Ukraine’s allies warn Europe against returning to Russian gas as part of a peace deal
A chimney and pipes at the BKM Nonprofit Fotav Zrt power plant in Budapest, Hungary, on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Ukraine’s closest allies have warned against the European Union reopening Russian gas pipelines as part of a potential peace settlement, with one Baltic nation describing the prospect as “not a good solution in any way.”
It comes shortly after the Financial Times reported that EU officials were considering whether to restore gas flows from Russia to Europe as part of a settlement to end the Kremlin’s years-long Ukraine war.
The report, which was published on Jan. 30 and cited unnamed sources familiar with discussions, said the idea had been endorsed by some EU officials as one way of lowering regional energy costs.
Estonia, a NATO member which shares a 294-kilometer (183 miles) border with Russia, is among those calling on the 27-nation bloc not to reopen Russian gas pipelines.
The Eastern European country said the EU must not allow itself to become dependent on Russian energy as part of a Ukraine peace settlement, noting that restoring gas flows would be inconsistent with the bloc’s goal of phasing out Russian fossil fuel imports by 2027.
“We have seen in history that Russia has used energy as a weapon. Russia has repeatedly demonstrated this — and so, going back is not a good solution in any way,” Kadri Elias-Hindoalla, director of Estonia’s foreign affairs’ sanctions and strategic goods department, told CNBC via video call.
In this pool photograph distributed by Russian state owned agency Sputnik, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting regarding the situation in the Kursk region, in his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo outside Moscow, on August 12, 2024.
Gavriil Grigorov | Afp | Getty Images
Europe should have learned its lesson when Russian forces invaded Georgia in 2008, Estonia’s Elias-Hindoalla said, adding that the Ukraine war has since reaffirmed the importance of finding alternative suppliers and improving the bloc’s energy independence.
“Our position is very clear: We should maximize sanctions and limit Russia’s energy imports as much as possible,” Elias-Hindoalla said.
The foreign ministries of Russia and Ukraine did not respond when contacted by CNBC for comment.
For its part, the European Commission said it is “not making any links” between the reopening of Russian gas and Ukraine peace talks. The European Commission is the EU’s executive arm.
“Whenever we have such talks, when that moment comes, it will be with Ukraine and we do not confirm any links reported in the article … about any links between the transit of gas through Ukraine and any peace talks,” EU spokesperson Paula Pinho said in a press briefing on Thursday.
The EU’s plan, Pinho said, remains to stick to the gradual phasing out of Russian gas. The bloc adopted a 15th package of sanctions against Russia late last year, seeking to further weaken Russia’s military and industrial capabilities.
‘One of the worst ideas in the history of the world’
Lithuania, which was occupied by the Soviet Union until 1990, has said that securing an end to the fighting in Ukraine must take place with Kyiv’s full involvement.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy underlined this message in an interview with The Associated Press earlier this month, warning it would be “very dangerous” to exclude Kyiv from talks between the U.S. and Russia about how to end the invasion.
Speaking during a virtual appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Jan. 23 that he would like to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin “soon” to find a way to end the Ukraine war.
Former Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said the prospect of peace through dependence on Russian gas was “demonstrably one of the worst ideas in the history of the world.”
“The suggestion to reinstate this disastrous policy is nothing more than spitting on the graves of its innocent victims,” Landsbergis said in social media post on Jan. 30.
Even in the event of an end to the Ukraine war, Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nausėda has warned that his country’s geographical position could make it vulnerable to a broader conflict. The country of 2.8 million borders Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave to the west and Moscow’s ally of Belarus to the east.
Europe’s gas supply shift
Russian gas exports to Europe via Ukraine came to halt at the start of 2025, marking the end of Moscow’s decades-long dominance over the region’s energy markets.
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy said at the time that the end of Russian gas transit through his country to Europe represented “one of Moscow’s biggest defeats” and called on the U.S. to supply more gas to the region.
Russia, meanwhile, warned that EU countries would likely suffer the most from the supply shift. Moscow is still able to send gas via the TurkStream pipeline, which links Russia with Hungary, Serbia and Turkey.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky delivers a speech during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on January 21, 2025.
Fabrice Coffrini | Afp | Getty Images
Poland, a staunch Ukraine ally and another European country that shares a border with Russia’s Kaliningrad, has also urged EU countries not to reopen Russian gas flows.
“I can only hope that European leaders will learn lessons from Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and that they will push through a decision to never restore the pumping of gas through this pipeline,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said in an interview with the BBC last month.
His comments referred to the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, which connects Russia and northern Germany via the Baltic Sea.
According to a Tesla Semi customer, the electric truck program is suffering more delays and a price increase that is described as “dramatic.”
Tesla Semi has seen many delays, more than any other vehicle program at Tesla.
It was initially unveiled in 2017, and CEO Elon Musk claimed that it would go into production in 2019.
In late 2022, Tesla held an event where it unveiled the “production version” of the Tesla Semi and delivered the first few units to a “customer-partner”: PepsiCo.
More than 3 years later, the vehicle never went into volume production. Instead, Tesla only ran a very low volume pilot production at a factory in Nevada and only delivered a few dozen trucks to customers as part of test programs.
But Tesla promised that things would finally happen for the Tesla Semi this year.
Tesla has been building a new high-volume production factory specifically for the Tesla Semi program in a new building next to Gigafactory Nevada.
The goal was to start production in 2025, start customer deliveries, and ramp up to 50,000 trucks yearly.
Now, Ryder, a large transportation company and early customer-partner in Tesla’s semi truck program, is talking about further delays. The company also refers to a significant price increase.
California’s Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee (MSRC) awarded Ryder funding for a project to deploy Tesla Semi trucks and Megachargers at two of its facilities in the state.
Ryder had previously asked for extensions amid the delays in the Tesla Semi program.
In a new letter sent to MSRC last week and obtained by Electrek, Ryder asked the agency for another 28-month delay. The letter references delays in “Tesla product design, vehicle production” and it mentions “dramatic changes to the Tesla product economics”:
This extension is needed due to delays in Tesla product design, vehicle production and dramatic changes to the Tesla product economics. These delays have caused us to reevaluate the current Ryder fleet in the area.
The logistics company now says it plans to “deploy 18 Tesla Semi vehicles by June 2026.”
The reference to “dramatic changes to the Tesla product economics” points to a significant price increase for the Tesla Semi, which further communication with MSRC confirms.
In the agenda of a meeting to discuss the extension and changes to the project yesterday, MSRC confirms that the project went from 42 to 18 Tesla Semi trucks while the project commitment is not changing:
Ryder has indicated that their electric tractor manufacturer partner, Tesla, has experienced continued delays in product design and production. There have also been dramatic changes to the product economics. Ryder requests to reduce the number of vehicles from 42 to 18, stating that this would maintain their $7.5 million private match commitment.
In addition to the electric trucks, the project originally involved installing two integrated power centers and four Tesla Megachargers, split between two locations. Ryder is also looking to now install 3 Megachargers per location for a total of 6 instead of 4.
The project changes also mention that “Ryder states that Tesla now requires 600kW chargers rather than the 750kW units originally engineered.”
Tesla Semi Price
When originally unveiling the Tesla Semi in 2017, the automaker mentioned prices of $150,000 for a 300-mile range truck and $180,000 for the 500-mile version. Tesla also took orders for a “Founder’s Series Semi” at $200,000.
However, Tesla didn’t update the prices when launching the “production version” of the truck in late 2023. Price increases have been speculated, but the company has never confirmed them.
New diesel-powered Class 8 semi trucks in the US today often range between $150,000 and $220,000.
The combination of a reasonable purchase price and low operation costs, thanks to cheaper electric rates than diesel, made the Tesla Semi a potentially revolutionary product to reduce the overall costs of operation in trucking while reducing emissions.
However, Ryder now points to a “dramatic” price increase for the Tesla Semi.
What is the cost of a Tesla Semi electric truck now?
Electrek’s Take
As I have often stated, Tesla Semi is the vehicle program I am most excited about at Tesla right now.
If Tesla can produce class 8 trucks capable of moving cargo of similar weight as diesel trucks over 500 miles on a single charge in high volume at a reasonable price point, they have a revolutionary product on their hands.
But the reasonable price part is now being questioned.
After reading the communications between Ryder and MSRC, while not clear, it looks like the program could be interpreted as MSRC covering the costs of installing the charging stations while Ryder committed $7.5 million to buying the trucks.
The math makes sense for the original funding request since $7.5 million divided by 42 trucks results in around $180,000 per truck — what Tesla first quoted for the 500-mile Tesla Semi truck.
Now, with just 18 trucks, it would point to a price of $415,000 per Tesla Semi truck. It’s possible that some of Ryder’s commitment could also go to an increase in Megacharger prices – either per charger or due to the two additional chargers. MSRC said that they don’t give more money when prices go up after an extension.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the 500-mile Tesla Semi ends up costing $350,000 to $400,000.
If that’s the case, Tesla Semi is impressive, but it won’t be the revolutionary product that will change the trucking industry.
It will need to be closer to $250,000-$300,000 to have a significant impact, which is not impossible with higher-volume production but would be difficult.
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