KYIV (Reuters): Ukraine has agreed to transit Azerbaijani gas to Europe as a temporary measure after it ends a transit deal with Russia, even though it expects some Russian gas will be included in the volumes, the Ukrainska Pravda news outlet said on Thursday.
Ukraine’s gas transit deal with Russia’s Gazprom is due to expire at the end of this year and Kyiv has said it doesn’t want to renew it amid the war between the two countries.
However, some central European countries still rely on gas from Russia that crosses Ukraine in a pipeline – having secured an exemption from a European Union ban on Russian gas imports – and they are keen to continue receiving supplies.
An Azerbaijani official has said the EU and Kyiv have asked Baku to facilitate discussions with Russia, with one potential option that Azerbaijan might buy Russian gas for itself in order to free up some of its own gas to export to the EU.
“We understand that the EU needs time to completely abandon Russian gas. And we are taking this step to make this transition easier for the EU,” Ukrainska Pravda quoted a source in the Ukrainian government as saying.
It added that Ukraine was prepared to back this arrangement even though some Russian gas may be mixed with Azerbaijani gas.
Ukraine’s energy ministry declined to comment.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said last week he was optimistic of a breakthrough in talks to keep gas flowing through Ukraine to several European countries.
