Kiev is ready to settle a little less than half of its gas debt obligations to Russian energy company Gazprom by year’s end, the Kremlin said Monday. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Ukraine was ready to pay $1.45 billion of the $3.1 billion owed by the end of the year. The rest of the debt would be settled by March 2015. Novak said the repayment was among the conditions for new gas deliveries to Ukraine. Gazprom this year disrupted gas supplies to Ukraine because of lingering debt issues. Similar rows in 2006 and 2009 left downstream consumers in Europe in the cold for weeks as most of the Russian gas bound for western markets runs through the Soviet-era pipeline network in Ukraine. European, Russian and Ukrainian leaders are […]