Ukraine and Russia do not want to reach agreements on the continuation of the transit of Russian gas to Europe through Ukrainian territory. As Reuters with reference to a high-ranking source in the Azerbaijani energy company SOCAR, the negotiations for the participation of Azerbaijan ended without results.
The EU and Ukraine have asked Azerbaijan to help negotiate a gas transit agreement with Russia, which expires at the end of this year.
A SOCAR source said that SOCAR had been mediating negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian energy companies for almost a year at the request of Ukraine and the EU.
The interlocutor said that top managers met with high-ranking representatives of Ukrainian energy companies on May 2 in Istanbul and on August 29 in Vienna, adding: "Ultimately, the Ukrainian and Russian sides could not agree on terms."
SOCAR, Russian energy giant Gazprom and Ukrainian state-owned Naftogaz did not immediately respond to requests for official comment.
Ukraine, which has been fighting a Russian invasion since February 2022, has said it will not renew a contract that supplies Europe with about 15 billion cubic meters of Russian gas annually.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said on Thursday that Kyiv may consider continuing gas transit, but only if Moscow does not receive payment before the end of the war.
