Russia halting gas supplies to Ukraine

“[We need] the maximum gas production in Ukraine and the gas supplies from Europe”.

The European economy gets about a quarter of its natural gas demands met by Russian Federation, though most of that volume runs through a Soviet-era transit network in Ukraine.Naftogaz Chief Executive Officer Andrei Kobolyev said that, at least since mid-2014, his company has shown it can keep gas moving “whether we get it for Ukraine or not”.

Russia’s supplies to Ukraine recommenced in early October after Gazprom received $234 million out of a promised $500 million prepayment from Kiev. Gazprom is halting deliveries until there are new payments from Ukraine, Miller said Wednesday.

A recent upsurge in fighting in Ukraine’s industrial heartland has coincided with Russia’s stepped up air campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

Some 15% of the gas used in Europe travels through Ukraine.

On Wednesday Ukraine announced it was to stop buying gas from its giant neighbour and banned all Russian airlines from crossing its airspace, in the latest escalation between the two neighbours.

A state of emergency was declared there after Russian media reported that two pylons in the Kherson region of Ukraine north of Crimea had been blown up by Ukrainian nationalists, cutting electricity supplies to most of the territory.

The two measures not only underscore the acrimonious nature of the countries’ relations but also highlight how hard one of Europe’s deadliest crises since the Balkans Wars of the 1990s may be to resolve.

The European Commission reacted calmly to the news.

“It is not them who are not supplying gas to us, it is us who are not buying gas from them”, Yatsenyuk said.

Disputes between the governments in Moscow and Kiev flared up this week after power supplies to Crimea from Ukraine halted after sabotage on the cables to the Russian-annexed peninsula. The decision would most directly affect flights from Russia to Moldova and the Balkans, Russian officials said.