Kiev has made contradictory statements about the planned end of oil and gas transit at the end of the year. Ukraine wants to end the transit, said the advisor to the Ukrainian President’s Office, Mykhailo Podoliak, in an interview with the broadcaster Nowyny.Live. Ukraine has signed contracts as a transit country that are valid until January 1, 2025 and that the country cannot terminate unilaterally. He later qualified the statements regarding oil transit.
According to media reports, the oil contracts last longer, in some cases until 2029. The contract for the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine to Europe between the state-owned companies Gazprom and Naftogaz ends on December 31, 2024. “Without a doubt, it will all stop on January 1, 2025,” said Podoljak. Despite the war of aggression started by Moscow more than two years ago, it has so far been fulfilled – also at the urging of Ukraine’s European neighbors, especially Hungary.
However, the leadership in Kiev has made it clear several times that it will not extend this contract – most recently President Volodymyr Zelenskyj emphasized this again. Podoliak explained that Kiev is, however, ready to transport gas from the countries of Central Asia or Azerbaijan to Europe. For Ukraine, it is crucial to deprive Russia of its sources of income from the sale of raw materials.
Oil flows to Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia
According to the portal “We Ukraine”, Podoljak confirmed in the afternoon that existing contracts would be respected. However, Ukraine is trying to help the EU diversify its supplies and become independent of Russian oil. This oil recently flowed through the Druzhba pipeline to Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The northern branch of the pipeline leading to Germany has been largely shut down due to Western sanctions against Russian oil.
According to Russian media reports, the Kazakhstani subsidiary of energy company Eni began pumping oil from the Caspian Sea through the pipeline in August. This compromise allows Russia to generate transit revenues but does not allow it to sell its own oil to Europe, the country’s most lucrative market.
Meanwhile, Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has travelled to Russia for talks about his country’s energy supply. “Without Russian gas, Hungary’s energy security cannot be guaranteed,” Szijjarto wrote on Friday on the online network Facebook, where he published a picture of a meeting with the head of the Russian energy company Gazprom, Alexei Miller, in St. Petersburg. This is “not a question of ideology, but of physics and mathematics.”
Hungary is the only EU member state that has maintained close ties with Moscow since the start of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The country is also still almost entirely dependent on Russian natural gas. The EU views the connections from Budapest to Moscow with skepticism, and the meeting in Russia is likely to increase tensions.
“It takes some courage to say this in Europe these days, but Hungary is satisfied with its cooperation with Russia in the energy sector,” the Hungarian chief diplomat continued. The majority of gas supplies for Hungary come through the Black Sea via Bulgaria and Serbia, the rest via a pipeline through Ukraine. However, Kiev has already announced that it does not want to extend the transit contract with Russia, which runs until the end of this year.
Ukraine is also blocking deliveries from the Russian company Lukoil, which, according to Budapest, supplies a third of Hungary’s oil imports via the Druzhba pipeline. Hungary described this as “unacceptable” and said it would look for alternatives.
