged in Ukraine after Russia halted gas transit to Europe via Ukraine on January 1 due to Kiev’s refusal to extend the contract with Gazprom. In early July, Ukraine began importing liquefied gas from terminal in Greece via a system of pipelines running across Bulgaria, Romania, and Moldova to Ukrainian border in the Odessa Region.