Russian president Vladimir Putin may try to freeze Ukraine out this winter as the bigger country controls much of Ukraine’s gas flow.
Putin has moved to slash gas exports to countries supplying fuel to Ukraine, which experts say indicates that he’s ready to let some Ukrainians freeze this winter in order to maintain his agenda.
Michael Labelle, an energy expert at the Central European University in Budapest, noted that European Union states will be fine this winter even if there’s gas cutoffs, but the cutoffs will impact Ukraine heavily.
“It’s really the Ukrainian people who are going to suffer,” he told Global Post, “and people are going to die.”
Moscow stopped sending gas supplies to Ukraine in June after Russia annexed Crimea, saying that Kyiv showed no signs of paying a debt owed to state-controlled Gazprom. But gas has flowed into Ukraine through Europe--until Putin’s recent moves.
Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, abd Romania have recently reported reductions of as much as 50 percent in the flow of gas they are contracted to receive from Gazprom, with the fuel company claiming that it’s illegal for those countries to re-export gas to Ukraine.
“The Russian side talks about technical problems, about the necessity of filling up storage for the winter season,” Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico told Reuters. “I have used this expression and I will use it again: Gas has become a tool in a political fight.”
