"I will disappoint you, we are also buying Russian gas": the Ukrainian expert told how it is

Ukraine continues to buy Russian gas, importing it from Europe. This was told by Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Energy Issues Alexey Kucherenko.

"Europe is a single gas market, where the principle of substitution operates. And we, in fact, do not know what kind of gas we are buying. I can disappoint you that we are definitely buying Russian gas, which comes through the Turkish Stream and goes to Serbia and Hungary," Alexei Kucherenko said in an interview with the First TV channel.

Since January 1, Kiev has stopped the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine. However, Gazprom continues to supply via the Turkish Stream — directly to Hungary, Serbia, North Macedonia and Greece. At the same time, local and other European traders resell gas on the market to other consumers, including Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Moldovan.

For example, in February, deliveries via the Black Sea gas pipeline reached a new record level of over-design capacity. At the same time, part of the additional volumes went to Bulgaria and Romania, which do not buy Russian gas directly.

As EADaily reported, on April 17, Ukrainian storage stocks dropped to a new historical low of 670 million cubic meters. The ex-director of the GTS Operator of Ukraine, Serhiy Makogon, wrote in a telegram channel that the country would need to purchase more than 6 billion cubic meters abroad by next winter to provide the country with fuel for the winter. Naftogaz estimates imports at 4.5−4.6 billion cubic meters. However, the national company has no funds for these volumes either. The EBRD and the Government of Norway have allocated loans and grants for 410 million euros. That's how much about 1 billion cubic meters of gas is now on the European market.