{"id":1303534,"date":"2025-10-08T18:30:59","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T15:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/populism-instead-of-the-gas-market-will-we-freeze-in-winter\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T09:32:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T06:32:16","slug":"populism-instead-of-the-gas-market-will-we-freeze-in-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/populism-instead-of-the-gas-market-will-we-freeze-in-winter\/","title":{"rendered":"Populism Over Policy: Is Ukraine Trading Heat for Headlines This Winter?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: Author’s Facebook<\/a> page<\/em><\/p>\n

As winter approaches, the question is no longer rhetorical: will we all freeze?<\/em> Moscow is doing everything possible to make it happen \u2014 and yet, instead of taking steps to prevent this scenario, Ukraine\u2019s leadership seems to be moving dangerously closer to it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In return\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Victory! Gas prices are frozen. The happiness of populism is sweeping across the country.<\/p>\n

But what actually happened? Russia has been attacking Ukraine\u2019s gas infrastructure all year \u2014 and has intensified those strikes in recent weeks. Such assaults could not have gone without consequences.<\/p>\n

As a result, domestic gas production will fall short.<\/strong> And not by a small margin. Nor will the reserves in storage be enough to offset the deficit. At this point, one might offer a \u201csincere thank-you\u201d to Mr. Chernyshov and his team, who proudly reported record financial results<\/em> for Naftogaz last year \u2014 achieved, ironically, by selling gas that couldn\u2019t be sold.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s aggressive injection campaign \u2014 and the active courting of partners\u2019 funds to support it \u2014 has restored a certain level of reserves<\/strong>, but nothing more.<\/p>\n

So, the Russians have achieved their goal: Ukraine will face a gas shortage<\/strong>. Does it sound familiar? Indeed, it\u2019s reminiscent of 2022, when Russian strikes targeted fuel depots<\/strong>. Queues, shortages \u2014 all of it. And back then, too, the government entered the crisis with fixed fuel prices<\/strong>. The shortage lasted until that disastrous policy was finally scrapped.<\/p>\n\t\t