Ukrainian Ambassador to Romania Teofil Bauer said in an interview with AGERPRES that cutting the natural gas exports to Ukraine is not suitable for Russia and the declarations to this effect coming from Moscow are political.
“Russia is actively using the energy aspects in politics. It is very much politicized. Those declarations coming now from the Russian Federation are political declarations. Ukraine meets all the conditions mentioned in the contract on the gas import from Russia. If we compare the natural gas consumption over this year with the one last year, we’ll see that the consumption volume has diminished by 20 percent. I am convinced we will go through this winter, given last year’s practice, when our European partners helped us a lot in being supplied natural gas — we received it via Slovakia and Poland — and I am convinced that if a similar situation emerges this year too, our European partners will help us resolve this problem”, Bauer said.
The ambassador underscored that it is “guaranteed” that Ukraine remains a transit country for the natural gas crossing its territory towards Europe.
“Ukraine, considering all the aspects relating this matter, will remain a transit country for the natural gas crossing Ukraine, this is guaranteed. I think that cutting the gas exports to Ukraine is not suitable for Russia. We are much better prepared for the winter season this year than we were prepared last year. Natural gas is a product that must be shipped constantly and I would like to remind that Ukraine has the largest possibilities to store natural gas. For Ukraine, the most important is that there should be open market relations as regards the issue of the natural gas trade”, Bauer stressed. More…