In a bid to further wean itself off Russian gas

dependency, Ukraine on April 28 signed a memorandum with Slovakia for the

supply of up to 8 billion cubic meters a year.

Signed in Bratislava, Slovakia, the deal

represents about a quarter of what Ukraine imports from Russia, which

constantly uses the supply of blue fuel as a geopolitical took against Ukraine,

its former colony and Soviet republic that was ruled from Moscow for 70 years.