Photo from UNIAN
On March 1, Gazprom refused to supply gas to Ukraine in March 2018, having returned to Naftogaz a corresponding prepayment.
Naftogaz Chief Commercial Officer Yuriy Vitrenko has said it is easy to achieve the arrest of natural gas, which Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom delivers to Germany, after the Russian company failed to comply with the decision of the Stockholm Arbitration, according to which it must pay Naftogaz $2.56 billion.
"The same Gasprom's gas supplied to Germany. Germany is a liquid gas market. We take their gas, sell it on the stock exchange and get money. That's all, it's so easy," Vitrenko told one of Ukrainian TV channels, answering the question what foreign assets of Gazprom could be arrested for failure to comply with the Stockholm Arbitration.
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As UNIAN reported earlier, on February 28, Naftogaz received the final decision of the Stockholm Arbitration ordering that Gazprom pay Naftogaz $4.63 billion. Following the consideration of the two cases (another one – on gas purchase), Gazprom owes the Ukrainian company $2.56 billion, while the Ukrainian company owes nothing.
The Russian company did not agree with the Arbitration award and said they would appeal it. On March 1, Gazprom refused to supply gas to Ukraine in March 2018, having returned to Naftogaz a corresponding prepayment. The Ukrainian Cabinet claimed that the lack of Russian gas in the overall energy balance would not significantly affect the national economy. At the same time, with the aim of optimizing the performance of the GTS, the government introduced a gas-saving action plan for the period of several days.
On March 2, Gazprom announced its intention to initiate in the Stockholm Arbitration termination of all existing contracts with Naftogaz.
On March 3, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced stabilization of the situation with gas supply in Ukraine.