The European Council has urged the Commission, along with Slovakia and Ukraine, to step up their efforts in finding feasible resolutions to the issue of gas transit, as stated in a recent document. This includes considering the possibility of resuming transit.

In a bid to appease Slovakia and have them withdraw their objections to the overall text, certain additions were made to the proposed Council conclusions, according to an official source.

An agreement involving billions of dollars between Russia and Ukraine, which permitted Moscow to transport fuel through Ukraine, expired at the end of the year. Slovakia’s Fico has been a staunch advocate for the agreement’s renewal. He has also criticized the EU for its lack of support and threatened to sever Ukraine’s essential electricity exports as retaliation.

Despite these threats, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who attended the summit in Brussels in person, has categorically denied any possibility of resuming the transit and has emphasized that European countries should not consider Moscow as a trustworthy energy supplier.

Before the cessation of the agreement, the Ukrainian President asserted, “We have no intentions of extending the transit of Russian gas. We won’t let them profit extra billions from our suffering.”

Overall, this ongoing gas transit issue between Russia and Ukraine highlights the complex political and economic dynamics at play in the European energy market. As such, it’s an important topic for anyone interested in energy investments or simply wanting to understand the geopolitical landscape.