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Ukraine is ready to transit gas from Azerbaijan to Europe, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday.
Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv he had discussed the arrangement with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev when the pair met in recent days.
Azerbaijan “has a large export capacity. The export capacity is 25 billion cubic meters,” Zelenskyy said. “We can use our infrastructure if countries in Europe need gas. But not Russian gas,” he said.
Russian gas flows to Europe through Ukraine were shut off this month, leading to fierce complaints from Slovakia and Hungary, which were still receiving significant deliveries from Russia.
Zelenskyy made the comments during a press conference with Moldovan President Maia Sandu. During talks on Saturday, the pair agreed to “provide urgent and concrete solutions” to the energy crisis in Moldova’s Russian-backed breakaway region of Transnistria, after Moscow shut off the flow of gas via Ukraine and has so far refused to use alternative routes.
“We will not let the Russians profit,” Zelenskyy said. “But will we let the Azerbaijanis earn? With pleasure. Will we help the Slovaks? With pleasure. This is what we can do quickly. We can sign a contract and quickly set it up when we hear signals from people in [Transnistrian capital] Tiraspol, Slovakia, and other countries in Europe,” the Ukrainian leader said.
But experts were doubtful Azerbaijan has the capacity to supply meaningful new volumes to Europe via Ukraine.
“Azerbaijan is trying to position itself as a major EU energy partner,” said Aura Sabadus, a gas markets expert at intelligence firm ICIS. “But they don’t have the production and, at the moment, they’re punching above their weight.”
According to Sabadus, any such deal with Baku was likely to involve a volume swap that saw Russian supplies rebranded as Azerbaijani.
The maneuvering in Kyiv comes after a critical transit agreement that allowed Russia to export gas to the EU via pipelines running across Ukraine expired at the end of 2024.
Six months before the deal came to an end, a senior Azerbaijani official confirmed to POLITICO that the fossil fuel-rich South Caucasus country was in talks that could see it take over the contract, and was considering a range of options.
Hungary and Slovakia used the transit route to continue to import large quantities of Russian gas despite the war raging in neighboring Ukraine and earn lucrative fees for shipping the gas onwards to other countries. However, Zelenskyy in December shot down the idea that the pact could be renewed.
“We’re not going to extend the transit of Russian gas,” the Ukrainian president said at the time. “We won’t allow them to earn additional billions on our blood.”
The issue is set to come to a head on Monday when top EU diplomats meet to discuss the bloc’s foreign policy. Hungary’s Viktor Orbán has threatened to veto the renewal of EU sanctions on Russia if Kyiv does not back down in the standoff, raising the prospect that frozen funds could be returned to Moscow and trade embargoes invalidated.
“If the Ukrainians want help, for example … to sanction the Russians, then let them reopen the gas pipeline and let them allow the Central European countries, including Hungary, to import the gas we need through Ukraine,” the Kremlin-friendly Hungarian leader declared on Friday.
Zelenskyy also said at the Saturday press conference with Sandu that the Trump administration has not stopped military aid to Ukraine despite an order by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to pause foreign aid grants for 90 days, the Associated Press reported. Zelenskyy did not clarify whether humanitarian aid had been suspended, according to the report.
“I am focused on military aid; it has not been stopped, thank God,” Zelenskyy told reporters.
