When Ukraine’s contract to transit gas for its eastern neighbor, with which it is at war, via the Soyuz pipeline comes to an end, Kyiv will be unlikely to renew it.

European Union members at one stage received some 40% of all their gas from Russia. They have agreed to diversify away from Moscow, which has used its monopoly position to bring political pressure upon its customers.

In the case of Slovakia, its dependence on Russian supplies was absolute, and the country also made substantial profits by piping the gas on to other European nations.

“Bratislava is pushing Kyiv to renew the contract with the Russians beyond 2024,” Aura Sabadus of ICIS, an energy pricing service, told TVP World.

“Slovakia has been importing a lot of cheap gas from various routes and there is a strong likelihood that it is of Russian origin."

Referring to reported Slovak attempts this spring to source gas from non-Russian Caspian sea fields, Sabadus said: “This will almost certainly be Russian rather than Azeri gas that they receive.”

“Azerbaijan doesn’t have the volumes to cover this soaring demand, and I doubt Russia will allow [Azerbaijan] to use its infrastructure to transit gas to Ukraine,” said the energy expert.

“Meanwhile, if Poland’s energy companies miss out on the opportunity to sell more gas to Slovakia, they will end up with stranded infrastructure.”

The gas sent by Poland to Slovakia will originate from US shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) received at Lithuania’s port in Klaipeda on the Baltic coast. Orlen’s gas subsidiary PGNiG Supply & Trading will then regasify the raw material at the port and send it on to Slovakia’s second largest gas company, ZSE Energia.

The supplies sent via the Vyrava interconnector will represent about a third of the needs of ZSE, which provides gas to around one million homes in Slovakia, according to its website.