Ukraine to import US liquefied natural gas via Greece
Vital U.S. supplies of liquefied natural gas will begin flowing to war-torn Ukraine this winter via a pipeline through the Balkans.
The agreement was announced after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens on Sunday. Greece is trying to increase the flow of American LNG to its terminals “to replace Russian gas in the region,” Mitsotakis said recently.
The European Commission plans to ban the import of Russian gas into EU member states by the end of 2027, arguing that revenue from such sales is financing Russia’s war in Ukraine.
In Ukraine, where freezing winters occur, there is a fear of an energy crisis due to Russia’s attack on energy facilities.
Zelensky is currently in France, where President Emmanuel Macron signed a letter of intent to purchase up to 100 Rafale jets.
Clashes continued throughout the night and six people were reported killed in Russian attacks in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, Kherson and Donetsk regions.
The Russian military said it took control of three more Ukrainian villages, one each in the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
None of the reports could be independently verified.
It was previously reported that Zelensky, speaking in Athens, said that US LNG deliveries would begin in January.
“Every time the Russians destroy, we rebuild, but that really takes time, a lot of effort, imports of equipment and gas to compensate for the Russians destroying our own production,” he said.
“Greece is becoming the provider of energy security for your homeland,” Mitsotakis told the Ukrainian president.
Zelensky said Kiev had allocated funds for gas imports from European partners and banks, as well as Ukrainian banks, under European Commission guarantees to help cover imports until March, according to Reuters news agency.
Ukraine has been buying gas from various EU countries since 2015, when it stopped buying Russian gas directly.
The Soviet-era Trans-Balkan pipeline connects Ukraine via Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria to LNG terminals in Greece.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs issued an official warning, saying: “The approaching winter poses new risks for Ukrainians… massive attacks on energy networks are undermining efforts to maintain warmth in homes, schools and health centres.”
The letter, signed by Zelensky and Macron while visiting the Villacoublay air base near Paris, outlines possible future contracts for Ukraine to purchase Rafale fighter jets “together with their associated weapons.”
The letter, which is not a purchase-sale agreement, also includes agreements regarding SAMP-T air defense systems, radar systems and unmanned aerial vehicles.
During his visit to Sweden last month, Zelensky signed a letter of intent to purchase between 100 and 150 Gripen fighter jets.
In France, Zelensky also traveled to Mont Valerien, west of Paris, to visit the fledgling headquarters of a company. planned multinational force.
The force proposed by Britain and France could one day help monitor the Ukraine-Russia ceasefire.
Tens of thousands of people, mostly soldiers, have been killed or injured and millions of civilians have fled their homes since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia currently controls about 20% of Ukraine’s territory and is making slow progress on the front lines as the Ukrainian military struggles with manpower shortages.
The clashes centered on the town of Pokrovsk, a logistics hub in the Donetsk region where hundreds of Russian soldiers recently crossed the border.
Ukraine’s ongoing refugee crisis took on another dimension this month when German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called on Zelensky to take action following an increase in the number of young Ukrainian men arriving as refugees in Germany and other EU countries.
EU countries registered 79,205 new Ukrainian refugees in September; this was the highest monthly figure in nearly two years.
in it reportThe EU’s statistical agency noted Ukraine’s decision in August to give men aged 18 to 22 the right to cross the border freely.
During the occupation, martial law mandated that men between the ages of 18 and 60 (even those ineligible for conscription, which now applies to those aged 25 to 60) were not allowed to leave the country.
Germany, the EU’s largest country, currently hosts the largest number of Ukrainian refugees – currently 1.2 million people, or 28.3% of the bloc’s total.
