Zelensky made an offer to Putin on gas transit through Ukraine. Photo: GTS Operator of Ukraine
To save Europe from the energy crisis, Ukraine turned to Russia with a proposal to reduce the price of gas transit through the territory of Ukraine. As President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Bloomberg, this is a 50% discount on the transportation of "blue flame gas" to European countries in excess of the contracted volumes.
«Ukraine offers additional capacities to all potential transit countries. We would like to see European countries as consumers, but additional capacities are also available for Gazprom. And in comparison with the current transit tariffs, I suppose the discount will be 50%.»
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
President of Ukraine
The Russian gas monopoly that repeatedly stressed the disadvantages and unreliability of the Ukrainian gas transportation system, has not yet commented on Zelenskyy's proposal.
Additionally. Lana Zerkal, Advisor to the Head of the Board of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine, stressed that with such a proposal Ukraine showed that Europe could be provided with gas without Nord Stream 2.
"Firstly, it is responsible. We demonstrate the ability of our GTS, we show that we are ready to get involved in solving the gas crisis. Secondly, it knocks the trump cards out of the hands of Moscow claiming that "Ukrainian transit is expensive and unreliable." When in fact, the opposite is true, "she stated.
Zerkal stressed that this requires the coordinated work of Naftogaz of Ukraine, the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission, and the GTS Operator of Ukraine.
Context. Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia was ready to provide Europe with additional gas volumes the very next day after the German regulator gave the go-ahead for launching Nord Stream 2.