KIEV, April 18 (PRIME/RIA Novosti) – Ukraine is currently importing natural gas from Russia, the head of the country's state-run Naftogaz confirmed Friday.
"We are currently importing Russian gas, but it remains on the territory of Ukraine, we are not redirecting it elsewhere," Andriy Kobolev said, without specifying the volume of imports.
Naftogaz began importing reverse gas from Europe through Poland this week after Russia canceled all discounts for the company. Gazprom increased the price of gas for Ukraine in April from $268.50 to $485 per thousand cubic meters.
The total value of gas that Ukraine imported for the first half of April at the new price is approximately $400 million, the deputy head of the Russian National Energy Security Fund, Alexei Grivach, told RIA Novosti.
The possibilities of reverse gas supplies to Ukraine are modest, about 1.5 billion cubic meters per year. To increase the purchase amount Ukraine is trying to negotiate gas imports from Slovakia. Last year, Ukraine imported 28 billion cubic meters of gas.
