Gas crisis: Ukraine refuses to extend transit agreement with Russia; Republic of Moldova, ready for "any scenario"
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmihal officially announced on October 7 that Ukraine will not extend the Russian gas transit contract, after its expiration on January 1, 2025. While on an official visit to Kyiv, the Minister of Energy from Chisinau, Victor Parlicov, said that the Republic of Moldova is ready to face any scenario. Neither the right bank of the Nistru, nor the left bank, will run out of natural gas, the official said.
"Ukraine will not extend the transit agreement with Russia after its expiration. We understand the acute dependence of some countries on this resource, but we count on the gradual diversification of the supply," said the Prime Minister of Ukraine during a press conference held together with his Slovak counterpart.
The Transnistrian region, which still depends on Russian gas, will not be left without this energy resource despite Kiev's decision, said Minister Victor Parlicov, who is on an official visit to Ukraine. The official assured that the Republic of Moldova is ready to face any scenario.
Representatives of the Ministry of Energy said for Teleradio-Moldova that Chisinau sent a request to the Russian concern Gazprom regarding the conditions under which Russian natural gas could be delivered to the Transnistrian region, starting from January 2025, and the possible routes that would make this transit possible, but has not received an answer.
Regarding the natural gas stocks, stored by the Republic of Moldova in Ukraine, the Minister of Energy from Kyiv, Gherman Galushchenko, assured that they "are safe and can be accessed and extracted at any time".
We remind in this context that, at the moment, our country stores in Ukraine almost half of the volume of 47 mln. of m3 of natural gas, which represent security stocks.
