The United States plans to take control of the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine: Reuters
The United States of America, as part of the new version of the subsoil agreement, put forward a proposal that provides for the establishment of control over the gas pipeline that transports Russian gas to the European Union through the territory of Ukraine. About this informs Reuters with reference to its own sources.
According to the agency’s sources, the document contains a demand for the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) of the US government to take control of this transit route, which is still associated with Gazprom, despite the fact that no part of the Ukrainian gas transportation system is owned by the Russian company.
It is worth reminding that a number of key gas routes pass through Ukraine – in particular, the Soyuz, Progress and Urengoy-Pomari-Uzhgorod highways. All of them are under the management of the state enterprise “GTS Operator of Ukraine” and are the exclusive property of the Ukrainian state. None of them is controlled or owned by Gazprom, which makes the provisions of the agreement exclusively politically motivated and raises questions about the legal and economic validity of such claims.
In addition, the mentioned agreement causes serious concern due to the scale of the envisaged powers of the American side in the management of Ukraine’s natural resources. The document has a volume of 58 pages and is no longer a declarative memorandum, as it was after the high-profile meeting in the White House. It has legal force and includes provisions that can significantly limit the economic sovereignty of Ukraine.
Among the key provisions of the agreement is the creation of a project management structure where three of the five management members will be US representatives, who will have veto power. The agreement covers the entire range of minerals on Ukrainian territory — from oil and gas to other resources, both already explored and potentially new. Mining is allowed for both state and private companies. Profits received in the process of mining will be automatically converted into currency and have the possibility of withdrawal abroad. In the case of delayed payments on the part of Ukraine, mandatory additional payments are provided.
Particular criticism is caused by the point that the USA will receive royalties first after Ukraine — in the amount of 4%. In addition, the agreement is open-ended: any changes to it can be made only with the permission of the American side. The US also gets the exclusive right to participate in new infrastructure projects — the so-called “right of the first night” — and has the right to block the sale of Ukrainian resources to third countries.
The biggest concern is the lack of any provisions in the agreement regarding security guarantees for Ukraine. Despite the fact that the agreement actually gives the American side the leverage of control over critical resources and infrastructure, no clear mechanisms are provided for the protection of Ukrainian interests in the event of force majeure or escalation of military aggression.
At the moment, the Ukrainian delegation, accompanied by lawyers from a leading international law firm, is in the USA. Its purpose is to convince the American side to revise the most controversial provisions of the document. The Ukrainian authorities insist on changing approaches to the settlement of the agreement and eliminating elements that can cause irreparable damage to national interests.
