So now that they have it, what does that mean?
Do they set up the whole thing to be destroyed so it would take years or longer to repair and use that as a threat against Russia attempting to take it back?
And then use that as leverage moving forward?
If they wanted to destroy it, they could have done so with artillery at any time since the Russians were pushed back from Kharkiv.
So if they aren’t going to leverage destroying it, what do you think they can get from it?
Ukraine: [looks at the completely open valves pumping gas full rate to Europe] “Can we launch long range strikes into Russia”
Europe: “No, we don’t want to upset the orcs”
Ukraine: [turns the valve once] “are you sure?..”
Europe: [sweating intensifies]
Is there any way to divert the fuel to be used in Ukraine?
The Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine recently reported that the transit of Russian through the Ukrainian gas transportation system is currently operating as usual.
Huh, so even with Russia having invaded Ukraine, Ukraine is still allowing Russian gas to flow through Ukraine to the EU? Must be in order to not upset the EU countries that are still getting Russian gas piped to them?
Oh that’s interesting. I bet there’s a way to get fuel out from there and you could start collecting it and sending it back.
It is the type of infrastructure Russia can not just bomb or shell. That makes it a good defensive position.
Other then that the pipelines continue to Europe via Ukraine. So shutting it down was easy to do for Ukraine before the war. However Ukraine has no interesst in destroying that pipeline as Ukraine has gas reserves in the regions of Ukraine Russia is currently occupying. Having a pipeline to Europe is usefull to transport that gas as well. So Ukraine does not care that much about blowing it up. Obviously if they do, the Russians have no problem shelling them, so they will not do that.
Btw it currently looks like Ukraine is moving to the Kursk nuclear power plant. That has a similar maybe even worse problem for Russia. Especially since two of the reactors are of the same type, which blew up in Chornobyl. Intresstingly there is a cut power line going from the power plant to Ukraine. Having 3GW of unbombable nuclear would be very nice for Ukraine.
