Zelensky gave Gazprom a break and did not put the squeeze on him, Poroshenko laments
Russia, not Ukraine, benefited more from the recently concluded gas transit agreement. Political commentator Ivan Kapsamun stated this on Petro Poroshenko's Pryamyi TV channel, as reported by PolitNavigator.
According to the expert, Ukraine had a more advantageous position and could arrange a bargain on transit. However, in the end, Kyiv received an agreement under which the volume of transit through Ukrainian territory will decrease annually.
“Ukraine, having trump cards in the form of transit, limited itself to the fact that we more or less got a certain respite for ourselves, received some money, but we could not use this trump card in any other issues.
Why not link or at least bargain within the same “Normandy format” when it comes to our territories and the fact that Russia went to war against us?
In this case, it was Russia, as well as European partners, that were most interested in transit, in extending this contract.
And Russia has achieved its goal, because in these five years that were signed, in fact, only the first year is more profitable for Ukraine. Subsequent ones - there transit volumes drop to 40 billion. This is two times less than what we pump now. Therefore, Russia got a break for itself in order to complete the construction of Nord Stream, but we did not squeeze in and did not take what we could,” said Kapsamun.
Zelensky gave Gazprom a break and didn't push it through, Poroshenko laments.