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No more gas talks planned, Russia says

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 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Rebels shoot down Ukrainian military plane, 49 killed

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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US claims Russia supplied tanks to Ukraine separatists

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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Gazprom delays pre-payment scheme for Ukraine

Russian energy company Gazprom said it was delaying a move to force Ukraine to pay in advance for gas because of the intensity of contractual negotiations. Russian President Vladimir Putin this week said he was ready to offer Ukraine a discount on natural gas on a permanent basis. The Ukrainian government had balked on earlier proposals , something Putin said would take the gas relationship to an "absolutely different stage." Gazprom has said it would force Ukraine to pay in advance unless it settles the billions of dollars of debt owed for natural gas deliveries. Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said Wednesday he was holding off on the pre-payment scheme because of trilateral talks involving members of the European Union. "The Russian side made a move towards continuing talks which have been very intense lately," he said . "The Russian side has decided to postpone the switch to prepayment until […]

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Ukraine wants Russian gas contract changed

As disputes drag on, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Wednesday he was questioning a discount offered by Russia for natural gas. Ukraine, before political upheaval in November pushed it closer to the European Union, was paying $268 per 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas, the standard purchase volume. Russia later suspended the discount and changed the price to $485.50. It has now offered a $100 discount from that price. Yatsenyuk said Wednesday he was frustrated with Russian changing the price terms at a whim. "The contract [itself] must be changed," he said . European countries get about a quarter of their gas needs met by Russia, though most of those supplies run through a Soviet-era transit network in Ukraine. Price disputes in 2006 and 2009 resulted in Russian energy company Gazprom cutting gas supplies briefly through Ukraine. Members of the European Union met Russian and Ukrainian delegates this […]

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Russia Extends Ukraine Gas Talks Deadline

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 Comission in Brussels failed to come up with an agreement. The deadline for a deal is now June 16. Ukraine is urging Russia to keep the price for natural gas supplies at a discount level agreed between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s ousted President Viktor Yanukovych. After annexing the country’s Crimea region, Moscow raised the price it charges Ukraine for gas to $485.5 for 1,000 cubic meters in April, more than $200 above the price agreed between the two neighboring countries in late 2013. Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Wednesday that the government had refused a $100 discount offered […]

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Ukraine gas storage at 40 percent

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 Extends Ukraine Gas Talks Deadline — Update

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, Ukraine to Resume Stalled Gas-Supply Talks Today

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, Russia Fail to Reach Deal in Natural-Gas Talks

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 […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple