Ukraine has agreed to transit natural gas from Azerbaijan to Europe as an interim measure following the expiration of its transit agreement with Russia, although it expects that the quantities of gas from Azerbaijan will include quantities of Russian gas, the news website Ukrainska Pravda wrote today.
Ukraine’s gas transit agreement with Russia’s Gazprom is due to expire at the end of this year and Kiev has said it does not want to renew it amid the war between the two countries.
However, some central European countries still rely on Russian gas that crosses Ukraine by pipeline – having secured an exemption from the European Union’s ban on Russian gas imports – and are keen to continue to supply it.
An Azeri official said the EU and Kiev had asked Baku to facilitate talks with Russia, with a possible option for Azerbaijan to buy Russian gas for itself in order to free up some of its own gas for export to the EU.
“We understand that the EU needs time to completely abandon Russian gas. And we are taking this step to facilitate this transition for the EU,” writes Ukrainska Pravda, citing a source in the Ukrainian government.
The same source added that Ukraine is ready to support this agreement even if some volumes of Russian gas may be mixed with volumes of gas from Azerbaijan.
Ukraine’s Energy Ministry declined to comment on the matter.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had said last week that he was optimistic that there would be progress in talks to ensure the flow of natural gas through Ukraine to some European countries.
