OREANDA-NEWS. The Ukrainian gas transmission system for the first time began to receive gas from Hungary through physical, rather than virtual, reverse. This was announced on Tuesday, February 1, by the head of the company "GTS Operator of Ukraine" Serhiy Makogon.

“Today, for the first time in history, the physical import of gas from Hungary to Ukraine began. Previously, the GTS system could only work in the direction from Ukraine to Hungary,” Makogon wrote on Facebook.

According to him, such an event became possible after technical measures on the pipeline.

As Strana.ua notes, earlier Ukraine received gas from Hungary only through a virtual reverse, that is, under contracts, gas is Hungarian, but in fact it is Russian fuel, which was taken from the volumes intended for transit to Hungary.

The publication believes that the beginning of the physical reverse indicates that Kiev is working out schemes for purchasing gas in the event of a stop in transit from the Russian Federation. In this case, Ukraine will buy all the same Russian gas, but through intermediaries represented by Slovakia and Hungary.

Earlier, on January 22, Makogon said that the GTS operators of Ukraine and Hungary signed an agreement on guaranteed capacities for transporting up to 8 million cubic meters per day. m of gas from Hungary to Ukraine. According to him, the agreement will provide an opportunity to increase the total capacity for imports to 35 million cubic meters. m per day.

At the same time, the press service of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on January 31 announced that the country's government would allocate £88 million (about $118 million) to Ukraine to support "energy independence". It was noted that several funds, in particular the British Good Governance Fund, will help reduce Ukraine's dependence on Russian energy supplies.