Ukrainian president links gas row with Russia to its intention to activate alternative gas pipeline projects

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Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has said that Russia has planned the current gas dispute with Ukraine in order to activate the Nord Stream project, which the European Union currently considers to be unpromising.

The head of state said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday that "one of the goals of this [Russian gas] attack was the intention to activate an unpromising Nord Stream project and show that the current system [of Russian gas supplies via Ukraine to Europe] needs an alternative." In his opinion, certain statements by Russian officials could be the evidence of this scenario.

Yushchenko again said that the Ukrainian gas transportation system is twice as reliable as the Russian one and is not worse than European gas transmission systems. "We have a unique, reliable and developed gas transit system," he said.

Yushchenko did not rule out that the political component of provoking the gas conflict was Russia's attempt to escalate the domestic situation in Ukraine.

As UKRINFORM reported, Russia's Gazprom reportedly believed to have resumed partial gas deliveries through Ukraine to Europe said today that Russian gas is not coming via Ukraine to European consumers. Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller told this to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Miller told Putin that Gazprom's attempt to supply 76.6 million cubic meters of gas to Europe, in particular, to Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Macedonia, and Greece, and another 22.2 million cubic meters to Slovakia had been vain, because the gas taps are shut down in Ukraine, and the latter, he said, gives no explanations about the causes behind the absence of gas transit.

At the same time, the Ukrainian premier's advisor on fuel and energy, Oleksandr Hudyma, said in an interview with Echo of Moscow Radio that according to technical reasons, around 36 hours are required for Russian gas to be supplied from the eastern to the western border of Ukraine so that European consumers start getting it.

Nevertheless, Gazprom that knows quite well how the gas is pumped insisted that Russian gas be immediately supplied to European consumers from Ukraine without taking into account the time needed to transport this gas to Ukraine's western border. Gazprom's official representative Sergey Kupriyanov told this to journalists on Tuesday.

Thus, Gazprom responded to Naftogaz of Ukraine's statement that it will take 36 hours to receive Russian transit gas in Ukraine's gas transportation system and supply it to the country's western border.

Naftogaz CEO Oleh Dubyna said today that in order to meet this demand set by Gazprom, Ukraine would have to leave Donetsk, Odesa, Luhansk and some districts in Dnipropetrovsk region without gas.

"This request is not aimed at resuming gas flows to Europe," he said.

UKRINFORM