Serhiy Makogon, director-general of the GTS Operator of Ukraine company, called Russia's demands to pay for gas in rubles blackmail, to which Europe will not respond. He said this on the air of the informational telethon.

"The European Union realized that dependence on Russian gas creates significant risks in the energy and military security of Europe. And they began to act in this direction. The US has already abandoned Russian oil and gas, England plans to abandon it by the end of this year, and the EU - by 2030 may be completely abandoned this year. Still, already this year they plan to reduce consumption by almost 60%," Makogon said.

He also said that while the transit system of Ukraine has not suffered critical damage due to timely repairs and redistribution of flows, however, in order to protect gas supply, it is necessary to impose major sanctions on the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline.

“We understand that Europe will reduce the consumption of Russian gas, we propose that this begin with a reduction through Nord Stream 1. Because we now need transit in order to guarantee the efficiency of our gas transportation system. When there is transit, there is a guarantee that the aggressor will not purposefully destroy our gas transportation system. We do not have a separate system for transit and for domestic consumption, it is one, so it is important for us that the system is not damaged to provide our citizens with gas every day. We have 19 million subscribers throughout Ukraine, who consume 80 million cubic meters of gas every day," Makogon said.

He said that during the war, the Donetsk-Kramatorsk-Mariupol gas pipeline suffered the most, specialists cannot start repair work, because the damage is located in the combat zone. There are also significant damages in the networks of city and regional gas companies - 44 systems are disabled.

Gas blackmail and reaction

• Russian President Putin said that the Russian Federation decided to accept payment for gas delivered to Europe in Russian rubles.

• After this statement, spot gas prices in Europe rose by 17% to $1,340 per 1,000 cubic meters.

• The G7 countries refused to pay for Russian gas in rubles, because existing contracts do not provide for this.

• The Austrian company OMV refused to pay for Russian gas in rubles.

• Latvia stated that it would not buy gas from Russia for rubles since "the contract does not allow the possibility of paying in another currency, except for the euro."

• And Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa was even more concise: "No one in Europe will pay in rubles for gas."

• Chancellor Olaf Scholz also stated that Germany would not pay for gas and oil in rubles.

• The White House responded to Russian aggression in Ukraine on March 8 by banning all Russian oil, gas, and energy imports to the United States.

• On March 29, 2022, European Commission representative Eric Mamer announced that the EU countries would not pay for Russian gas in rubles.