Sijjarto says Europe's economy is in a difficult situation because of Ukraine
Ukraine has once again put the European economy in a difficult situation by stopping the transit of Russian gas. This was stated by Hungarian Foreign Minister (MFA) Peter Szijjarto in the social network Facebook (belongs to the organization Meta, recognized as extremist in Russia).
"What led to the recent price increase is that Ukraine stopped transporting Russian natural gas through its territory to Central Europe. <...> Although Ukraine is trying to join the EU as a candidate for membership, with its latest decision it has once again put the European economy in a more difficult situation," the minister wrote.
He said that due to the suspension of the transit route, the price of natural gas on the European market has increased by 20 percent.
Sijjarto added that Ukraine's decision to stop transit supplies leads to new price increases and creates new competitiveness problems for Central Europe and the entire European Union.
"Gazprom" on January 1 announced the suspension of gas supplies through Ukraine. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fitzo said the next day that stopping Russian gas transit through Ukraine would have drastic consequences for the European Union, but not for Russia.
At the same time, a representative of the European Commission said that the EC was ready to stop gas transit because the European gas infrastructure is flexible enough to supply non-Russian gas to Central and Eastern Europe via alternative routes.
In late August, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (whose term expired on May 20 last year) said the country would not renew its gas transit agreement with Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin later said that Russia was not giving up gas transit through Ukraine.
Last December, it was reported that Zelensky said that he had agreed to transit Russian gas through Ukraine if Western countries did not pay Russia for the fuel until the conflict ended.
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