Ukraine willing to preserve gas transit deal with Russian company

KIEV, March 5 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine's state-run energy company Naftogaz said on Monday it is interested in preserving its gas transit deal with Russian gas giant Gazprom.

"For us, it is very important to preserve the transit through the Ukrainian territory...We do not yet see any grounds for breaking the transit contract," Yuriy Vitrenko, Naftogaz chief commercial officer, told reporters during a press conference in Kiev.

Naftogaz has already received an official notice from Gazprom on its intention to terminate or revise gas deals with Ukraine in the arbitration court in Sweden's Stockholm, Vitrenko said.

In 2009, Ukraine and Russia signed two separate agreements on the supplies of Russian gas to Ukraine and on its transit to Europe via the Ukrainian territory. Both deals expire in 2019.

Last week, Gazprom announced the plans to terminate both -- the gas supply and the gas transit contracts with Ukraine at the Stockholm tribunal. Enditem