Ukraine is ready to transport Azerbaijani, Kazakh and “any” goods in Europe, including gas, with the exception of Russian, after the expiration of the contract with "Gazprom".
„If any European country deems it necessary to receive Kazakh gas, Azerbaijani gas or another, we are ready to transport it”, said the advisor to the head of the office of the Ukrainian president Mykhailo Podolyak on the YouTube channel "News" live“.
According to Podoliak, Ukraine is ready to transport “any transit gas that will come from the countries of Central Asia” upon appropriate request and settlement of the legal aspects. “If there is appropriate logistics, if there is a request and everything is legally structured, and there is a contract in which the transit role of Ukraine is separately spelled out”, he added.
On August 27, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kiev will not renew the agreement with "Gazprom" for the transit of Russian gas, which expires at the end of the year. At the same time, he said that after the expiration of the contract, Ukraine, together with the EU, will decide on the transit of gas from “other companies” through its territory, but gave no details. The press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, said that the Russian Federation has alternative routes for supplies to Europe.
Earlier, Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko said that Ukraine does not plan to renew the contract with Gazprom. According to the minister, Ukraine's gas transportation system has passed stress tests that “proved that a safe existence without transit is possible”. In early March, Prime Minister Denis Shmigal said that Kiev was ready to continue the transit of Russian gas to Europe through its territory after the expiration of the contract, but did not intend to negotiate this directly with Moscow. Shmygal suggested that the gas could be purchased from European countries before being pumped into Ukraine's gas transportation system. Thus, Ukraine will officially transit European gas.