As Yushkov explained, Ukraine has now formed "its own kind of exchange", and the country's authorities are trying to create a liberal market model, copying it from the European one.

“But if in Europe there are many manufacturers and suppliers from other countries, and all this is traded on the stock exchange (and these are the very spot markets, that is, the markets for short-term contracts), then in Ukraine, of course, there is no huge pool of suppliers.

Several companies produce gas there, gas is purchased from abroad, but in fact the offer is the same.

Everyone just takes Russian gas, European intermediaries resell it to Ukrainian companies, ”the expert added.

He noted that the current gas production in Ukraine was already partially pumped into underground storage facilities.

At the same time, Yushkov emphasized that all current production cannot be pumped into underground storage facilities, because it is consumed.

“In fact, the entire 2021 year, gas in Europe was expensive, which is why Ukraine did not buy it in large volumes and did not pump it into its underground storage facilities, and was poorly prepared for the heating season,” the specialist explained.

In addition, according to Yushkov, at the beginning of the heating season, Ukraine had 18 billion cubic meters of gas in storage, but in fact, 4 billion of them belong to foreign trading companies that are not going to leave them for the Ukrainian market.

“They pumped it into Ukrainian underground storages in order to get it from Ukrainian underground storages and send it to Europe, sell it and earn money, in the midst of winter, in cold weather, when gas is even more expensive in Europe. the Ukrainian domestic gas market is actually less than 14 billion cubic meters, and this is very little, therefore, indeed, Ukraine has not prepared itself.

Therefore, Tymoshenko, on the one hand, says some half-truth, and, on the other hand, openly manipulates the numbers, they could not get anything from anywhere for a cheap price, ”the interlocutor of RT concluded.

Earlier, Tymoshenko said on the air of the Ukraine 24 TV channel that Ukraine could fill its underground storage facilities with gas purchased at the lowest price, but did not.

In her opinion, these volumes are enough to easily meet the needs until each next heating season.