Russia says ready to supply gas to Europe via Ukraine after 2024, state media report

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia is ready to continue gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine after the current transit agreement expires at the end of 2024, Russian state news agencies reported on Wednesday, citing Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak.

The future of gas transit depends on whether Ukraine is willing to continue with the deal, he said.

A five-year deal on the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine to Europe, the only remaining trade and political agreement between warring Moscow and kyiv, expires after December 31, 2024.

Russian gas supplies to Europe, once a key source of revenue for Moscow, have plummeted following the Kremlin’s decision to send tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

“Transit through its territory depends on Ukraine. They have their own established rules. It depends on their will. Russia is ready to provide,” Novak was quoted as saying by the official RIA news agency.

Ukraine has said it has no plans to extend a five-year deal with Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom or sign another one.

Last month, an Azerbaijani presidential aide told Reuters that the European Union and Ukraine had asked Azerbaijan to facilitate talks with Russia on the gas transit deal.

While the EU has cut most of its Russian gas imports, some Central European countries still rely on Russian gas via the pipeline through Ukraine. Austria still receives most of its gas through this route.

Russia currently exports its natural gas to Europe through only two routes: via a Soviet-built pipeline through Ukraine and via the TurkStream pipeline to Turkey along the Black Sea.

According to Gazprom data and Reuters calculations, Russia delivered a total of about 63.8 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe via various routes in 2022. This volume decreased by 55.6% to 28.3 billion cubic meters last year.

At their peak in 2018-2019, annual flows to the European region reached between 175 and 180 billion m3.

(Reporting by Reuters; writing by Anastasia Teterevleva and Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Andrew Osborn)