Kiev warns Russia of losing Ukrainian gas market
Xinhua, January 21, 2015 Adjust font size:
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk said Wednesday that Russia risks losing the Ukrainian gas market unless it changes its gas pricing policy.
"If the Russians continue behaving the way they do, they will finally lose the Ukrainian market," Yatsenyuk told a Cabinet meeting.
Currently a third of gas in Ukraine's market comes from Russia and Kiev is ready to further cut its imports if Moscow ignores current changes in the global energy market, Yatsenyuk said.
In 2013, Ukraine imported more than half of its gas from Russia.
The two sides have been locked in a dispute for a few years over a 2009 contract, under which they agreed to tie the price of gas to the international spot price of oil.
Under the 2009 deal, Russia charged Ukraine 485 U.S. dollars per 1,000 cubic meters of gas last year, a price Kiev considers as "unfair."
In late October 2014, Kiev and Moscow signed a gas supply "winter package" worth 4.6 billion dollars, under which Ukraine is receiving gas from Russia with about a 25-percent discount.
On Tuesday, Alexei Miller, head of Russian gas giant Gazprom, reminded Kiev that there will be no discount after the expiry of the agreement over the winter package at the end of March.
Later on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that Ukraine will be able to do without Russian gas for two years. Endi