Ukraine to Halt Key Russian Gas Transit to Europe, Use Alternative

[bluewater]

6. We know the Russians are saying flow should continue as before. Ukraine says it will shut it down.

It is the first compressor in the Ukraine gas transit system in the Luhansk region, the transit route for around 32.6 million cubic metres of gas a day, or a third of the Russian gas which is piped to Europe through Ukraine, GTSOU said.

GTSOU said that in order to fulfill its "transit obligations to European partners in full" it would "temporarily transfer unavailable capacity" to the Sudzha interconnection point in territory which is controlled by Ukraine.

Gazprom said it had received notification from Ukraine that the country would stop the transit of gas to Europe via the Sokhranivka interconnector from 0700 local time on May 11.

The Russian company added that Ukraine proposed switching all gas transit to Sudzha, adding that it saw no proof of force majeure or obstacles to continuing as before.

Gazprom added that it was meeting all obligations to buyers of gas in Europe.

https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2022-05-10/ukraine-operator-to-suspend-russian-gas-flow-via-sokhranivka-entry-point?msclkid=ad830abdd09311ecbb607eb911ae2025

Why is Ukraine taking this unprecedented step now?

For Ukraine to announce in advance that they would be shutting down this gas pipeline seems against their own interests and those of the entire EU.

The Russians claim that there are no obstacles to continuing gas flow, so why would Ukraine announce they are commencing a shut down on May 11th instead of proving the Russians are lying and are the one's interfering with the supply?

I imagine the EU will comment on this issue very shortly.