Category: Ukraine

MOSCOW (AP) — An explosion at a key pipeline in Ukraine has not disrupted the flow of gas to Europe, Russian gas monopoly Gazprom said on Wednesday. The blast, which occurred Tuesday far from where government troops are fighting pro-Russia separatists, came a day after Russia cut gas supplies to Ukraine in a dispute over price and overdue payments. Moscow says it is waiting for Kiev to pay at least $1.9 billion of its $4.5 billion debt before the talks on clearing the debt and agreeing on prices could resume. Gazprom said Monday that it would need to start pumping by mid-October to insure adequate winter supplies for Ukraine. Vitaly Markelov, Gazprom’s deputy chief executive, told reporters on Wednesday that gas flows had not been disrupted and that European customers are receiving the contracted amounts. Markelov refused to speculate on the cause but said poor maintenance of pipelines in […]

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Ukraine will be able to maintain domestic supplies of natural gas and ensure the transit of Russian exports to Europe for at least several months despite Moscow’s move Monday to cut off shipments to Ukraine in a dispute over prices and other contract terms, officials said. "The Ukrainian side has prepared for this eventuality and we are ensuring reliable transit as well as supplies to domestic consumers," Yuriy Prodan, Ukraine’s minister of energy and coal, told a cabinet meeting in Kiev, the Interfax news agency reported. Andriy Koboliv, head of state gas company NAK Naftogaz told the same session that, "We have time to resolve this issue at least until December." Transit volumes to Gazprom’s European customers are flowing normally at 185 million cubic meters a day, he said. The officials noted that Ukraine’s inventories of gas in storage–now nearly 14 billion cubic meters–and imports from […]

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MOSCOW—Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Friday that Moscow has wrecked talks on natural gas supplies and ordered officials to prepare the country for a shutdown of gas deliveries from Russia from Monday. Ukraine’s gas monopoly Naftogaz said earlier Friday that it is ready to repay $1.9 billion in outstanding debt to Russia for gas deliveries if Moscow and Kiev agree on an interim gas price of $326 per 1,000 cubic meters. An official with the Russian Energy Ministry, who asked not to be named, said the ministry was unaware of Ukraine’s willingness to cover the debt or its readiness to agree to a price of $326. If Russia’s gas monopoly Gazprom doesn’t receive the debt repayment by 1000 Moscow time (0600 GMT) Monday, it will halt gas supplies, switching to a prepayment system. Mr. Yatsenyuk claimed that Moscow has deliberately declined to settle the gas dispute with Kiev, […]

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With a payment deadline looming, a Kremlin spokesman said Russia would sit on the sidelines Friday of talks on gas debt issues with Ukraine. Russian, Ukrainian and European Union representatives are working to find a way to settle ongoing gas disputes. Russian energy company Gazprom says Ukraine owes billions of dollars for recent gas deliveries. Debt disputes in 2006 and 2009 resulted in a Gazprom decision to cut gas through Ukraine, which left downstream consumers in Europe short of energy supplies. A spokeswoman for the Russian Energy Ministry told Russian news agency ITAR-TASS no talks were planned before Monday. The report said European Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger had expected to continue trilateral talks by phone. The commissioner said Friday he was hoping for a solution to the crisis before next week. He said much of the situation may depend "on the political decision of the Russian government." Gazprom has […]

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Pro-Russian separatists shot down a Ukrainian army transport plane with an anti-aircraft missile as it came in to land early on Saturday in the eastern city of Luhansk, killing all 49 military personnel on board. The toll is the highest suffered by government forces in a single incident since they launched a military operation to halt the rebellion in east Ukraine against the country’s pro-European leaders in Kiev and to try to prevent the country splitting up. The Defence Ministry said in a statement the Il-76 plane was shot down in a "cynical" attack by rebels using an anti-aircraft weapon and a heavy-caliber machine gun. It gave no death toll but Vladislav Seleznyov, spokesman for the military operation in east Ukraine, said by phone: "Forty-nine people were killed. All were Ukrainian military personnel." The Prosecutor General’s office said nine crew and 40 paratroopers had been […]

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The US claimed on Friday that Russia had supplied tanks and other heavy weapons to separatists in eastern Ukraine and warned of further “costs” to Russia if more weapons crossed the border . More On this story The state department said that in recent days three T-64 tanks, several rocket launchers and a number of other military vehicles had crossed the Russian border into eastern Ukraine . The statement was the most detailed in a series of accusations the US and other countries have made about Russian military assistance to armed groups in Ukraine and could be used as the basis to impose further sanctions on Moscow. “This is unacceptable,” said Marie Harf, spokeswoman for the US state department. “A failure by Russia to de-escalate the situation will lead to additional costs.” The US comments support an almost identical accusation made on Thursday by […]

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Ukraine boosted its gas storage capacity by 7 percent for the week ending June 6 and storage tanks are filled to about 40 percent, data show. Gas storage data Tuesday show Ukraine has about 445 billion cubic feet of natural gas stored in underground storage tanks. That’s 7.3 percent above the stocks as of June 1 and tanks are filled to 40.7 percent, data as of June 6 show. Ukraine is working to resolve ongoing debt issues with Russian energy company Gazprom. The country hosts most of the natural gas Russia sends to European consumers and the lingering stalemate has raised questions about European energy security. European Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger met Monday in Brussels with his Ukrainian and Russian counterparts. No final deal on resolving the gas row was reached, though the commissioner said talks would continue through this week. Gazprom says Ukraine owes it billion of dollars […]

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Russia gave Ukraine a further six days to reach a final agreement on natural gas prices, postponing its threat to cut off supply, Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller said Wednesday, Interfax news agency reported. The move comes after talks between Gazprom, Ukraine’s state-run Naftogaz and the European Commission in Brussels failed to come up with an agreement. The deadline for a deal is now June 16. Naftogaz doesn’t want to pay for gas it has already had until Russia and Ukraine reach a "package agreement," Ukrainian energy minister Yuri Prodan said in Brussels, Interfax reported. Moscow has repeatedly threatened to cut off Ukraine’s gas supplies and switch to a prepayment system because of the country’s outstanding gas bill. Gazprom said a week ago that Ukraine owed $4.455 billion for gas–$1.454 billion for November and December, and another $3 billion for April and May. Ukraine is urging […]

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Russia and Ukraine will resume talks with the European Union on a gas-supply deal today after failing to reach agreement in discussions earlier this week. Negotiations between Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and his Ukrainian counterpart, Yuri Prodan, along with EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger , will restart at 9:30 a.m. in Brussels and will follow bilateral meetings, the European Commission said late yesterday. The talks were postponed from last night because the Russian delegation was scheduled to arrive very late in Brussels, the EU executive said. Novak and OAO Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexey Miller met in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin before they departed for the Belgian capital, said an official who declined to be named as the gathering was private. Gazprom declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg. The EU, dependent on Russian gas piped through Ukraine for about 15 percent of its supplies, is […]

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Ukraine and Russia failed to reach a deal to end their long-running dispute over natural-gas prices during late-night talks Monday. The European Commission hosted the meeting in Brussels in hopes of averting a possible disruption of Russian gas supplies as early as this week and said the two sides agreed to meet again by Wednesday. The marathon talks ended without a definite breakthrough at 3 a.m. on Tuesday, the deadline which Moscow had set Kiev to pay off its gas debts. Russia said that failure to do so could result in disruptions of gas supplies to Ukraine, a move that could also hit supplies to some EU countries. The 28-country block gets more than one-third of its gas imports from Russia, almost half of which is sent via Ukraine. "All sides will now meet again either Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning," said a European Commission spokeswoman. No further details […]

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Ukraine ’s new leader, Petro Poroshenko, said the violence that’s rocked the former Soviet republic’s easternmost regions must end this week as peace talks began involving an envoy of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Poroshenko, who took the oath of office June 7, said negotiations should be held daily. Yesterday’s three-way talks in Kiev included the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany , Pavlo Klimkin, the Russian envoy to Ukraine, Mikhail Zurabov, and Heidi Tagliavini, a special representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. “We must stop the violence this week,” Poroshenko said on his website. “Every day when people die, every day when Ukraine pays such a high price is unacceptable.” Poroshenko, who was sworn in a day after discussing proposals toward a cease-fire with Putin, used his inauguration speech to present a plan to bring peace after more than six months of unrest that’s pitted the U.S. […]

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| License Photo Ukraine gets an extra day to pay off its $2.2 billion debt for Russian gas deliveries, Russian energy company Gazprom said. Gazprom had set a June 9 deadline for Ukraine to pay off its debt to avoid potentially triggering a repeat of gas shortages that gripped Europeans in 2006 and 2009. Debt rows in those years prompted Gazprom to cut gas through Ukraine, which hosts the bulk of the Russian gas bound for Europe through its Soviet-era transit network. Alexei Miller , the top executive at Gazprom, met in Berlin with Andrei Kobolev, his counterpart at Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz, to discuss the debt issues. "On request of the Ukrainian party, the debt settlement deadline was postponed until June 10, due to June 9 being a holiday in Ukraine," the Russian energy company said in a statement Wednesday. The $2.2 billion in debt covers gas bills […]

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Share this page Delicious Digg Facebook reddit StumbleUpon Twitter Email Print Trade, climate change and development are high on Thursday’s G7 agenda Continue reading the main story Leaders of the G7 industrial nations meeting in Brussels say they are prepared to impose further sanctions on Russia over its actions in Ukraine. A joint statement condemned Moscow for its "continuing violation" of Ukraine’s sovereignty. The G7 summit is the first since Russia was expelled from the group following its annexation of Crimea in March. On Thursday, leaders are set to discuss the global economic outlook, climate change and development issues. Although Russian President Vladimir Putin is not at the Brussels summit, he will hold face-to-face talks with some G7 leaders – not including US President Barack Obama – in Paris afterwards. However, both Mr Putin and Mr Obama will attend a ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings […]

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Border guards here, near the Russian border in eastern Ukraine, fled their posts for fear of attacks by separatist militias on Wednesday, helping open a strategic corridor for the transport of goods, contraband and war material from Russia that could lead to a widening of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. As evening fell in this small frontier town, a convoy of about 20 trucks, minivans and cars containing border guards and their families, including children, bumped over the rutted roads here along Ukraine’s eastern frontier with Russia. Their commander, who gave his name only as Sergei, said they had received confused orders but that they decided to leave, fearing for their lives and their families’ safety. Earlier on Wednesday, rebels overran the border guards’ central command headquarters in Luhansk, unplugging a large stretch of Ukraine’s southeastern border from central government oversight. A number of border guards […]

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Surface-to-air missiles pilfered from army bases. Defectors from Ukraine’s elite special forces. Russian fighters who slipped across a porous border. These are some of the biggest problems facing Ukraine’s military in the rebellious east, and they were all on prominent display here in the unlikely setting of the Donetsk Botanical Garden , where the Vostok Battalion, the largest separatist militia in this city of one million people, has established a training camp. “We are an international battalion,” said Aleksandr Khodakovsky, the rebel commander, who led the government’s Alfa special forces unit in the Donetsk region until he resigned after the February revolution in Kiev. Mr. Khodakovsky said that Russian citizens were among his fighters, but that the “overwhelming majority” of his force of more than 500 came from eastern Ukraine. He denied any link to Russia. As the threat of a Russian invasion into eastern Ukraine […]

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Hundreds of separatist fighters attacked a district border control headquarters in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk on Monday in the largest battle against the country’s border protection forces since unrest in the east began. A government spokesman said the action appeared to be aimed at seizing control of the border with Russia to open it to forces and supplies. The attack in Luhansk, Ukraine’s easternmost province, began at 4 a.m. and fighting was still raging at noon. Oleg Slobodyan, a spokesman for the Ukrainian state border service, said about 500 rebels had stormed the district headquarters building in the Mirny neighborhood, using automatic weapons and rocket launchers with snipers posted in nearby apartment buildings. Five rebels were killed and eight wounded, Mr. Slobodyan said, though there was no independent confirmation of that count. Seven border guards were injured, he added. The attack was a deeply […]

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Ukraine and Russia came closer to a truce in their long-running feud over natural-gas prices Monday after agreeing on new proposals to break the deadlock. The two sides agreed during talks in Brussels to consider a new proposed price and draw up a repayment plan for natural-gas debts accrued by Ukraine, the European Union’s Energy Chief Günther Oettinger said. They are due to reconvene by the middle of next week. Russian gas monopoly OAO Gazprom and Ukraine’s state energy firm Naftogaz will now complete the proposals and consult with their shareholders before giving a verdict. If they agree on a deal, it would mark the end of a dispute that spiraled since Ukraine’s former President Viktor Yanukovych, a Russian ally, left office in February. "Real progress has been made. Intensive discussions led to a bilateral meeting between the CEOs of Gazprom and Naftogaz who discussed key commercial issues for […]

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Payments for gas deliveries in February and March were made by the Ukrainian government, averting a disruption, the Russian Energy Ministry said Monday. The Ukrainian government announced the payment Friday and a spokesman for the Russian Energy Ministry confirmed its receipt in a statement to state news agency RIA Novosti. "The Russian energy ministry confirms it had received $786 million in two payments, intended [to cover deliveries] in February and March," he said . The debt payment follows a round of trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine and the European Union. EU member states rely on Russia for about a quarter of their gas needs and similar disputes in 2006 and 2009 left European consumers without gas as much of those supplies run through a Soviet-era pipeline network in Ukraine. Alexei Miller , chief executive of Russian energy company Gazprom, said his company would postpone the start […]

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Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned natural gas producer, has pushed back its ultimatum to Ukraine on imposing pre-payment for natural gas deliveries after the country paid $786m in arrears, according to the company’s chief executive Alexei Miller. The company had said previously that it would from Tuesday deliver only gas that had already been paid for, raising the prospect of supplies to Ukraine being cut off immediately and disruptions in onward gas flows to Europe. "Ukraine has paid the first instalment for gas supplies. Today $786m entered Gazprom’s account," Miller was quoted as saying in a company statement on Monday. "We welcome Ukraine starting to pay back its debt and postpone the pre-payment regime until June 9. "The introduction of the pre-payment regime will depend on the full repayment of the debt for gas supplied up to April 1 in the amount of $2.237bn, part of which was paid today, and on the progress in payments […]

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Russia will postpone switching to a system of prepayment for natural gas supplies to Ukraine after receiving a partial repayment from Kiev, Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexei Miller said Monday. The decision comes after talks on Friday between the Russian and Ukrainian energy ministers who indicated that a compromise could be reached in the near term. Earlier this year Russia had said it would demand prepayment from Ukraine for future gas supplies starting from June unless Kiev begins to pay off a portion of its debt. Mr. Miller said Monday that the company received $786 million, the amount Ukraine owed for gas supplies in February and March this year and the company will now postpone the deadline for switching to the prepayment scheme for one week until June 9. Ukraine has to redeem its […]

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| License Photo The drafting of a lawsuit against Russian energy company Gazprom is in the final stages, Ukrainian Justice Minister Pavlo Petronko said. Ukraine has a Friday deadline to settle a debt the Russian energy company says is for $2 billion. No payment means no gas deliveries to Ukraine starting in June, Gazprom officials said. The deadline coincides with a second round of trilateral energy talks between Ukrainian, Russian and European officials. Under a proposal , Ukraine would settle its debt and offer another $500 million by June 7. Ahead of the Friday talks in Berlin, Petronko said Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz sent a pre-arbitration statement to Gazprom in a challenge to its contractual relationship. "The drafting of the lawsuit is in the final stage," he said in an interview broadcast Thursday with RBC-Ukraine. Gazprom said Ukraine may have to pay in advance for natural gas if a […]

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Pro-Russian rebels downed a military helicopter in eastern Ukraine, killing a general and 13 troops, as a spokesman for U.S. President Barack Obama blamed “outside” assistance in providing weapons. Insurgents used a shoulder-fired missile to shoot down an Mi-8 transport chopper amid heavy fighting in Slovyansk, 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the Russian border, Speaker Oleksandr Turchynov told Ukraine’s parliament yesterday. “We are concerned that this indicates separatists continue to have access to advanced weaponry and other assistance from the outside,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters in Washington . Ukrainian forces used aviation and artillery assets to “destroy” the rebel unit that downed the helicopter, the Interior Ministry ’s National Guard unit said in a statement. The surge in fighting produced a new round of finger-pointing between the U.S. and Russia. Russia demanded that Ukraine halt its “fratricidal war” and withdraw troops from the mainly Russian-speaking region […]

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An agreement on gas debt between Ukraine and Russian energy company Gazprom may be finalized by the end of the week, a negotiator said Thursday. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak met this week with European Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger and Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuri Prodan to discuss ongoing debt issues. A proposal brokered during this week’s meetings calls on Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz to pay $2 billion by Friday and another $500 million by June 7 to settle its outstanding debts. A source close to the negotiations told Russia’s state-run news agency RIA Novosti a deal is expected before the week’s end. "There will be no official information [about Ukraine’s decision] today," the source said on condition of anonymity. "Possibly, [the announcement will be made] after a meeting on Friday." The state news agency says Naftogaz owes about $4 billion to Gazprom, a figure disputed by […]

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Several of the largest oil companies in the world are doubling down in Russia despite moves by the West to isolate Russia and its economy. ExxonMobil and BP separately signed agreements with Rosneft – Russia’s state-owned oil company – to extend and deepen their relationships for energy exploration. The U.S. slapped sanctions on Rosneft’s CEO Igor Sechin in late April, freezing his assets and preventing him from obtaining visas. However, the sanctions do not extend to Rosneft itself, allowing western companies to continue to do business with the Russian oil giant. ExxonMobil signed an agreement with Rosneft, extending its partnership to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on Russia’s pacific coast. Known as the Far East LNG project, the export terminal will receive natural gas from Russia’s eastern fields as well as from Sakhalin-1, an island off Russia’s east coast. Rosneft announced the deal in a press release […]

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Black smoke billows from Donetsk international airport during a heavy gun battle… Read More Russia called for unspecified “emergency” measures to halt the violence in eastern Ukraine after separatist militias suffered the heaviest casualties of their insurgency. “It’s necessary to take emergency steps to stop the bloodshed and start an inclusive internal Ukrainian dialogue,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier by phone yesterday, according to the ministry’s website. “There’s no excuse” for military action in the southeastern part of the country, Lavrov said. Ukraine stepped up air patrols over Donetsk yesterday as a convoy of pro-Russian rebels moved through the eastern city with an anti-aircraft gun in tow, threatening renewed violence after dozens of militants were killed in a government operation to retake the area’s biggest airport. Both sides suffered casualties as rebels stormed a National Guard base in Luhansk, the […]

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For weeks, rumors have flown about the foreign fighters involved in the deepening conflict in Ukraine’s troubled east, each one stranger than the last: mercenaries from an American company, Blackwater; Russian special forces; and even Chechen soldiers of fortune. Yet there they were on Tuesday afternoon, resting outside a hospital here: Chechen men with automatic rifles, some bearing bloodstained bandages, protecting their wounded comrades in a city hospital after a firefight with the Ukrainian Army. “We received an invitation to help our brothers,” said one of the fighters in heavily accented Russian. He said he was from Grozny and had fought in the Chechen War that began in 1999. He said he arrived here last week with several dozen men to join a pro-Russian militia group. The scene at the hospital was new evidence that fighters from Russia are an increasingly visible part of the conflict […]

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Ukraine’s government said it will press on with military operations against pro-Russian rebel fighters after its forces retook Donetsk airport and inflicted “significant” losses on the separatists. Troops killed “dozens” of rebels in Donetsk without suffering any losses, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said yesterday, while the mayor’s office in the eastern city said 40 people died and 31 were wounded. President-elect Petro Poroshenko has vowed to wipe out the rebels and re-establish order across Ukraine after winning office May 25. He must stabilize a shrinking economy and confront separatists who’ve captured swaths of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. They’ve declared themselves independent and are fighting to join Russia, which annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in March. “The elections showed that the voters are tired of ongoing violence, giving the new president a mandate to act in a forceful way to put an end to this,” Arkady Moshes , head of […]

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Ukraine’s government said it will press on with military operations against pro-Russian rebel fighters after its forces retook Donetsk airport and inflicted “significant” losses on the separatists. Troops killed “dozens” of rebels in Donetsk without suffering any losses, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said yesterday, while the mayor’s office in the eastern city said 40 people died and 31 were wounded. President-elect Petro Poroshenko has vowed to wipe out the rebels and re-establish order across Ukraine after winning office May 25. He must stabilize a shrinking economy and confront separatists who’ve captured swaths of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. They’ve declared themselves independent and are fighting to join Russia, which annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in March. “The elections showed that the voters are tired of ongoing violence, giving the new president a mandate to act in a forceful way to put an end to this,” Arkady Moshes , head of […]

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The president-elect of Ukraine, Petro O. Poroshenko, vowed on Monday to restore order in the country’s east, which is besieged by pro-Russian separatist violence, but said he would not negotiate with armed rebels and instead would demand swifter results from a military campaign that has achieved only limited success. While Mr. Poroshenko has said that he would push for parliamentary elections before the end of the year, on Monday he said he saw no reason for the removal of Prime Minister Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk and other leaders of the interim government, which has been running Ukraine since the toppling of President Viktor F. Yanukovych in February. Mr. Poroshenko also promised to mend ties with the Kremlin, citing his business connections to Russia as well as his personal relationship with President Vladimir V. Putin, who has promised to respect the Ukrainian election results. “Most probably the meeting […]

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The new Ukrainian government struck the separatists in this eastern province with a major military offensive on Monday, battling them over an important provincial airport in ground fighting that lasted for hours. The rebels were left scattered and shaken, just one day after a successful national election they had tried to disrupt. The airport battle was the first time the Ukrainian military had moved so aggressively against the separatists, who took over government buildings in two eastern provinces in March, after weeks of low-grade military maneuvers meant to stop their spread to other areas. There was no immediate indication that the Ukrainian military’s operations extended any further than the strategically important airport and surrounding area. Experts said that while the military’s attack might have put the separatists on the defensive, it was unlikely to stop their power. As fighting lasted into a rainy evening, the military […]

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Ukraine’s army said on Tuesday it had retaken Donetsk international airport after a day of heavy fighting following its seizure by pro-Russia militants in the aftermath of an election that saw billionaire Petro Poroshenko become the country’s new president. However, occasional bursts of gunfire could still be heard in the area and it was not clear whether Kiev’s forces have regained full control. Sergei Prokofiev Donetsk airport , which was modernised in 2012, remained closed on Tuesday. Some representatives of the rebels said at least 30 had been killed. However, that number was impossible to immediately verify. Mr Poroshenko, who won 54 per cent of the vote with more than 76 per cent of the ballots counted, has promised to negotiate with the anti-Kiev groups in eastern regions to end the months-long crisis. But he has also said that force should be used against “killers and terrorists”. On Monday […]

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Russia and Ukraine took a tentative step toward resolving a dispute that threatened to cut off Ukraine’s gas supply, as the two sides said they would consider a deal in which Ukraine would quickly pay Russia $2 billion in unpaid bills. Under a deal floated at negotiations in Berlin on Monday, Ukraine would make the $2 billion payment on Thursday, followed by negotiations on Friday over the disputed price Russia charges Ukraine for its gas, European Union Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger said after Monday’s talks concluded. But first, the deal would need to be approved by Moscow and Kiev, as well as the boards of state gas companies Naftogaz of Ukraine and Gazprom of Russia, according to Mr. Oettinger. Alexander Novak, Russia’s energy minister, said the two sides had made "significant progress" on Monday. But Ukraine Energy Minister Yuri Prodan stopped short of endorsing the possible […]

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Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said he hopes Russian and Ukrainian gas companies will sign a gas agreement by Thursday or meet in court in Stockholm to resolve their disputes, Interfax reports Tuesday. Mr. Yatsenyuk used harsh language when talking about a compromise gas-price agreement between Russia and Ukraine after the two sides agreed to sit down to discuss gas prices if Ukraine agrees to pay its gas supply debt promptly. "We hope that our Russian neighbors have a bright thought and the agreement between Naftogaz and Gazprom is signed," Mr. Yatsenyuk said at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday. "Russia has made no steps to solve the dispute," Mr. Yatsenyuk said. Mr. Yatsenyuk also said that Ukraine will only negotiate with Russia in the presence of intermediaries from the U.S. and the European Union. "You sit at the table with just them, they will sure deceive […]

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Petro Poroshenko, a billionaire chocolate manufacturer, claimed the Ukrainian presidency with an emphatic election victory on Sunday, taking on a fraught mission to quell pro-Russian rebels and steer his fragile nation closer to the West. A veteran survivor of Ukraine’s feuding political class who threw his weight and money behind the revolt that brought down his Moscow-backed predecessor three months ago, the burly 48-year-old won 55 percent in exit polls on a first-round ballot marred by the reality that millions were unable to vote in the troubled eastern regions. Results will not be announced until Monday but runner-up Yulia Tymoshenko, on 13 percent, made clear she would concede, sparing the country a tense three weeks until a runoff round. Poroshenko, known as the "Chocolate King", has no time to lose to make good on pledges to end "war" with separatists in the Russian-speaking east, negotiate a […]

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Petro O. Poroshenko, the billionaire businessman who won Ukraine’s presidential election on Sunday , was portrayed last month in a bilious campaign profile on Russian television here as money-grubbing, devious, a radical sympathizer — in short, a run-of-the-mill Ukrainian politician to Russian eyes. The program on NTV, a Kremlin ally, said he owned a mansion resembling the White House, clear evidence of dangerous Western sympathies. The report mocked him as “The Chocolate Rabbit,” twisting his usual nickname, “The Chocolate King,” from his confectionary fortune. A scientist, or at least someone wearing a white coat, materialized on screen to denounce his popular Roshen chocolate brand as riddled with carcinogens. Then as Mr. Poroshenko emerged as the front-runner, a change occurred. The attacks ceased, and his chocolate factory in southern Russia, which government police had shuttered , was allowed to operate again. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia even […]

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Total SA (FP) agreed to seek shale oil in Western Siberia with OAO Lukoil (LKOD) , brushing off U.S. and European sanctions against Russia over its annexation of Crimea. Chief Executive Officer Christophe de Margerie signed the deal at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in a demonstration of Total’s commitment to Russia, after officials from companies including Citigroup Inc., Morgan Stanley and ASA Statoil withdrew from the meeting. Total and Moscow-based Lukoil will set up a venture to seek so-called tight oil in the Bazhenov area of Siberia under their agreement, the French company said in a statement . Siberian shale has “huge potential,” de Margerie said. Investment in the venture will be $120 million to $150 million in the first two years, according to Lukoil CEO Vagit Alekperov. Total says its Russian business isn’t affected by sanctions against the country, including on Gennady Timchenko , shareholder of […]

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Ukraine is preparing for a presidential election tomorrow amid persistent clashes between government forces and pro-Russian separatists in the country’s easternmost regions. Ukrainians will vote for a new leader to replace Kremlin-backed Viktor Yanukovych, ousted after deadly protests in February. Billionaire businessman Petro Poroshenko leads all candidates. If he fails to garner more than 50 percent backing, a second-round runoff will be held June 15. Preparations in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions are being disrupted by the fighting. “It’s not easy to prepare and conduct elections when huge financial, political, and military resources are used to disrupt them,” Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said today in a televised address. “It will be an expression of will of Ukrainians from the west, east, north and south. The choice will be fair and free.” While Russia earlier said the violence threatens to undermine the election’s legitimacy, President Vladimir Putin said he will […]

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Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) extended its partnership with Russia ’s state-controlled oil company even as U.S. and European nations threaten additional sanctions to punish Vladimir Putin’s regime for its actions in Ukraine. Exxon signed the agreement with OAO Rosneft (ROSN) Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin at a forum in St. Petersburg today, extending a pact that involves drilling for crude in the Arctic and Siberia and liquefying natural gas for export in Russia’s Far East, according to a statement on Moscow-based Rosneft’s website. Exxon didn’t immediately return a phone message seeking comment. Exxon is among American oil producers that rebuffed U.S. State Department pressure to skip the International Economic Forum this week in Putin’s hometown. With at least $30 billion already invested in Russia’s oil and gas sector, U.S. and European explorers are betting the Ukraine crisis won’t derail their aspirations to capture some of Russia’s 75 billion barrels […]

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