The Minister of Energy of Russia, Aleksandr Novak; and of Ukraine Yuri Prodan, will resume the direct contacts, although on this occasion the Vice-President of the European Commission, Gunther Oettinger, will serve as mediator. Less than a week ago in the Italian city of Milan, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian, Petro Petr Poroshenko met with the purpose of seeking alternatives to the gas conflict, and find solutions to the crisis in the former Soviet Union.
We have not been able to find a solution to the gas conflict, there are still many details to discuss, but there was some progress, declared then Petr Poroshenko.
Putin, for his part, appealed to the European Union (EU) to help Ukraine to pay the debt of gas with Russia, in addition to recall that his country is willing to cut up to $385 USD per thousand cubic meters the gas it supplied during the second quarter.
Thus, the indebtedness would decrease from 5.2 billion USD to 4.5 billion, a figure that is still far from the 3.1 billion Kiev would be willing to pay to receive the supply again.
Moscow suspended the fuel service to the neighboring country last June 16, due to the non-payment of the debt owed to the Russian company Gazprom.(kh)
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