MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia would like to see a resumption in the transit of gas via Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Tuesday, after the European Commission issued a statement saying it planned to continue talks with Kyiv on natural gas supplies to Europe.
Russian gas supplies via Ukraine stopped on Jan. 1 after its transit contract expired and Kyiv declined to discuss renewing it, citing Moscow’s war against it.
Slovakia and Hungary have since been pushing the EU to step in to restore the flow of gas to them through what is a major pipeline.
Hungary said on Monday it had received guarantees from the European Commission to protect its energy supply, something it described as a prerequisite for Budapest agreeing to renew EU sanctions on Russia.
“Apparently, Hungary received some assurances from Brussels that some kind of negotiation process (with Ukraine on gas) would be resumed,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.
“If there are buyers – this is commerce, Russia is interested in continuing this commerce. We are interested in selling our products, especially since they are not only more competitive compared to American liquefied gas, but they are much more advantageous for European buyers,” said Peskov.
Slovakia welcomed the European Commission’s statement on continuing talks with Ukraine on the possible renewal of gas transit through the country, adding that it now saw the option of shipping gas from Azerbaijan as being back on the table.
The European Union and Ukraine had asked Azerbaijan to facilitate discussions with Russia about gas transit last year, but those talks failed.
In the meantime, Russia continues to export natural gas to Southern and Central Europe via the TurkStream gas pipeline on the bed of the Black Sea.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
