MOSCOW, January 27 (RIA Novosti) - Russian energy giant Gazprom said Friday that Ukraine had used about 400 million cu m of Russian natural gas above the agreed levels in the last five days.
"Unfortunately, the situation with Ukraine's gas tapping above contract levels remains the same," said Sergei Kupriyanov, Gazprom's spokesman.
"The [tapping] volumes are very large and can be, probably, compared to what we supply to Germany in three days," Kupriyanov told the Rossiya television channel.
Gazprom said earlier that Ukraine had already exceeded its January gas quota by tapping. "Ukraine has siphoned the equivalent of its entire January quota," Kupriyanov said Wednesday.
"The gas that we are currently supplying to Ukraine is meant for European consumers, but it is not even reaching the Ukrainian border [with Europe]," he said.
"We are now providing more natural gas for all our consumers both in Russia and abroad, and we are not going to put up with Ukraine using the gas meant for European customers," Kupriyanov said.
