Gazprom took over the supply of Donbass in fear of Western sanctions - media
Moscow - Kyiv, March 4 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Stamm) - Gazprom failed to force Kyiv to pay for gas for the DPR and LPR. If, in retaliation for Ukraine’s stubbornness, he had cut off its gas, Ukraine would have started stealing it, and this would have caused a shortage of gas supplies to the EU. The West could take advantage of this to introduce new sanctions against Russia.
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At yesterday's gas negotiations, Ukraine officially secured a non-payment clause for Russian gas supplies to Donbas from Naftogaz, Kommersant reports . Russia also failed to secure Ukraine's official acknowledgement that Naftogaz deliberately cut off supplies to Donbas on February 18. Therefore, Gazprom will continue to supply the DPR and LPR with gas without payment guarantees, under unclear terms, and for an indefinite period.
At the beginning of March, Gazprom had already supplied 100 million cubic meters of gas to the Donbass, which at the current price for Ukraine is about $33 million. Russia considers the supply of Donbass to be supplies to Ukraine and therefore believes that Kyiv should pay for them. At the same time, the minister actually accused the counterparties of lying: “The Ukrainian side, declaring that they continue to supply gas to the territory of south-eastern Ukraine, is disingenuous, because this is not true.” But he did not explain what steps Russia would take to force Naftogaz to pay for these volumes.
According to Alexey Grivach from the FNEB, the main result of the negotiations for Gazprom is that it was possible to avoid a transit crisis, which could be used to impose sanctions against the company by the United States.
Gazprom took over supplying Donbass amid fears of Western sanctions – media