Photo from UNIAN
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the era of "gas blackmail" of Ukraine, which Russia and its Gazprom monopoly company had employed against the country, is over.
"Before Russia began its military campaign against Ukraine, its main weapon was energy. Until 2014, Moscow has kept us within its orbit via dependence on natural gas. It seemed that we would never be able to tackle that irresistible gravity... In November this year, it will be two years since we have stopped buying gas from Russia. This shows that the era of 'gas blackmail' is irrevocably left in the past," he said during an annual address to the Ukrainian parliament.
Read alsoUkraine gets out of deep abyss: Poroshenko speaks of "horde of predators," main risk to UkraineThe president also noted that Ukraine was able to win disputes with Russia in the Stockholm Arbitration and expects a positive result in the litigation over the gas transit contract, which expires in late 2019.
Read alsoCabinet plans to pile up over 17 bcm of gas"Due to the fact that the contract will expire in 2019, our task is to achieve a revolutionary change in the organization of [gas] transit with the help of the European Union: to have Europeans buy Russian gas on the western, not the eastern border of Ukraine (together with us), and Ukraine - to provide high-quality transit services to the European Union, not to Russia," Poroshenko said.