Ukraine says Russia has cut off all gas supplies to Kiev, in a major escalation of a dispute between the two nations.<\/p>\n
“Gas supplies to Ukraine have been reduced to zero,” Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuri Prodan said.<\/p>\n
Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom said Ukraine had to pay upfront for its gas supplies, after Kiev failed to settle its huge debt.<\/p>\n
Gazprom had sought from Kiev $1.95bn (\u00a31.15bn) – out of $4.5bn it says it is owed – by 06:00 GMT.<\/p>\n
The Russian firm said it would continue to supply gas to Europe.<\/p>\n
Russia-Ukraine ties remain tense since Moscow annexed Crimea in February.<\/p>\n
Kiev says Moscow backs separatists in the east of the country. Russia denies the charge.<\/p>\n
‘Blackmail’<\/strong><\/p>\n “Today, from 10:00 Moscow time, Gazprom, according to the existing contract, moved Naftogaz to prepayment for gas supplies,” Gazprom said in a statement on Monday morning.<\/p>\n “From today, the Ukrainian company will receive Russian natural gas only in the amounts it has paid for.”<\/p>\n Moments later, both Gazprom and Ukraine’s state-owned Naftogaz company filed lawsuits against each other in the Stockholm arbitration institute.<\/p>\n Gazprom said it wanted to recover $4.5bn from Naftogaz, which is dealing with gas supplies to Ukraine. Meanwhile, Naftogaz said it was seeking to recover $6bn in “overpayment” for gas since 2010.<\/p>\n Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Ukraine’s position on the issue “smacks of blackmail”.<\/p>\n The latest moves follow crisis talks between Ukraine, Russia and the European Union on the issue.<\/p>\n “We reached no agreement. The chances that we meet again are slim,” Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kuprianov said after the latest round of the talks ended in Kiev over the weekend.<\/p>\n However, EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger, who attended the talks, said he was “not pessimistic” about a deal.<\/p>\n He said he would continue to work for an agreement despite his compromise proposal, that Kiev pay $1bn on Monday and the rest in instalments, being rejected by Gazprom.<\/p>\n Mr Oettinger later added that Ukraine intended to fill its gas transit commitments to the EU and he was also confident that Russia would meet its gas supply pledges to Europe.<\/p>\n Ukraine’s discounted rate for gas was axed in April after Moscow accused Kiev of failing to pays its bills.<\/p>\n On Monday, Gazprom stressed that it would continue to supply European consumers with gas at “full volume” and that it was Ukraine’s responsibility to make sure the gas transited through the country.<\/p>\n However, correspondents say the EU could be affected.<\/p>\n About 15% of the EU’s gas supply is Russian gas which is piped through Ukraine.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, Gazprom gave Ukraine more time to settle its gas bill after receiving a part-payment of $786m (\u00a3469m).<\/p>\n Ukraine said it refused to clear its debts completely in protest at Gazprom’s recent 80% price increase.<\/p>\n Gazprom ended its discount price for Ukraine, which was negotiated by former President Viktor Yanukovych last December, in April.<\/p>\n Before the discount was cancelled, Ukraine’s gas bill was heavily reduced by Russia to $268 per 1,000 cubic metres.<\/p>\n The price is now $485.50 per 1,000 cubic metres, the highest in Europe.<\/p>\n Almost 15% of gas used in Europe comes from Russia via Ukraine, which is why EU members are taking a particularly close interest in the stand-off, observers say.<\/p>\n The talks that ended on Monday had been brokered by EU representatives.<\/p>\n Heading into the negotiations, Kiev said it was ready to make the $1.95bn payment if Russia cut its price to $326 per 1,000 cubic metres.<\/p>\n But Russian President Vladimir Putin said $385 per 1,000 cubic metres was his final offer.<\/p>\n Prospects of a breakthrough in discussions were diminished in recent days after increasing tension between Kiev and Moscow over the pro-Russian insurgency in the east of Ukraine.<\/p>\n Moscow reacted angrily to a violent protest outside its embassy in Kiev on Saturday after separatists shot down a Ukrainian military plane, killing all 49 people on board.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Ukraine accused Russia of sending tanks into the east of the country to support pro-Russian fighters.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ukraine says Russia has cut off all gas supplies to Kiev, in a major escalation of a dispute between the two nations. “Gas supplies to Ukraine have been reduced to zero,” Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuri Prodan said. Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom said Ukraine had to pay upfront for its gas supplies, after Kiev failed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":25200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-25198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}