Presidency of Ukraine
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, president of Ukraine
Kiev stopped transporting natural gas from Russia to Europe. Several countries will have consequences, economies will tremble.
The year begins and the Ukraine “shots itself in the foot”. This Wednesday, January 1st, the end of a historic pact between Ukraine and Russia was confirmed, more specifically between the Ukrainian natural gas transport system and the Russian company Gazprom.
Ukraine the Russian natural gas transportation through its territory to Europa – just as I had already warned. The contract came to an end and was not renewed.
Major General Carlos Branco foresees serious consequences of this Ukrainian decision: “It is an extremely inconvenient situation for everyone”.
“They all lose”assured the person responsible, who left examples: Ukraine does not receive Russian gas, its energy production will be (even) more difficult, the situation will worsen, and it will no longer receive almost 700 million euros per year for this business. “It’s a shot in the foot for Ukraine”he warned.
Carlos Branco said that we will also see consequences in countries like Slovakia, Hungary or Transnistria (which ), or Germany and Italy, the latter two on a smaller scale.
Still in , the major general highlighted the Slovakia’s retaliationwhose announcement has already been official: Prime Minister Robert Fico announced that Slovakia will stop supplying energy to Ukraine in urgent cases; and Slovakia supplies 20% of consumption in these times of greatest “distress”, something that should also worsen the situation in Ukraine.
And overall, “the Europe will be in a more difficult situation, let’s watch one gas price increasethe consequences of which we know what they are. We will have negative results on the economy“, he warned.
Os European partners may press Ukraine to renew. “It will be the only solution”, believes Carlos Branco. Ukraine also proposed an intermediary to renew contracts with other countries, “but this cannot be done in three or four days”.
Basically, “the impact can be lessened but there must be good will” – something that has not been the case since February 2022.
