Russia’s energy ministry said Monday that Ukrainian gas company OAO Naftogaz won’t have to make advance payments for unauthorized gas deliveries to rebel-held regions in eastern Ukraine. Recent deliveries by Russia’s OAO Gazprom to the Donetsk and Luhansk regions will be “taken out of the equation” when calculating prepayments for Naftogaz, the ministry tweeted from its verified Twitter account. “This will be a matter of a separate reconciliation and separate negotiations,” the ministry added. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak was in Brussels Monday for European Union-mediated talks with his Ukrainian counterpart. The talks followed complaints from Naftogaz that Gazprom had been supplying gas to rebel-held regions in eastern Ukraine and had reduced deliveries to the rest of the country. Russia has been backing the rebels. Naftogaz claimed that Gazprom was in breach of a supply deal between the […]