Ukraine hopes to buy gas from Europe to shore up its energy security,
fearful Russia will cut gas supplies over Kiev's refusal to pay Moscow's
'political, uneconomic price' for supplies, its energy minister said on Friday.
Yuri Prodan told parliament the European Union would stand in
solidarity with Ukraine if Russia reduced supplies, making sure Moscow could not
increase flows through alternative pipelines to bypass its former Soviet
neighbour.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned European leaders on Thursday
that gas supplies to Europe could be disrupted by Ukraine's failure to pay its
gas bills, a move Washington said was using energy 'as a tool of coercion'.
"Ukraine cannot pay such a political, uneconomic price, so now we
are negotiating with the European Union about reverse deliveries into
Ukraine," Prodan said.
"We will make gas purchases from reverse flows urgently. On the
conditions offered by European gas companies. We plan that they will be
Germany's RWE and a French gas company."
The ministry's spokeswoman confirmed the French company was GDF Suez,
adding no agreement had been signed as yet.
Russia has nearly doubled the gas price it charges Ukraine, punishing
an economy that for years was mismanaged by pro-Moscow President Viktor
Yanukovich and has been in freefall since he was toppled in violent protests.
Kiev's new leaders accuse Moscow of using gas as a way of punishing
them for pursuing closer ties with the EU, and the standoff has deepened the
worst East-West crisis since the end of the Cold war in 1991.
Ukraine has vowed to look elsewhere for gas, but Russian state gas
company Gazprom has questioned the legality of reversing flows so that Europe
can export it to Ukraine.
Prodan said Ukraine could get small amounts of gas from Poland and
Hungary, and a bigger volume from Slovakia, but there were 'political
questions' to be solved.
Slovakia has called for talks with Ukraine, Russia and the European
Commission, the EU executive, to ensure it can export gas to Ukraine without
violating existing contracts.
Russia, Ukraine, the EU and the United States are due to meet in Geneva
on Thursday to talk about the Ukraine crisis.
Prodan also said Ukraine would turn to an arbitration tribunal in
Stockholm to try to cancel a deal struck with Russia in 2009, when Kiev agreed
an inflated price.
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