European gas prices are at 13-year highs,

but Gazprom is only using 27% of Ukraine’s pipeline capacity, Serhiy Makogon, the General Director of GTS Ukraine Operator, tells the pipeline company’s press service. The strategy of spurning 100 billion cubic meters of idle East-West capacity, he says, is “to sell the commissioning of Nord Stream 2 as soon as possible…Gazprom can use our system, but does not do so, and thus stimulates further growth in gas prices in Europe.”