Naftogaz Ukrainy will begin to reduce deliveries of natural gas to 11 oblasts as of February 13, although it failed to include on its “victim list” the three eastern oblasts that it had earlier fingered as the biggest deadbeats: Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv Oblasts.

NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy, the state energy monopolist, issued a statement on February 13 that it was restricting gas deliveries in 11 oblasts to the “technical minimum.” The list includes such debtor oblasts as Lviv, Volyn, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Kherson, Sumy, Odesa, and Kirovohrad. Yet a month ago, January 4, Naftogaz had published an official notice that the oblasts with the largest number of deadbeat residential consumers were Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv Oblasts, and the City of Kyiv. Later, this announcement was removed from the state company’s site, but some media outlets managed to reprint it anyway (see image). For instance, it can still be…