When the target moved to gas

Ukraine produces a large share of the gas it consumes domestically, and holds Europe's largest underground storage capacity. Both became targets, and the winter of 2025 was shaped by that.

Why gas matters differently from electricity

Gas heats homes and feeds the combined plants that produce both heat and power for cities. A shortfall does not just dim lights; it cools apartment buildings in February, which is a far harder problem to manage.

Gas also cannot be improvised. You cannot install a distributed alternative in a season the way you can with electricity generation.

What the response involved

Repair of damaged production and compression facilities, which is specialised work with long equipment lead times.

Imports through interconnections with neighbouring European countries, using routes and commercial arrangements built up over the preceding decade — reverse flow capacity that was created for exactly this kind of contingency, though not this scenario.

And financing, since importing replacement volumes at market prices is expensive and the budget was not built for it.

The underlying point

Every element of the response depended on integration with the European gas market: physical interconnection, harmonised trading rules, and storage that European traders already use. That integration was built for commercial reasons years earlier and turned out to be a security asset.