With the existing 10-year contract due to expire at the end of this year, Ukrainian negotiators say Russia’s strategy is to spin talks out as long possible.

With the existing 10-year contract due to expire at the end of this year, Ukrainian negotiators say Russia’s strategy is to spin talks out as long possible. Ukraine’s presidential elections in April and European Commission elections in May could win Russia allies. “Gazprom is delaying real talks in terms of transit in order to build Nord Stream 2 and then to have a different negotiating position,” Yuriy Vitrenko, Naftogaz deputy CEO, tells Reuters. “Then they will say, ‘We are okay without any Ukrainian transits at all’.”