The European Commission’s Vice President, Maros Sefcovic, helped broker a deal between Russia and Ukraine under which Moscow promised to continuedelivering gas supplies to Ukraine over the coming winter. The deal was finalized late last Friday (25 September) after months of difficult negotiations. According toMarosSefcovic, the preliminary agreement was a “crucial step” to make sure that Ukraine will have gas supplies between October and March next year. Naturally, the deal thereby ensures that Europe will receive its deliveries as well.
Following six hours of negotiations with Russian Energy Minister, Alexander Novak, and his Ukrainian counterpart,Volodymyr Demchyshyn, Mr Sefcovic commented that “we just initialed a trilateral agreement for the upcoming winter” and added that “all technical details are agreed and the framework was set”.Although confirmation and formal signing of the full deal will require separate procedures, Mr Sefcovic said he was confident that the agreement would be soon “confirmed and smoothly implemented”. Ukraine’sVolodymyrDemchyshyncommentedthat “commercial conditions were acceptable” and that he expected the agreement to be signed soon.”Ukraine confirmed in this document its capacity to ensure uninterrupted transit of Russian gas to EU partners,” he added.
Russia’s Alexander Novak, for his own part, ensured that Russia would “spare no effort to avoid any issues, problems”. Mr Novak also addedthat Moscow’s offer included a price decrease of “about $20” per thousand cubic meters from the provisionally agreed price of $252. The price is meant to be competitive with those prices for gas supplied to countries neighboring Ukraine. MrSefcovic assured that the EU would carry on negotiating international financing of Ukraine’s winter deal. “At least $500 million should be available by the end of this year,” he said.
