Ukraine has stopped buying gas from Russia and barred Russian airliners from its airspace, as tension between the neighbours increased over an energy crisis in annexed Crimea and sporadic clashes in eastern Ukraine.
Moscow warned it may halt coal supplies to Ukraine unless it fixed electricity lines that were blown up last week, plunging into darkness most of now Russian-run Crimea – which still relies on Kiev for power.
Ukraine’s prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk ordered a halt to purchases of Moscow’s gas because his country now has sufficient fuel in storage and can buy gas more cheaply from Europe, as it seeks to wean itself off Russian energy.
Russia's state gas firm Gazprom confirmed Kiev had not pre-paid for future supplies, as required under their contract, and so gas flow was cut yesterday.
“The refusal to buy Russian gas will create serious risks for the reliable transit of gas to Europe through Ukraine and for the supply of gas to Ukrainian consumers during the upcoming winter,” Gazprom chief executive Alexey Miller warned.
‘No particular concern’
Kiev insisted gas flow to the EU via Ukraine was stable, however, and the
European Commission
said it had “no particular concern” about the issue.
Russia’s energy minister Alexander Novak said Kiev’s failure to restore power to Crimea, which Moscow annexed last year, raised the possibility that coal supplies to Ukraine may be stopped, potentially starving its power stations of fuel.
“There are different options, political ones, economic ones,” Mr Novak said. “Russia delivers coal to the Ukrainian energy sector. We could, and maybe in this situation we should, take a decision about halting deliveries of coal.”
Four pylons carrying power lines to Crimea were blown up in southern Ukraine last week, allegedly by protesters who claim Russian authorities on the peninsula are oppressing its Crimean Tatars, most of whom opposed annexation.
Repairs to one pylon started yesterday but much of Crimea is still without electricity and Kiev also this week banned delivery of goods to the region.
Mr Yatsenyuk announced that all Russian airliners were now barred from using Ukrainian airspace, compounding earlier bans on Russian flights landing at Ukraine’s airports and military planes flying over its territory.
"This is an issue of our country's national security – a response to the Russian Federation and its aggressive actions," Mr Yatsenyuk said yesterday, warning that Russia "might use Ukrainian airspace to stage provocations".
