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Vitrenko suggested the Russian side is waiting for Denmark's decision on the Nord Stream 2 bypassing gas pipeline.
Executive Director of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine Yuriy Vitrenko says the Russian side has refused to conduct trilateral negotiations on gas transit via the Ukrainian territory in May 2019 after the election of a new president, as previously assumed, as well as it failed to agree on talks in June.
Read alsoNaftogaz CEO: Russia may halt gas transit via Ukraine even before Nord Stream 2 completed
"Given that the Russian side has refused to hold tripartite talks in May, i.e. after the election of a new Ukrainian president, and the talks in June have also been not agreed, it becomes obvious that they deliberately delay this process. And speculations [manipulation] about the impact of the presidential or parliamentary elections are just excuses," he wrote on Facebook on May 20.
Vitrenko suggested the Russian side is waiting for Denmark's decision on the Nord Stream 2 bypassing gas pipeline, from which it will be clear whether its construction will be delayed for half a year, or it will start operate on January 1, 2020, as planned.
"For us, for Ukraine, it's so important to be able to use the right to revise the tariff provided for in the transit contract for 2018-2019 to receive compensation for accelerated depreciation and devaluation of the Ukrainian gas transportation system, as a result of transit losses from 2020. The relevant claims have been determined at US$11-14 billion so far," he added.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine-EU-Russia tripartite talks on gas transit issues after 2019 were held in Brussels on January 21. Following the negotiations, Vice-President of the European Commission for Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič announced that the next round of the talks was scheduled for May 2019.
On January 15, preliminary technical tripartite consultations with the participation of Ukraine, Russia, and the European Commission were set to be held while representatives of the Russian monopoly Gazprom disrupted the meeting.
On May 20, following the inauguration of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Šefčovič said the European Union intended to resume the trilateral talks on gas transit as soon as possible.