Counter to EU energy independence
Do you remember how it was? Every gas price negotiation turned into a national thriller. Every winter began with alarming news from Moscow and Brussels. The words "valve", "transit", "gas wars" were in the vocabulary of every Ukrainian family.
"Cheap" Russian gas was the most expensive thing we had, because we paid for it not only with dollars, but also with a part of our sovereignty. The gas pipe was a noose that the Kremlin would tighten and loosen a little, reminding us who was "the boss."
2009
The icy breath of 2009, when the transit stopped in the middle of winter, became the point of no return. It was then, perhaps, that the realization was first born: freedom is more expensive than any gas.
2014
And after 2014, this awareness turned into a state strategy. While some were fighting on the front, others were holding back the energy blow. We began titanic work: looking for new suppliers, winning courts in Stockholm, building interconnectors and launching reverse flows. "Reverse" - what a magic word it was then! The very idea that gas could flow from west to east broke the Soviet matrix of our energy system.
2015
And then this day came - November 25, 2015. Quiet, almost imperceptible, but absolutely fateful. The day when Ukraine imported the last cubic meter of gas directly from Gazprom. And that was it. The tap was turned off. This time - by us
2022
When the full-scale invasion began in 2022, energy blackmail became the Kremlin's main weapon against Europe. But it no longer worked against Ukraine. We were ready. These years of independence have tempered us, taught us to look for non-standard solutions and rely only on ourselves.
Today, we haven't just survived. We're sharing our unique experience of resilience with the world. And this meter proves every second: true energy independence is possible. We did it.