“Ukraine’s refusal of gas transit will cost the EU €100 billion”, – an expert stated

Ukraine’s decision to halt the transit of Russian gas through its territory will cost the European Union $100 billion.

This information reported according to Evangelos Mytilineos, managing director of the industrial and energy company Metlen Energy & Metals.

“We are losing 5 percent of natural gas imports in a market that is already nervous. We’ve seen prices at the [Dutch gas hub] TTF rise from €30 per megawatt-hour to €50. This €20 difference affects not just imports via Ukraine but all imports, as supply contracts are tied to TTF pricing,” in an interview with the Greek portal *Ikonomikos Tahidromos*, Mytilineos explained.

He added that Europe imports 500 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually. Considering the €20 price increase, this translates to a loss of €100 billion.

Earlier, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó reported that fuel prices in Europe had risen by 20 percent due to the halt in Russian gas transit through Ukraine. He attributed the increase to the “artificial reduction of natural gas volumes by blocking specific transport routes.”