BERLIN, September 26 (RIA Novosti) – A tripartite meeting at the ministerial level among Russia, Ukraine and the European Union on gas issues will be held Friday in Berlin.
The talks will take place ahead of the approaching winter season and amid a lack of supply of Russian gas to Ukraine. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, his Ukrainian counterpart Yuri Prodan and European Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger will participate in the upcoming talks. This meeting has been planned since the end of July.
The conditions for the resumption of Russian gas supplies to Ukraine are the agreement on the price of gas and for Ukraine to begin paying off its debt for gas deliveries to Russia. Ukraine, however, does not agree with the price of gas and has not paid for gas it consumed in the first half of 2014.
Moscow introduced a prepayment system of gas deliveries to Ukraine in June due to its $5.3 billion debt. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev stressed that Russia would only agree to a temporary price of $385 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas for the period of negotiations between Russia's Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz, and would resume cooperation on the issue only after the debt is paid.
Ukraine is not only a consumer, but also a major transit country for Russian gas supplies to Europe.
