Energy Minister of Ukraine Herman Haluschenko is confident that the coming winter will be the last time Russia will be able to use gas blackmail in relation to the countries of the European Union.

He expressed this opinion in Brussels on Tuesday before participating in an informal lunch with EU energy ministers, which will be held on the sidelines of an extraordinary meeting of the EU Energy Council.

"The main goal is to stop receiving gas from Russia. I think this is the last winter when Russia will be able to put pressure on the EU using gas. I am sure about that. Surely, it takes time to diversify supplies, and, of course, there are a number of issues. But what we see and what we have already faced is an achievable goal, and we can achieve this together," he said.

The Ukrainian minister noted the importance of getting rid of dependence on Russian gas supplies "as soon as possible." Any decision must be made quickly – we do not have time to think. Another important issue is solidarity in the EU. The main goal for the Russians is to divide us, to try to influence individual countries. We know that our main task is to be in solidarity, to be united in the EU. And Ukraine is an important part of that. Thanks to this solidarity, we will win this war, we will win this energy war with Russia," Galuschenko said.

According to the energy department's head, the EU and Ukraine are facing "the most difficult energy crisis in recent decades." At the same time, he referred to "the repeated experience of Ukraine, when Russia stopped gas supplies in the middle of winter, but we were able to survive it." "I want to share this experience," he said.

Haluschenko also said Russia started an energy war even before Russia's direct invasion of Ukraine started. "Last autumn, they already began to reduce the volume of gas supplied through the Ukrainian gas transportation system. We saw a gradual decline from 70 to 60 to 40. But on the first day of the war, they increased the volume to a maximum level of 109. I think that what they are trying to show is that, like, "this is a war, but do not worry, you will have gas. But when they saw that it did not work, since all countries were united in supporting Ukraine, they again reduced the volumes," the minister said.

He called "important" the agreements reached in Brussels on Tuesday to reduce EU gas consumption by 15%. "The decision to reduce gas consumption is very important. This is exactly what we faced before the war started. The sanctions are working. What we are seeing now is Russia's attempts to manipulate this issue by claiming that sanctions are not effective. But this is not true. We need sanctions, and the level of sanctions should be increased," Haluschenko said.

The minister also said Ukraine can already export electricity to the EU up to 1.5 gigawatts, which "will allow the EU not to buy up to 5 billion cubic meters of Russian gas."