Posted on 05/10/2022 4:38:38 PM PDT by Ultra Sonic 007
KYIV/LONDON, May 10 (Reuters) - Ukraine said on Tuesday it would suspend the flow of gas through a transit point which it said delivers almost a third of the fuel piped from Russia to Europe through Ukraine, blaming Moscow for the move and saying it would move the flows elsewhere.
Ukraine has remained a major transit route for Russian gas to Europe even after Moscow's invasion.
GTSOU, which operates Ukraine's gas system, said it would stop shipments via the Sokhranivka route from Wednesday, declaring "force majeure", a clause invoked when a business is hit by something beyond its control.
But Gazprom (GAZP.MM), which has a monopoly on Russian gas exports by pipeline, said it was "technologically impossible" to shift all volumes to the Sudzha interconnection point further west, as GTSOU proposed.
GTSOU CEO Sergiy Makogon told Reuters that Russian occupying forces had started taking gas transiting through Ukraine and sending it to two Russia-backed separatist regions in the country's east. He did not cite evidence.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
This is the situation we have today with Ukraine in that Ukraine is not the supplier of any of the gas flowing through those pipes: Russia is. Ukraine and Russia are at war yet Ukraine not only allowed gas to flow — which Russia has to sell to fund itself — but at the same time they've still been getting paid for the transport; exactly what sort of mental gymnastics are involved when you have two nations at war (where both are continuing to engage in commerce with each other's state-owned enterprises) and other nations backing one of the combatants is still simultaneously engaged in commercial transactions with the belligerent they claim is at fault and don't want to win?
I can only surmise what effects this will have on the energy markets in Europe, and whether Ukraine is gambling on this being the key to drawing Europe further into the war with Russia over the matter of energy (banking — correctly, I would argue — that Europe lacks the fortitude to fully decouple from Russian gas given how much they've collectively crippled their own natural energy resources to appease the environmentalist greenies).
We shall see.
Yes, I would have thought that would have been the first thing they would do.
What "invasion"?? Are you talking about the Russian rescue operation in Eastern Ukraine??
It’s always been a shell game. Ukraine scamming the US and Nato for support and billions of dollars to keep it’s crooked society intact.
Zelensky has been winking at Putin all the while this war game charade plays itself out.
The sanctions have done nothing to Russia and in fact has exposed the weakness of the Nato leadership and of course the Biden administration.
Really?
You’re surprised Ukraine doesn’t collapse the economies of Europe by precipitously shutting off the gas?
How exactly is this perplexing to you...
“This has honestly been one of the most perplexing things since Russia’s invasion began back on February 2022:’
Not perplexing. The Ukes get transit fees for moving that gas. Stop the gas — stop the fees.
Ruskies are bad EXCEPT when they are paying you.
What's also beyond dispute is the fact that, under any conventional military definition of the term 'invasion', Russia invaded Ukrainian territory.
The above two events are not mutually exclusive.
Because Ukraine needs Europe's help to defend itself. And cutting gas off from Europe, hurts Europe as much as it hurts Russia.
Because Ukraine needs Europe's help to defend itself. And cutting gas off from Europe, hurts Europe as much as it hurts Russia.
Given that many European nations have already sanctioned Russia and have communicated publicly the desire for regime change in the Russian Federation, the continued payment for Russian gas is simply bewildering from the standpoint of consistency.
In what sort of insane world do you directly fund the nation who you want to lose a war?
Why would Ukraine shut off gas supplies to its European allies? It would have devastating effects on their economies and impact their aid to Ukraine, not to mention the 5 million Ukrainian refugees in Europe.
But, losing one-third of Russia's oil will devastate European nations, many of which will end up paying more for Russian oil through a third party.
Well the only reason you are perplexed is because you don’t grasp basic economic reality that suddenly shutting off the gas would destroy the economies of Europe.
Europeans themselves have said so.
If they have some years they can adapt and substitute in an imperfect fashion, but you do it at once and it’s catastrophic. Also coal does not really substitute everything gas is used for, there are a lot of industrial uses you can’t just readily replace gas with.
Also Europe isn’t all on the same page on sanctions as much as you might guess, despite them wanting to keep up appearances.
Then said Europeans should shut their mouths about engaging in proxy wars with Russia if they have no interest in actually decoupling from Russian gas that is funding the same invasion they like to virtue signal about opposing.
Not inconsistent at all. Germany depends on Russia for more than 50% of its natural gas supply. Shutting it off immediately without any alternate supply and the lack of infrastructure to accept supplies from other sources would devastate the German economy, the largest in Europe. Domestically, the political blowback would be unacceptable to the current leadership. And there would be a ripple effect throughout Europe.
It will take years to wean Germany off of Russian natural gas. That is called reality.
They are moving to reduce reliance on Russian gas but if they did it immediately overnight as you suggest it would absolute destroy their economies.
So you are totally surprised and perplexed that they don’t destroy their economy.
Probably because West Europe which Ukraine depends on said if you want any help from us, don't mess with the gas... at least until warmer weather arrives
ZACTLY! I’ve been asking this very question for about a month now! Ukraine is facilitating Russia’s ability to prosecute a war against itself. Either there were a bunch of crooked people or a bunch of profoundly stupid people!
The Germans have said it will take years to construct the infrastructure to handle LNG from other sources. It starts with the ports and then the new pipelines to connect to the existing system.
And who will supply the LNG? The US can eventually, but the Biden Administration is blocking the expansion of supply and infrastructure.
Yep.
Fossil fuels drive every economy. Pres.Zelenskyy is such a brilliant man, cancelling Russian gas that flow thru pipelines in Ukraine to Europe. Zelenskyy will finally show the world how effective green energy is.
Will the Ukrainian President release the bioweapons housed in Ukraine? Paging Dr. Fauci….
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