Naftogaz board chairman Oleksiy Chernyshov has explained why Ukraine continues to transport Russian gas through its territory to the EU.
In an interview with Radio Liberty, he said that Ukraine does this only to support its European partners.
"Ukraine continues to transport Russian gas solely to support our European colleagues, European partners, certain EU countries, especially those so-called landlocked countries that have no access to the sea. And today they need this volume... Today we cannot deprive some EU countries, which, by the way, are our partners, of the opportunity to receive natural gas and prepare for winter," he said.
According to Chernyshov, the EU has announced that it will completely stop consuming Russian gas by 2027.
"We want this to happen as soon and as fast as possible, and by this time. We see that certain processes have already taken place. The volume is decreasing with each passing month. But we have to speed up this process and stimulate it," he added.
Chernyshov noted that the agreement will expire by the end of 2024 and that "we have no intention or initiative to extend it".
Earlier, Russian Gazprom reduced gas transit to Europe through Ukraine by about 15% to 36.2m cu. m.