RIA Novosti: ‘Gas War’ With Russia Impossible Now

Diversification of natural gas supplies by Ukraine and Europe made “gas wars” with Russia impossible, the Ukrainian foreign minister said on Tuesday.

Russia and Ukraine have long fought over natural gas deliveries, jeopardizing supplies to Europe, a major Russian gas buyer.

In the row at the start of 2009, Russia halted all deliveries via Ukraine's pipeline system for two weeks. In 2007, Gazprom threatened to cut off gas supplies to Ukraine because of an unpaid debt, and cut its shipments to the country by half in March 2008. In 2006, a bitter pricing row between Moscow and Kiev affected gas transits to Europe.

“Situations similar to events of 2007 and 2009 that we call “gas war” won’t happen again today. First off all, the European gas market has changed drastically: in a short period Europe made a huge step towards diversifying its gas supplies. Secondly, Ukraine also was quite successful in reforming its gas market,” Foreign minister Leonid Kozhara said in an interview, published by Forbes.ua. MORE