In 2018, the volume of gas transit through the Ukrainian gas transportation system (GTS) amounted to 86.8 billion cubic meters, which is 7.2% less compared to 2017, TASS news agency reported citing a press release by Ukrtransgaz, the country’s gas transport system operator.
“In 2018, the volume of gas transit through the territory of Ukraine from the Russian Federation to the EU countries and Moldova amounted to 86.8 billion cubic meters, which is 6.7 billion cubic meters or 7.2% less than the volume of gas transit in the record 2017,” the report says.
Ukraine has been refusing to import natural gas from Russia for the past three years, after hostilities broke in 2014 and Moscow annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. Ukraine continues to transit gas from Russia to Europe.
The two countries have renewed hostilities last month, when Russia opened fire on a flotilla of Ukrainian ships in the Azov Sea, seized the vessels and took Ukrainian sailors as prisoners.
On Friday, Ukraine‘s Ministry of Infrastructure said Russia has blocked 35 merchant ships from leaving or entering the Sea of Azov, a claim the Kremlin has denied.
The ministry said 18 ships were stuck in the Black Sea waiting to pass through the Kerch Strait into the Sea of Azov, while another 17 vessels were unable to sail out of Ukrainian ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov.