Europe must shut ports to Russian ships, Ukraine president tells Norwegian parliament

Norway and the rest of Europe should close their sea ports to Russian ships, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Norwegian parliament on Wednesday.

“The European Union, and I do hope so Norway, need to introduce the ban on Russian vessels to use European ports for the time being while they are blocking our ports,” Zelenskyy said via video link from Ukraine.

He added that Ukraine and Norway, Europe’s second-largest gas supplier after Russia, had started talks over the supply of five billion cubic meters gas for next winter.

“You can make a decisive contribution to the energy security of Europe by providing the necessary resources both to the countries of the European Union and to Ukraine,” he said.

“We have already started the dialogue on the supply of about five bcm for the next heating season. I do hope this will be the basis for our long-time cooperation in this area.”

The Nordic country exported 113.2 bcm of gas last year.