This week, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak shared that Russia is ready to continue supplying gas to Europe via Ukraine, but this must be agreed upon by Ukraine and the relevant European countries.
The agreement for the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine is due to expire at the end of this year. Ukraine has refused to extend the agreement with Russia due to the ongoing conflict.
"In my opinion, European countries that are receiving gas through this corridor are interested in continuing cooperation. We are ready to supply gas. However, this does not depend much on us. There should be direct negotiations between the buyer and the country providing transit services" - Reuters quoted Mr. Novak - Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Russia's energy policy.
Russia’s gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine are relatively small. Russia will ship around 15 billion cubic meters of gas via Ukraine in 2023. This is only 8% of the gas Russia shipped via routes to Europe during the peak period of 2018-2019.
TASS reported that Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak also revealed to the press that Russia continues to supply oil and gas to a number of European countries and continues to cooperate with other countries.
"With European countries, we continue to cooperate with a number of countries, including oil and gas supplies. These are countries exempted from sanctions," said Mr. Novak.
"We do not refuse cooperation, the ball is not on our side. First of all, you need to ask those partners who have limited our cooperation whether they are ready to continue cooperation in the future. I have never heard of Russia limiting itself in any economic activities," the Russian Deputy Prime Minister stressed.
