Greek businessman estimates Ukraine's rejection of Russian gas at €100 bln for the EU

For the European Union (EU), Ukraine's refusal to transit Russian gas would cost €100 billion, Evangelos Mytilineos, managing director of industrial and energy company Metlen Energy & Metals, said on January 7.

"We are losing 5% of natural gas imports in a market that is in an intimidated state. We have seen TTF prices rise from €30 per megawatt hour to €50," he told Greek portal Ikonomikos Tahidromo.

According to him, the €20 difference does not only concern imports via Ukraine. Thus, he added, the final annual loss for the European Union will be €100 billion, as the states import 500 billion cubic meters of gas.

There is no more gas transit through Ukraine. What the media say

"Gazprom" on January 1 announced the suspension of gas supplies through Ukraine. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fitzo said the next day that stopping the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine would have drastic consequences for the European Union, but not for Russia.

At the same time, a representative of the European Commission (EC) said that the EC was ready to stop gas transit because the European gas infrastructure was flexible enough to supply gas of non-Russian origin to Central and Eastern Europe via alternative routes.

At the same time, on January 2, former Greek Energy Minister Panayiotis Lafazanis called the decision of the EU and Ukraine to stop the transit of Russian natural gas through Ukrainian territory to European countries criminal. According to him, this murderous decision leads Europe to ruin and Ukraine to death.