MOSCOW, October 30 (RIA Novosti) – A final agreement on the supply of Russian gas to Ukraine could be reached Thursday if all the necessary documents are finalized, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said at a cabinet meeting Thursday.
"From our perspective, with the will of the Ukrainian side and provided that all the documents that I was talking about are finalized, final agreements could be reached in the near future and documents could be signed. We agreed that it would be possible to do that today, if all the documents are finalized and are ready to be signed today," Novak said after returning from gas talks in Brussels on Wednesday evening.
Responding to Novak, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev expressed hope that the trilateral gas talks between Russia, Ukraine and the European Union will end successfully.
"I hope that with active participation of our European partners you will be able to reach a final agreement, because it is in the interests of Ukraine, in the interests of Europe's gas supply, especially considering the fact that the winter season is here," Medvedev said.
Novak added that Russia, Ukraine and the European Union were able to reach basic agreements on the renewal of gas deliveries to Ukraine during trilateral talks in Brussels.
"Basic conditions were reached in order to renew the conditions for delivering gas to Ukraine during the winter period," Novak said during a Cabinet meeting after returning from the talks in Brussels.
The trilateral gas talks were adjourned after running late into the night. It is expected that the meeting will continue on Thursday evening. Russian negotiators said that the final gas deal will be signed only if Ukraine and the European Union reach a bilateral agreement that includes the union's financial guarantees to Kiev for gas payments to Russia.
The gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine became especially acute when Gazprom switched Kiev to a prepayment system for supplies in June over its gas debt of more than $5 billion.
In September, Russia and the European Commission proposed the so-called winter package, according to which Ukraine should pay $3.1 billion of its debt to Russia by the end of the year in exchange for gas deliveries during the winter period.
Following trilateral Russia-Ukraine-EU talks in Brussels on October 21, Ukraine agreed to a temporary price of $385 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas during the winter months.
