Türkiye alternative route for supplying gas to Europe: Kremlin

Russia has alternative routes for supplies to European countries, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Aug. 28, commenting on the Ukrainian authorities' refusal to extend the agreement on Russian gas transit.

There are alternative routes, there are plans to create a hub in Türkiye, this work is in progress" Peskov said, TASS reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin first floated the idea of establishing a gas hub in Türkiye in 2022.

In December last year, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that the implementation of the hub project could begin in 2024.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Aug. 27 announced that his country would not extend the transit agreement via Ukraine beyond Dec. 31.

Ukrainian companies signed a five-year contract with Gazprom at the end of 2019.

Kiev's decision to lapse its contract with Gazprom to supply Russian gas to Europe will seriously harm European consumers, Peskov said.

"They will simply have to pay much more, which will make their industry less competitive," he added.

Despite the ongoing conflict, Russia delivered more than 14 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe via Ukraine in 2023, although this was less than the 40 billion cubic meters provided for in the contract.

EU members Austria, Hungary and Slovakia still receive Russian gas in this way.

The three countries continue to rely on Russian gas despite an EU pledge to free itself of Russian gas by 2027 following Moscow's full-scale offensive into Ukraine launched in February 2022.