Analysis
Politics
What the US Can Learn from Poland’s Election Strategy
12 September 2024
26 July 2023
Threats to halt the last pipeline from Russia to Europe pressure Hungary, Slovakia, and Austria to find new gas import routes. CEE’s hesitation to abandon Russian gas is due to winter shortage risks.
Ukrainian frustration with the remaining European reliance on Russian gas is at a boiling point, with Kyiv warning some of its neighbours it wants to shut one of the last working pipelines bringing the fuel through Ukraine by the end of next year.
Ukrainian energy minister German Galushchenko made such threats in media interviews in the last few weeks, ruling out extending a 2019 agreement with Moscow on the gas transit through the Ukraine pipeline to a few central European nations, notably Hungary, Austria, and Slovakia, which all incidentally harbour pro-Russian sentiments.
“I believe, by winter of 2024, Europe will not need Russian gas at all,“ Politico quoted Galushenko as saying on July 12.