President Viktor Yushchenko has said that he is not ruling out the possibility of the Gazprom gas company (Russia) discontinuing the transit of Russian natural gas through Ukrainian territory to other European countries.
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The presidential press service announced this in a statement. “The Russian side intends to significantly reduce or discontinue the transit of Russian natural gas through Ukrainian territory to European consumers,” the press service quoted Yushchenko as saying in a telegram to the leadership of the European Union and countries that buy Russian natural gas. Yuschenko assured the European countries that Ukraine was consuming only natural gas extracted in Ukraine and its own natural gas that is stored in underground gas storage tanks and for which it has already made full payment. According to Yushchenko, Russia has significantly reduced the volume of natural gas it delivers to Ukraine for transit to the European Union. As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the Naftohaz Ukrainy national joint-stock company announced on Tuesday that Gazprom had reduced the volume of natural gas it delivers for transit through Ukrainian territory to other European countries four-fold to 73.8 million cubic meters per day. Gazprom said that it reduced the volume of gas it delivers for transit through Ukrainian territory to other European countries in accordance with instructions from Russia’s Federal Customs Service. Gas supplies to Ukraine for consumption in the country were discontinued on January 1. |
