After receiving gas from the US, Ukraine urged the EU to stop importing Russian LNG
30 December 09:12
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga has called on the European Union to ban imports of Russian liquefied natural gas. He wrote about this in X, reacting in this way to the Financial Times publication that in 2024 the EU imported a record amount of Russian liquefied gas, Komersant ukrainskyi reports.
“This is unacceptable. Imports of Russian LNG (liquefied natural gas) to the EU should be banned as part of further sanctions and replaced with supplies from the United States and other partners. There is enough LNG gas on the market not to finance the criminal Russian regime with its aggression, war crimes and hybrid attacks,”
– the Minister wrote.
Earlier, the Financial Times reported that as of mid-December, the European Union imported 16.5 million tons of Russian liquefied natural gas in 2024. This is a new record after 2022, when 15.21 million tons were imported. In 2023, we also imported a volume close to the record – 15.18 million tons. Thus, the years of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine were record-breaking in terms of the volume of Russian LNG imports by the European Union.
It is noteworthy that the Financial Times article was published on December 20, but the Ukrainian minister did not respond to it until December 29, the very next day after it became known that Ukraine had received liquefied natural gas from the United States for the first time.
By the way, the Ukrainian side has recently started launching messages about a joint gas hub with Poland.
Follow us on Telegram: the main news in a nutshell
Europe and gas
As of early 2022, the EU was 40% dependent on Russian gas. In 2021, 65% of the gas purchased by Germany was Russian. In the third quarter of 2023, only 12% of the gas imported by the EU remains Russian.
The current contract for gas supplies to Europe through the Ukrainian gas transportation system expires on December 31, 2024. Both sides have made it clear that they are not going to extend it.
At the same time, some EU countries remain dependent on Russian gas, such as Hungary, Slovakia, and Austria. These countries’ contracts with Gazprom provide for gas supplies through the Ukrainian gas transportation system. For example, Austria signed a contract for gas supplies until 2040. Slovakia still cannot accept the cessation of transit, and Prime Minister Fico has threatened Ukraine with a reciprocal cutoff of electricity transmission.
With both Nord Stream and the Ukrainian gas transportation system out of commission, Russia will be able to supply gas to Europe only through the Turkish Stream.
According to the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, the European Union has bought 211 billion euros worth of energy from Russia.
