Ukraine has threatened retaliation against Russia’s oil and gas sector if the aggressor again carries out targeted attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure this winter. “That would be fair,” said Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko in an interview with the information website Politico.
According to the Ukrinform news agency, he was asked whether any “response” from Kiev would also affect the neighboring country’s oil and gas sector. “In response, we would choose the same approach, attacking the energy infrastructure,” Galushchenko said. However, he added that he was not a member of the Ukrainian military and therefore did not have any relevant discussions with US government representatives.
The Minister of Energy does not believe that such attacks could lead to an increase in oil and gas prices on the world market. Ultimately, other producers could compensate for the loss of Russian supplies.
Austria remains dependent on Russian supplies
According to Politico, Europe has already significantly reduced its dependence on Russian oil and natural gas, mainly through imports of liquefied natural gas from the US. However, Russia continues to sell large quantities of fossil fuels to China and India.
Due to OMV’s long-term contractual relations with the Russian state company Gazprom, Austria remains heavily dependent on Russian gas supplies and transfers billions of euros to Moscow for this purpose. These amounts often exceed the humanitarian aid provided by Austria to Ukraine, an EU candidate country.