It's Game Over for Gazprom in Ukraine

Ukraine on Wednesday halted Russian gas supplies to European customers that pass through the country after a prewar transit deal expired at the end of last year. The New York Times reports Ukraine refused to renew the deal. At a summit in Brussels last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed that Kyiv would not allow Moscow to use the transits to earn "additional billions ... on our blood, on the lives of our citizens." But he briefly held open the possibility of the gas flows continuing if payments to Russia were withheld until the war ends. Ukraine's energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, confirmed on Wednesday morning that Kyiv had stopped the transit "in the interest of national security." More from the AP:

• 'Historic': "This is a historic event. Russia is losing markets and will incur financial losses. Europe has already decided to phase out Russian gas, and (this) aligns with what Ukraine has done today," Halushchenko said in an update on the Telegram messaging app.
• Response from Russia: Gazprom said in a statement on Wednesday morning that it "has no technical and legal possibility" of sending gas through Ukraine, due to Kyiv's refusal to extend the deal.

• The original arrangement: Even as Russian troops and tanks moved into Ukraine in 2022, Russian natural gas kept flowing through the country's pipeline network—set up when Ukraine and Russia were both part of the Soviet Union—to Europe, under a five-year agreement. Gazprom earned money from the gas and Ukraine collected transit fees.
• Backstory: Before the war, Russia supplied nearly 40% of the European Union's pipeline natural gas. Gas flowed through four pipeline systems, one under the Baltic Sea, one through Belarus and Poland, one through Ukraine, and one under the Black Sea through Turkey to Bulgaria. After the war started, Russia cut off most supplies through the Baltic and Belarus-Poland pipelines, citing disputes over a demand for payment in rubles. The Baltic pipeline was blown up in an act of sabotage, but details of the attack remain murky.
• Market share: Russia's share of the EU pipeline natural gas market dropped sharply to about 8% in 2023, according to data from the EU Commission. The Ukrainian transit route served EU members Austria and Slovakia, which long got the bulk of their natural gas from Russia but have recently scrambled to diversify supplies. Slovakia this year inked deals to begin buying natural gas from Azerbaijan, and also to import US liquefied natural gas through a pipeline from Poland.
• The risk: The Times notes the move is not without risk for Ukraine, as Russia could now opt to bomb the country's expansive pipeline network, which has been mostly unscathed over the past three years.

(More Russia stories.)