KIEV, August 1 (RIA Novosti) - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Friday that Kiev and Moscow could find a compromise on gas prices and other controversial issues in bilateral economic cooperation if both sides show enough resolve.
“We can reach a compromise on gas prices, on economic relations, if there is will to find it,” Poroshenko said in an interview with Ukrainian TV channels.
Poroshenko stressed, however, that no compromise is possible on Ukraine’s national interests, territorial integrity and sovereignty.
Following Crimea’s reunification with Russia back in March, Ukraine refused to recognize the move and passed a bill, declaring the republic a temporary occupied territory. Moscow insists that the Crimean peninsula is part of Russia and rejects any possibility for any talks on its status.
Confrontation over Crimea was added to a string of disagreements between the two countries, with a gas dispute, remaining one of the major stumbling blocks in the bilateral relations.
Earlier in June, Russia’s gas giant Gazprom was forced to switch to a prepayment system of gas deliveries to Ukraine over the country’s mounting debt, which reached $4.5 billion at the time the measure was introduced.
Following the move, Ukraine’s Naftogaz filed a lawsuit with Stockholm arbitration court, requesting to review its gas contract with Gazprom. The company in particular is seeking to reduce the price for natural gas and to recover some $6 billion from Gazprom it claims to have overpaid since 2010.
Gazprom in its turn sued Naftogaz at the same Stockholm arbitration court to recover its debt, which according to the recent estimates, reached $5.3 billion.
