Ukraine has failed to place orders on Russian gas supplies, having paid for it at the end of last week, stated spokesman for the Russian gas monopolist Gazprom Sergey Kuprianov.
As he told Russian agency Interfax, Ukraine continues to take gas from its underground reservoirs, thus, according to him, “increasing the risk of surpassing the maximum in winter.”
Earlier today, energy expert and head of the Kyiv International Energy Club Q-club Oleksandr Todiychuk told Radio Liberty that Ukraine will receive Russian gas from Gazprom on December 10 or 11, as it needs time to prepare for its reception.
In the morning, the Gazprom spokesman already emphasized that Ukraine had failed to place gas orders despite having paid in advance.
Last night in Kyiv, Minister for Energy and Coal Volodymyr Demchyshyn said Ukraine would start pumping the gas it had paid for today.
The day before yesterday Gazprom confirmed the receipt of 378 million USD from Naftogaz Ukrayini, which would pay for 1 billion cubic meters of gas according to the price established beforehand.
In October the companies agreed that in the winter, gas for Ukraine would cost $378 per thousand cubic meters by the end of the year, and $365 in the first quarter of the following year. These conditions are in effect until March 31 of 2015, meanwhile Ukraine has to pay for gas in advance. However, Kyiv has not taken advantage of this opportunity until now, when the cold had set in.
Russia fully suspended its supplies of gas to Ukraine in June.
