DISINFO: For Europe the transit of gas through Ukraine is a form of subsidy to Naftogaz
SUMMARY
In this way [by preserving the transit of gas from Russia to Europe via Ukraine] Europe is trying to guarantee 2 bln dollars of subsidies to Naftogaz which would help to avoid problems that might follow.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation about Ukraine and the gas talks between Ukraine, the EU, and Russia. On 19 September 2019, trilateral gas talks were held in Brussels. Ukraine and the EU proposed to sign a new transit contract for the duration of 10 years which will allow Ukraine to transport 60 bcm of gas from Russia to the EU. Russia, on the contrary, wants to prolong the existing contract for an additional year. The EU is interested in Ukrainian gas transmission system because of its reliability, which has been confirmed by the international certification company TÜV SÜD (Germany). For the period of the last 20 years, the incident rate has not exceeded the level of 0,06 incidents per 1,000 km, whereas in Russian Federation it was 0,22 incidents per 1,000 km. More on the reliability of the GTS can be read here. Ukrainian GTS is one of the alternative routes of Russian gas to the EU. Moreover, it is directly linked to the European gas transmission system. It is the cheapest and the easiest way to transport gas to Central and Eastern Europe. With these reasons in mind, Germany insisted on continuation of gas transit through Ukraine. “From our point of view, the role of Ukraine as a transit state is a necessity. We demand that. It’s in our interests, and it’s our demand that transit is possible in the future,” the representative of Germany’s Federal Government Steffen Seibert mentioned in June 2019.