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Зеленский заявил, что Украина готова оперативно организовать транзит азербайджанского газа в Европу и поставки угля для Молдавской ГРЭС.

Ukraine is ready to swiftly establish the transit of Azerbaijani gas to Europe and supply coal to Moldova's power plant, according to Zelensky.

Ukraine is prepared to swiftly resume the transit of natural gas through its territory to Eastern European countries, but not with Russian gas; instead, it will be Azerbaijani gas. This was announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky following talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Davos this week.

Ukraine is ready to quickly resume the transit of natural gas through its territory for Eastern European countries, but not Russian gas, rather Azerbaijani gas, stated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Davos this week.

"We can utilize our infrastructure if Eastern European countries genuinely need gas, not Russian gas… We can do this quite rapidly, we can sign contracts, we can set everything up quickly," – said the President of Ukraine at a briefing in Kyiv on Friday.

Zelensky clarified following his meeting with Aliyev that Azerbaijan's gas production is around 40 billion cubic meters, which allows for the export of approximately 25 billion cubic meters.

The President of Ukraine emphasized once again that the decision to halt the transit of Russian gas starting January 1, 2025, is justified both morally and legally.

"Helping Slovakia and other countries is a pleasure, as long as it doesn’t involve Russian gas… When we hear signals from people in Tiraspol, from people in Slovakia, and from people in other parts of Europe," – noted Zelensky.

Regarding the energy crisis in Transnistria following the cessation of Russian gas supplies, the President expressed readiness to supply coal from Ukraine to the Moldovan GRES located there at a preferential price or even for free in exchange for increasing capacities and supplying surplus electricity to Ukraine, as well as sending specialists from Ukraine to implement such a scheme.

"We have coal that we can supply to Moldova, we can provide it to Tiraspol if they truly want people to receive electricity… They (Transnistria – IF-U) need 200-220 MW for the people there. The station itself, if our people go there, can generate around 2 GW. So, it’s about ten times more than they need," – explained Zelensky.

In his opinion, this is a beneficial, fair, and completely clear scheme if the authorities in Transnistria genuinely care about the people.

The President of Ukraine suggested that, in contrast to such a proposal and scheme, the Russians might "suddenly find" gas for Tiraspol in the near future.

Zelensky also dismissed the argument that Ukrainian coal is technically unsuitable for the Moldovan GRES. According to him, the station already uses Ukrainian coal that was stolen by Russia after the occupation of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

"They took and simply stole our coal, and part of this coal was sent, by the way, to Tiraspol. So, it’s still our coal that is there… The question is that if they don’t know how to use a different brand of coal, the kind we have, we are ready; we have already consulted with the Moldovan side about this. Tiraspol, their people know about this," – said the President of Ukraine.

He clarified that Ukrainian specialists could very quickly organize the use of a different type of coal at the station.

As reported, Azerbaijan increased its gas exports by 5.8% in 2024, reaching 25.2 billion cubic meters, with 12.9 billion cubic meters supplied to Europe.

Documents for the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine were signed on December 30, 2019. The "pump or pay" contract stipulated a transit of 65 billion cubic meters of gas in 2020, and 40 billion cubic meters per year from 2021 to 2024; however, in 2024, the transit was approximately 14 billion cubic meters.

Due to the destruction of Ukrainian thermal power plants by Russian missile strikes, Ukraine currently has a surplus of energy coal. Its coal reserves at the beginning of this year amounted to about 3 million tons, which was a historical high, noted Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.