"As of January 23, more than 1 billion cu m of Russian gas has been supplied by RosUkrEnergo AG to Ukrainian consumers," said Andrei Knutov, press secretary of RosUkrEnergo, the intermediary firm that transports gas from Turkmenistan to East European countries.
Knutov said the debt owed by UkrGazEnergo, a joint venture between RosUkrEnergo and Ukraine's national oil and gas company Naftogaz, which sells gas in Ukraine, amounts to $719 million.
RosUkrEnergo earlier said it would sell Russian gas to Ukraine in January-March for $314 per 1,000 cu m to cover a shortfall in Central Asian supplies.
In December, Russian energy giant Gazprom and Ukraine agreed that gas for Ukraine to be sold via RosUkrEnergo would cost $179.5 per 1,000 cu m in 2008 and Russia would pay Ukraine $1.7 per 1,000 cu m for the transit of gas per 100 km, up from the previous $1.6.
Previously, RosUkrEnergo supplied a mixture of Russian and cheaper Central Asian gas, but in 2007 it switched to Turkmen gas.
Ukraine's new government is seeking to review its existing gas agreements with Russia. Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has pledged to remove intermediary firms from the country's gas market, saying Gazprom could deal directly with Naftogaz.
Russia's ex-Soviet neighbor has also planned to raise its transit fee to over $9.
The bulk of Russia's gas supplies to the European Union, which account for one quarter of the bloc's demand, runs through Ukraine. A gas pricing dispute with Ukraine at the start of 2006 prompted Russia to briefly cut off supplies to the country. Europe-bound exports were also affected.
