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EU debates restarting Russian gas flows to kickstart Ukraine peace talks

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Greenpeace activists use a mock gas pipeline on Prague’s Vltava River to demand an end to EU dependence on Russian gas, 6 October 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE / MARTIN DIVISEK

EU officials are debating whether to reopen the flow of Russian pipeline gas to Europe as a goodwill gesture aimed at encouraging Moscow to the negotiating table to end the war in Ukraine, The Financial Times reported on Thursday.

While supporters of reopening Russian gas pipelines to Europe, including some German and Hungarian officials, have argued that it would reduce Europe’s high gas prices and encourage Moscow to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, the representatives of other EU member states, particularly those from countries in eastern Europe that have spent the past three years attempting to end their dependence on Russian gas, have been left “infuriated”, the FT wrote.

“It’s madness,” one unnamed EU official told the FT. “How stupid could we be to even think about that as an option?”

By late 2024, following the closure of major gas pipelines including Nord Stream 1 and Yamal-Europe, Russia was supplying just 25 billion cubic metres of gas to Europe annually, a far cry from the 150 billion cubic metres it supplied immediately before the war. 

The amount of Russian gas pumped to Europe dropped off even further when Kyiv ended the transit of Russian gas to Europe across Ukrainian territory after a five-year transit deal between the two countries expired on 1 January.

At present, the only pipeline gas flowing from Russia to Europe comes through TurkStream, which runs under the Black Sea to Turkey and then to the Balkans via the Balkan Stream pipeline. EU states that are more reliant on Russian gas, including Hungary and Slovakia, are currently lobbying the EU to pressure Kyiv into restarting the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine, with one official saying “in the end, everybody wants lower energy costs”, the FT wrote.

EU states have been saddled with rising gas costs since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, after which member states attempted to reduce their dependence on cheap Russian energy supplies. Despite this, the bloc continues to rely on imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG), of which it imported “record levels” last year.