Ukraine on Friday said it plans to buy future gas supplies from France and Germany as fears mount that Russia may reduce, or even cut, gas flow to the former Soviet state to punish it for seeking closer ties with the West.

Advertising Read more

Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuri Prodan told lawmakers in Kiev that 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 the country.

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 called 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,” the energy minister said.

“We will make gas purchases from reverse flows urgently," Prodan told his parliament. "On the conditions offered by European gas companies. We plan that they will be Germany’s RWE and a French gas company,” he said, in remarks many took as a reference to France’s GDF Suez.

Gas price nearly doubled



Russia has in recent weeks 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.

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 to an inflated price.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)



Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning Subscribe