Kyiv hopes to remain principal energy transit route for Europe
With Russia having abandoned the South Stream project, Ukraine remains the principal transit route for energy resources into Europe, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Yevhen Perebyinis said.
“It means that Ukraine remains the principal route of energy supplies to Europe,” he said at a briefing on Tuesday.
Ukraine has always maintained that South Stream project was a political project, not backed up by any economic calculations, nor was it consistent with the purpose of diversifying sources of energy supplies, the spokesperson said.
“We believe the EU (European Union) decision to cancel the project is absolutely logical and balanced,” he added.
Earlier Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said the decision to stop the South Stream pipeline project was made by the Russian president.
“The decision to close South Stream is based on the fact that for several years the European Commission did not give its permission for the implementation of South Stream and worked in every possible way with the countries, which had once signed intergovernmental agreements with us, over changes to such agreements. And so the president made the decision to stop the project,” the minister told reporters in Ankara.