Ukraine to import US liquefied natural gas via Greece

Vital supplies of US liquefied natural gas are due to start flowing into war-ravaged Ukraine this winter via a pipeline across the Balkans.

The deal was announced after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens on Sunday. Greece has been working to increase the flow of American LNG to its terminals to "replace Russian gas in the region", Mitsotakis said recently.

The European Commission plans to ban all imports of Russian gas to EU member states by the end of 2027, arguing that revenue from such sales funds Russia's war in Ukraine.

Zelensky is now in France for talks with President Emmanuel Macron over a major deal on air defence hardware.

Fighting continued overnight, with six people reported killed in Russian attacks in the Kharkiv, Kherson and Donetsk regions of Ukraine.

Russia's military said it had taken control of three more Ukrainian villages - one each in the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

None of the reports could be independently verified.

Speaking earlier in Athens, Zelensky was quoted as saying that deliveries of American LNG would begin in January.

"We rebuild each time the Russians destroy but this truly requires time, much effort, equipment and, regarding gas... imports to compensate for the destruction by the Russians of our own production," he said.

"Greece is becoming an energy security provider for your homeland," Mitsotakis told the Ukrainian president.

According to Reuters news agency, Zelensky said Ukraine had allocated funds for gas imports from European partners and banks under European Commission guarantees, as well as from Ukrainian banks, to help cover imports through to March at a cost of nearly €2bn (£1.8bn; $2.3bn).

Since 2015, when it stopped buying Russian gas directly, Ukraine has been receiving supplies from various EU states.

The Soviet-era Trans-Balkan pipeline links Ukraine to LNG terminals in Greece via Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria.

On Monday, Zelensky met Macron at Villacoublay airbase near Paris where he was to inspect Rafale fighter jets, the SAMP-T air defence system and several drone systems.

He was also due to inspect the nascent headquarters of a planned multinational force that may one day help oversee a Ukraine-Russia ceasefire.

Tens of thousands of people, most of them soldiers, have been killed or injured, and millions of civilians have fled their homes, since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.