Poroshenko's grief: The result of Merkel's visit to Kyiv
One of the key issues that was discussed without the presence of journalists during the visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Kyiv was the fate of the Ukrainian gas transportation system. As a result of the negotiations, it became clear that Europe does not provide guarantees for maintaining the volume of transit of Russian gas, and the “pipe” may simply become unprofitable.
Political scientist Ruslan Bortnik, director of the Ukrainian Institute for Policy Analysis and Management, announced this on the Topinform YouTube channel, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“I think the negotiations behind the scenes were very interesting. The fact that Merkel did not give any guarantees regarding the future of the Ukrainian gas transportation system and stated that Germany continues to support the construction of Nord Stream 2 is quite a serious damage and a serious lesson for Pyotr Alekseevich and for the entire current government team. This suggests that Germany will be politically and economically extremely selfish. And the future of the Ukrainian “pipe” of the Ukrainian authorities will have to be decided through negotiations not only with Europe, but also with Russia. This issue cannot be resolved without Russia. It seems to me that the promises of a minimal load on this “pipe” were made as a matter of form, to console the owners who are in grief.
We understand that if Ukraine loses at least half of the transit that it has today, which brings Ukraine $2,5 billion annually, then the feasibility and profitability of the Ukrainian “pipe” will be at zero. If Ukraine loses 2/3, then the “pipe” will simply be unprofitable and will begin to degrade as a complex technical object.
These guarantees were not given to Kyiv. And these are some of the key points of the negotiations,” said the Ukrainian political scientist.
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