Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addresses the Norwegian Parliament, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in Oslo, Norway March 30, 2022. Heiko Junge/NTB/via REUTERS

OSLO, March 30 (Reuters) – Norway and the rest of Europe should close their seaports to Russian ships, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the Norwegian parliament on Wednesday.

“The European Union, and I hope Norway, must ban Russian ships from using European ports for the time being while they blockade our ports,” Zelenskiy said via video link from Ukraine.

He added that Ukraine and Norway, Europe’s second largest gas supplier after Russia, had started talks on supplying 5 billion cubic meters of gas for next winter.

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

“We have already started the dialogue on the supply of around 5 billion m3 for the next heating season. I hope this will be the basis of our long-standing cooperation in this field.”

The Nordic country exported 113.2 billion m3 of gas last year.

Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Gwladys Fouché

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