President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday Ukraine could consider continued transit of Russian gas on the condition that Moscow does not receive money for the fuel until after the war.

Despite the war, Moscow has continued to pump gas across Ukraine to Europe under a multi-billion euro deal struck in 2019. Kyiv has already announced it will not renew that agreement when it expires at the end of 2024.

Slovakia, one of the recipients of the gas, has been racing to prolong the deal.

"We would not prolong the transit of Russian gas. We will not give the possibility of additional billions to be earned on our blood, on the lives of our citizens," Zelenskyy told a news conference during a European Union summit in Brussels.

But he added: "If the country is ready to give us the gas, but not to pay the money back to Russia until the end of the war, then it's a possible potentiality. We can think about it."

Last route about to shut down

Russia, which before the Ukraine war was the biggest single supplier of natural gas to Europe, has lost almost all of its European customers as the EU tries to reduce its dependence on Moscow.

The Nord Stream pipeline to Germany, which was blown up in 2022, also severed a major artery for Russian gas exports.

Now one of the last main Russian gas routes to Europe – the Soviet-era Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline via Ukraine – is due to shut at the end of the year.

The European Commission has said it is ready for the contract to expire, and all countries receiving Russian fuel via the Ukraine route have access to alternative supplies.

Zelenskyy lambasted Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who has warned of the economic hit his country will face if it loses cheap gas from Russia.

"To be honest, during war, it's a bit shameful to talk about money, because we are losing people," Zelenskyy said.

Azerbaijan gas transit scheme

Zelenskyy said he told Fico on Thursday that Ukraine would be open to carrying another country's gas through its infrastructure to reach Europe – but it would need assurances that this was not merely re-labeled Russian fuel.

"We have to know that we will only transit gas if it's not coming from Russia," Zelenskyy said.

Proposals have emerged in recent months over the possible sale or shipment of gas by Azerbaijan using the same infrastructure.

The proposal would see Baku buy gas from Russia and then ship gas across Ukraine and onto the European Union.

Without naming the Caucasus country directly, Zelenskyy ruled out such a scheme on Thursday.

"We don't want to play games. If another country receives gas from Russia and then transits it, it's the same," he said.

The European Union says 69% of Slovakia's gas imports and 60% of Austria's came from Russia in 2023.

Moscow has denounced Ukraine's move to ditch the deal, arguing Kyiv was turning against its European allies.

Speaking at a press conference in Moscow, Russian leader Vladimir Putin said Ukraine was "creating problems for them by cutting supplies of relatively cheap gas."

Russia to 'survive'

Putin said it was now clear that there would be no new gas transit deal with Kyiv, but that Russia would survive.

"We will survive. Gazprom will survive," he said, referring to the Russian energy giant.

Gazprom used to generate huge revenues for the Russian government but has faced financial difficulties since the EU drastically cut its purchases of Russian gas.

Experts quoted by the Russian business daily Vedomosti, estimate the loss of Ukrainian transit routes could cost the company another $5.5 billion a year, or 6% of its revenue.

Soviet and post-Soviet leaders spent half a century from the discovery of major Siberian gas deposits in the years after World War II building up an energy business that linked the Soviet Union and then Russia, with Germany, by far Europe's biggest economy.

At its peak, Russia was supplying 35% of Europe's gas. Since the Ukraine war started in 2022, Gazprom has lost market share to Norway, the United States and Qatar.

Putin said that Western sanctions against Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) were an attempt to shield the West's own suppliers from competition.

Western sanctions were causing problems, he said, but Russia would endure.