MOSCOW, June 6 (RIA Novosti) - A new round of trilateral gas talks including Russia, Ukraine and the European Union could be held June 11, a source from the European side told RIA Novosti on Friday.
“A three-party meeting may be held June 11. The final decision will be made Monday or Tuesday,” the source said.
Earlier on Friday, Reuters quoted a government source in Kiev that Russia and Ukraine would resume gas talks on Saturday with certain decisions possible as early as Tuesday.
"The talks will continue on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. We expect to come up with a decision on Tuesday," the source told Reuters adding that Kiev might also make a decision to clear its gas debts for 2013.
The deadline set previously by Russia’s gas giant Gazprom for settling gas disputes expires June 10. If the two parties reach no agreement by this date, Russia will introduce an advance payment system for natural gas supplies to Ukraine starting from June 11.
Earlier this week, Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftogaz following a series of three-party talks started to discuss in a bilateral format a package agreement, which aims to tackle both the debt issue and the gas price.
Currently Kiev owns Russia about $1.5 billion dollars for November-December deliveries which sold at the old price of $268 per 1,000 cubic meters.
Russia has not received any payments for April-May deliveries at the current price of $485 per 1,000 cubic meters estimated at $3 billion.
Kiev has recently paid Gazprom $786.4 million for gas deliveries in February and March, which, according to Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan, was the only undisputed part of arrears.
