Among other EU countries, Hungary criticized the Ukrainian leadership's decision. On January 8, the country's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that such a decision was unacceptable and contradicted Ukraine's intentions to join the EU.
Photo - © Alexander Doviansky / Lori Photobank
Slovakia's sharp reaction to Ukraine's decision is not surprising, since it is this EU country, along with Austria, that depends more than others on Ukrainian gas transit. As a result, these two states will be forced to negotiate alternative routes for obtaining gas from Russia, primarily through the Turkish Stream, Alexey Bobrovsky, director of the Institute for World Market Studies, noted in a commentary for TASS .
In addition, Slovakia and Austria will have to organize taiwan mobile database reverse gas supplies from Germany (including via the Czech Republic) or from Italy, added Alexey Belogoryev, research director at the Institute of Energy and Finance.
At the same time, according to Sergei Kaufman, an analyst at FG Finam, the Czech Republic and Italy, which also partially depended on Ukrainian transit, have more opportunities to compensate for losses from the cessation of supplies along this route. In particular, Italy will increase purchases from Algeria, which will become its largest supplier.
As Alexey Belogoryev noted, both Slovakia and Austria may well survive the coming winter by using up huge reserves from underground storage facilities. Difficulties for these countries will arise with replenishing reserves in anticipation of the next winter.
"Slovakia, according to ENTSOG data, has already partially switched to Turkish transit (via Hungary), hypothetically, due to its further growth, it will be possible to cover the country's remaining needs for Russian gas, but then there will be nothing left for Austria. And despite the bravura statements of Austrian politicians, it is still unclear what gas Austria expects to use to replenish its gas reserves in 2025, depleted over the winter," Belogoriev said.