Russian fuel flows through Ukraine uninterrupted by war

Nearly two months since Moscow’s invasion, Kyiv is still bearing the brunt of Western Europe’s dependence on Russian oil.

Ukraine has continued to transport close to one-third of Russian gas to the European Union through its network of pipelines, as western leaders struggle to break their dependence on Russian energy, putting Ukrainians at risk to maintain the same infrastructure that keeps their enemy afloat.

“Even inside of Ukraine it is very difficult to explain,” Naftogaz CEO Yuriy Vitrenko told The Washington Times in an interview. “It’s almost two months into the war. They’re killing innocent people and you read these horror stories. But at the same time, we’re transmitting Russian gas.”

Ukraine cut itself off from Russian energy imports following the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. But Naftogaz has continued to pump Russian exports through its network of pipelines, charging transit fees on the oil and gas that passes through.

Mr. Vitrenko has called on European countries to reduce the dependence on Russian energy — a dependence which many say has allowed Russian President Vladimir Putin to wield outsized influence on the global stage — despite the loss of transit revenues that his company earns from the flow of Russian gas through Ukraine.

“We are more than ready to sacrifice all of our transit revenues if that means that Putin stops getting money from energy exports,” Mr. Vitrenko said. “That’s the biggest source of revenue for the Russian state budget and basically what allows Putin to finance his killing machine. That’s why it is of the utmost importance to have this embargo on Russian energy.”

The European Union imports roughly 40% of its natural gas, and around 25% of its oil, from Russia. Despite commitments from EU leaders to gradually phase out Russian energy imports as the world watched in horror as the Kremlin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine unfolded, without practical alternatives the EU could take years to fully taper its dependence on Moscow.

The U.S. has banned Russian oil imports in response to the Kremlin’s assault. Last month, President Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged to “address the immediate energy security needs of the E.U. and accelerate the clean energy transition.”

As part of the pledge, the E.U. plans to phase out Russian energy imports before the end of the decade, though it has called on the U.S. to help overcome dependency by boosting shipments of liquified natural gas (LNG).

But U.S. exports alone may have a limited impact on energy prices in Europe, which remain far higher than in the U.S.

Analysts say U.S. producers of LNG are already at full capacity, and ramping up new drilling and export permits enough to have an impact could take years.

Some European employers have begun pressuring EU leadership to rethink its ambitions to outright ban Russian energy imports anytime soon, fearing the blockade would spell disaster for the economy.

“A rapid gas embargo would lead to loss of production, shutdowns, a further de-industrialization, and the long-term loss of work positions in Germany,” said Rainer Dulger, chairman of the German Employer’s Association, and Reiner Hoffmann, chairman of German Trade Union Confederation, in a joint statement Monday to the German Press Agency.

For now, Naftogaz remains caught in a geopolitical web that has left it with little choice but to keep Russian exports flowing.

“Unfortunately we still need to persuade our European partners that they should stop importing Russian oil and gas,” Mr. Vitrenko said. “Before that, just switching it off would make little sense.”

And while Europe scrambles for a solution, the burden has fallen upon Ukrainian energy workers to keep the lights on and heat flowing, not only in their own country, but throughout Europe.

Mr. Vitrenko said that of his company’s 60,000 employees, 57,000 have opted to stay in Ukraine since the war broke out, putting their lives on the line to keep their communities warm.

“Some of them work on some really critical infrastructure, like heating plants and distribution stations,” Mr. Vitrenko said. “They understand that if the station is not operating, especially when it’s minus ten [degrees], then people will suffer. Many people will die of hypothermia. It’s really serious, and that’s something that motivates them.”

“It’s about their own families, their own neighbors,” he said. “It’s something very tangible to them.”

Mr. Vitrenko himself stayed in Kyiv during the initial days of the invasion because several of his employees were unable to leave, and has remained in Ukraine through the war out of a sense of duty.

“Sometimes you stay because you have to do your job, no matter what the consequences are,” he said. “First, it’s my country, and second, 14 million people depend on me. How could we leave?”

He said Russia continues to carry out strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure almost daily. On Monday, a Russian strike hit a gas distribution station in the Donetsk region in Ukraine’s heavily contested east, knocking out service for approximately 140 households which he said will take months to repair.

“It is dangerous,” Mr. Vitrenko said. “We have already had around ten employees killed on our sites.”

Naftogaz employees have also continued to operate key infrastructure inside Russian-occupied regions. In Kherson, Mr. Vitrenko said, Naftogaz employees barricaded themselves inside a heating station for a week to keep the heat on under constant threat from Russian forces.

He said two employees died inside the station as the remaining crew continued to work.

“Their families were in the city, and they said … ’if we stop the station, it will mean there will be a humanitarian catastrophe for our own families,’” Mr. Vitrenko said.

Russia has largely spared the network of pipes used to transit Russian oil and gas to Europe, Mr. Vitrenko said, focusing instead on Ukraine’s domestic distribution infrastructure.

“Currently they don’t bomb the transit infrastructure because they get money out of it,” he said. “If that changes, they may also start bombing the transit infrastructure as well.”

Mr. Vitrenko said while he understands the pressing challenges European countries face with respect to banning Russian imports, he has grown frustrated with what he says are shortsighted, politically driven decisions that continue to fill the Kremlin’s war chest.

“When the E.U.’s top diplomat comes to Kyiv and he says himself that the European Union provided 1 billion Euros to Ukraine as assistance, while they paid 35 billion euros since the beginning of the war to Russia for energy, of course, it’s something that is frustrating,” Mr. Vitrenko said. “But we have to fight Putin. We have to concentrate on that and we still believe that at least better late than never.”

“We hope that Europe and the West, in general, will change their position and they will do what is necessary, no matter how painful it is to stop Putin,” he said.

• This story is based in part on wire service reports.