BRUSSELS, June 11 (RIA Novosti) – Russian energy giant Gazprom has not received any new payments from Ukraine as of June 10, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told journalists Wednesday.
“Gazprom has not confirmed the receipt of payment, there are no payments as of June 10,” he said ahead of planned trilateral gas talks between Russia, Ukraine and the EU.
After the previous gas talks last week, Novak said that Ukraine had agreed to repay its November-December gas debt worth $1.45 billion by June 10 and pay some of its debt for the April-May deliveries by transferring $500 million.
In case of non-receipt of payment, Gazprom plans to switch to an advanced payment scheme, ultimately supplying exactly those volumes of gas to Ukraine the country has paid for.
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, however, said Wednesday the Russian energy giant had extended the deadline for Ukraine to pay its gas bill until June 16.
Novak confirmed that Russia is ready to wait for the payment until June 16.
Ukraine’s debt for Russian natural gas began to accumulate as early as November 2013, when a political crisis broke out in the country. Up until recently, the only full payment that Gazprom received was for January deliveries, when on June 2 Ukraine’s Naftogaz transferred $786 million for the February-March 2014 deliveries.
