By agreeing to pay $3 billion to Ukraine now, Gazprom put pressure on the Kyiv negotiators on the strategically unfavorable terms of the new contract for fuel transit to Europe. The new contract assumes that the Ukrainian gas transmission system will be loaded at only a third of its capacity. This means the loss of half of the previous transit income.
Ukrainian political scientist Ruslan Bortnik stated this on the Nash TV channel, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The worst thing is that we agreed that our “pipe” would not be operated properly. The throughput capacity of our system is 150 billion cubic meters. gas per year. Over the past two years, we have supplied 90-100 billion cubic meters. gas And these contracts provide for 65 billion cubic meters next year, and 40 billion cubic meters for the following years. That is, our pipe will be loaded at most by a third.
Even if we increase the tariff, we will lose half of the profit. If you subtract half from three billion, this is a loss of at least 1,5 billion annually.
In five years we will lose much more than we won today at Gazprom. Therefore, this is our strategic defeat,” Bortnik said.