Spawning street protests in at least eight regional capitals, the spike in Ukraine’s gas prices stems from: cold weather, high prices in Europe, and a poorly implemented market opening that allows price gouging by suppliers. Ash again: “The Zelenskiy team will argue that this is not aimed as a major reversal in market-based energy pricing, but is a reaction to oligopoly pricing by a few bad actors in the industry. Essentially Naftogaz seems to be selling gas to consumers at UAH7 per kWh, whereas other operators are selling at prices nearer to UAH11-12 per kWh. Naftogaz can do this as it bought gas into storage cheaply and is trying to take market share.”