A chimney and pipes in the nonprofit power plant BKM Fotav ZRT in Budapest, Hungary, Thursday, January 2, 2025.
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Ukraine’s closest allies have warned against the European Union the reopening of Russian gas pipelines as part of a possible peace solution, with a Baltic nation describing the perspective as “not a good solution in any way”.
It comes shortly after the Financial Times reported that EU officials were thinking about whether to restore Russia’s gas flows to Europe as part of a solution to end the Kremlin Ukraine war.
The report, which was published on January 30 and mentioned unnamed sources familiar with the discussions, said the idea was approved by some EU officials as a way to reduce regional energy costs.
Estonia, a NATO member who shares a 294-kilometer (183 mile) border with Russia, is one of those who call on the 27 countries’ block not to reopen Russian gas pipelines.
Eastern European country said the EU should not allow itself to become dependent on Russian energy as part of a solution to Ukraine peace, citing that restoring gas flows would be contrary to the goal of the block to phase imports of Russian fossil fuel by 2027.
“We have seen in history that Russia has used energy as a weapon. Russia has repeatedly demonstrated this-and so, returning is not a good solution in any way,” Kadri Elias-Hindoalla, director of sanctions and strategy of affairs strategy Exterior of Estonia Department of goods, told CNBC through video call.
In this pool photograph distributed by Russian state agency Sputnik, Russian President Vladimir Putin tops a meeting regarding the situation in the Kursk region, at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow on August 12, 2024.
Gavriil Grigorov | AFP | Getty Images
Europe should have learned its teaching when Russian forces occupied George in 2008, Estonia’s Estonia said, adding that the Ukrainian war has reaffirmed the importance of finding alternative suppliers and improving the independence of the block energy.
“Our position is very clear: we need to maximize sanctions and limit Russia’s energy import as much as possible,” Elias-Hindoalla said.
Russia’s Foreign Ministries and Ukraine did not respond when they were contacted by CNBC for comment.
For its part, the European Commission said that it is “not making links” between reopening Russian gas and Ukraine talks. The European Commission is the EU executive wing.
“Whenever we have such talks, when that moment comes, he will be with Ukraine and we do not confirm any reports reported in the article … about any link between the passage of gas through Ukraine and any peace conversation,” the spokesman said EU Paula Pinho at a press conference on Thursday.
The EU plan, Pinho said, remains to adhere to the gradual stages from Russian gas. The block adopted a 15th package of sanctions against Russia at the end of last year, seeking to further weaken Russia’s military and industrial skills.
‘One of the worst ideas in the history of the world’
Lithuania, which was occupied by the Soviet Union until 1990, said that providing the end of the fighting in Ukraine should be done with the full involvement of KyIw.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy underlined this message in an interview with the Associated Press earlier this month, warning that it would be “very dangerous” to exclude this talks between the US and Russia on how to end the occupation.
Speaking during a virtual appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, US President Donald Trump said on January 23 that he would like to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin “soon” to find a way to give the end of the Ukraine war.
Former Foreign Minister Lithuanian Gabrielius Landsbergis said the prospect of peace through Russian gas dependence was “obviously one of the worst ideas in the history of the world”.
“The suggestion of restoring this catastrophic policy is nothing but spitting in the graves of its innocent victims,” Landsbergis said in the posting of social media on January 30th.
Even in the event of the end of the Ukraine war, the President of Gitanas Lithuania Nausėda has warned that his country’s geographical position could make him vulnerable to a wider conflict. The country with the 2.8 million borders of Kaliningrad in Russia excludes the West and the Belarus ally in Belarus in the east.
Change of European gas supply
Russian gas exports to Europe through Ukraine stopped at the beginning of 2025, marking the end of Moscow’s decade predominance over the region’s energy markets.
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy said at the time that the end of the Russian gas transit through his country in Europe represented “one of Moscow’s biggest losses” and called on the US to supply more gas to the region.
Russia, meanwhile, warned that EU countries are likely to suffer more from supply change. Moscow is still able to send gas through the Turkstream pipeline, which connects Russia with Hungary, Serbia and Turkey.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky gives a speech during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (Wef) in Davos on January 21, 2025.
Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty Images
Poland, a determined Ukraine ally and another European country that shares a border with Kaliningrad, Russia, has also urged EU countries not to reopen Russian gas flows.
“I can only hope that European leaders will learn lessons from Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and that they will postpone a decision to never restore gas pumping through this pipeline,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said in an interview with BBC last month.
His comments referred to the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, which links Russia and northern Germany through the Baltic Sea.