The gas had kept flowing despite nearly three years of war between Russia and Ukrtaine, but Russia’s main gas firm Gazprom said it had stopped at 0500 GMT on January 1 after Ukraine refused to renew a transit agreement.
Writing on the Telegram messaging app, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the end of gas transit through his country to Europe was “one of Moscow’s biggest defeats” and urged the United States to supply more gas to Europe.
“The more there is on the market from Europe’s real partners, the faster we will overcome the last negative consequences of European energy dependence on Russia,” he wrote, adding that Europe’s “joint task” now was to support ex-Soviet Moldova “in this period of energy transformation.”
