Updated 2:10 p.m. Moscow Time
KIEV, October 6 (RIA Novosti) – Russia, Ukraine and the European Union may hold another round of gas talks next week, Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan said Monday.
“During the coming week, the commission plans to coordinate and integrate various proposals on the protocol from the Russian and Ukrainian sides and, possibly, the meeting will take place in a week,” he said.
The minister said the meeting will take place either in Brussels or Berlin.
Both sides have spent the last few days negotiating the date of the next meeting, as Kiev is unhappy with a package proposed by Moscow and the European Commission during a ministerial gas meeting late September in Berlin on natural gas deliveries from Russia to Ukraine during the winter.
According to the plan, Ukraine would have to repay at least $3.1 billion of its gas debt to Russia and pay in advance for the delivery of five billion cubic meters of gas at a price of $385 per 1,000 cubic meters, with a discount of $100.
Kiev has rejected Moscow's offer of a discount in the form of an export-duty exemption and wants the contract price to be reduced instead.
In June, Russia's gas giant Gazprom was forced to introduce a prepayment system for gas deliveries to Ukraine due to Kiev's massive debt which is currently estimated at $5.3 billion.
