On January 21, in Brussels began a second round of political talks on the future of Russian gas transit to the EU after the expiration of the current transit treaty between Ukraine and Russia, that is, after 2019, Hromadske writes.
It should be noted that the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine’s gas transit system is one of the largest items of Ukrainian exports and brings several billion dollars to Ukraine every year. In particular, in 2018, revenues from transit of Russian gas exceeded the Ukrainian $ 1.7 billion import costs for gas.
Loss of transit by Ukraine will mean a loss of a significant part of foreign exchange earnings.
Russia can abandon Ukrainian transit services after the current contract has been completed – December 31, 2019. In particular, for this purpose, Russia is building gas pipelines bypassing Ukraine – “Nord Stream-2” and “Turkish Stream”.
