Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticized Ukraine for no longer allowing his country’s natural gas exports to transit to Western Europe starting next year.

In addition to harming its EU neighbors, Ukraine continues to receive around $700 million a year for transit, Putin pointed out at his annual press conference in Moscow on Thursday.

“Ukraine cuts our gas supply to European consumers,” Putin said.

This cut mainly concerns customers in Central and Eastern Europe such as Hungary and Slovakia, but also Moldova.

Ukraine, which has been battling a large-scale Russian invasion for almost three years, has until now been transporting Russian gas through its pipelines, but will let the contract with Russian gas company Gazprom expire at the beginning of 2025.

“This contract no longer exists, that’s clear, but we will survive it, Gazprom will survive it,” Putin said.

He also accused Western countries of wanting to suppress exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from northern Russia. Russia will, however, increase its market share, Putin said.