Ukraine terminated Russian gas deliveries to European consumers via its pipeline network on Wednesday, nearly three years after a prewar transit agreement expired at the end of 2024 and Moscow launched an all-out invasion of its neighbour. Even when Russian troops and tanks entered Ukraine in February 2022, Russian natural gas continued to flow through the country’s pipeline network to Europe under a five-year arrangement established when Ukraine and Russia were both part of the Soviet Union. Russia’s state-owned energy company Gazprom profited from the gas, while Ukraine collected transit payments.

Russia’s state-owned energy company Gazprom profited from the gas, while Ukraine collected transit payments. Herman Halushchenko, Ukraine’s energy minister, stated that the transport had been blocked “in the interest of national security.” “This is a historical event. “Russia is losing markets and will suffer financial losses,” Halushchenko stated on Wednesday via the Telegram messaging app. “Europe has already decided to phase out Russian gas, and (this) aligns with what Ukraine has done today.” During a summit in Brussels last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy swore that Moscow would not exploit transits to gain “additional billions … on our blood, on the lives of our citizens.” However, he momentarily held open the idea that gas deliveries would continue if payments to Russia were withheld.

Before the war, Russia supplied nearly 40% of the European Union’s pipeline natural gas through four pipeline systems: one under the Baltic Sea, one through Belarus and Poland, one through Ukraine, and one under the Black Sea through Turkey to Bulgaria. Gazprom stated on Wednesday that it “has no technical and legal possibility” of sending gas through Ukraine.

Fico, whose views on Russia differ considerably from those of the European majority, has already condemned Kyiv’s unwillingness to extend the transit agreement and threatened to cut off electrical supplies to Ukraine in retribution. Moscow may still deliver gas to Hungary, as well as non-EU countries Turkey and Serbia, via the TurkStream pipeline across the Black Sea. The gradual drop in Russian gas supply to European countries has prompted them to accelerate the integration of Ukraine’s energy systems with its western neighbours. Last Monday, private Ukrainian energy provider DTEK announced that it had received its first supply of liquefied natural gas from the United States, delivered over a newly expanded network spanning six nations from Greece to Ukraine – a key step in reducing regional dependence on Russian Energy

Separately, overnight into New Year’s Day, Russia launched a drone strike on Kyiv that left two people dead under the rubble of a damaged building, according to the city administration. At least six people were wounded across the Ukrainian capital, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko.Russian shelling also killed a man and wounded two women in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson, regional authorities reported.