Neither Kyiv nor Brussels expected Moscow's sharp reaction to declaration on modernizing Ukraine's GTS
Kyiv, March 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The subject of modernizing the Ukrainian gas transit system (GTS) has again unleashed a "gas war" between Moscow and Kyiv, Ukrainian experts believe.
Director of the Penta Center for Applied Political Studies Volodymyr Fesenko said at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Thursday that the joint declaration on the modernization of Ukraine's gas transit system signed in Brussels on March 23 had unleased a "a new gas war, this time an information and political war."
He said that neither Europe nor Ukraine had expected such a stiff and sharp reaction from Moscow to the document signed in Brussels.
"This is only a declaration, only the first step. There are still no specific agreements that have to be implemented," Fesenko said.
He said it was still uncertain why Moscow had objected so strongly to the declaration.
"In my opinion, Brussels and Kyiv will definitely respond to such a strict position of Moscow. I think there will be a search for a certain compromise – the return of Moscow to the negotiating process and the consideration of the problem of Russian gas transit to Europe in a trilateral format," Fesenko said.
Director of the Institute for Political and Conflict Studies Mykhailo Pohrebynsky, in turn, said that the declaration signed in Brussels "gives grounds for Moscow to be nervous."
"Ukraine is deliberately refusing [to acknowledge] the subjectivity of a player on the Eurasian energy market," he said.
He also expressed doubt that the agreement reached in Brussels would be implemented. However, he said, if it happens, the implementation of the project on the GTS modernization could become the first step of Ukraine's partial integration into the European Union.
"Ukraine is failing to integrate with Europe. So, let us integrate at least its gas transportation system with Europe," Pohrebynsky said.