Updated 9:24 p.m. Moscow Time
KIEV, September 9 (RIA Novosti) – The stalled Ukrainian gas talks in the Ukraine-Russia-European Commission format could resume on September 16 in Vienna, Ukraine’s state-run gas company Naftogaz said on Tuesday.
“A tentative date for these talks at present is September 16, several places are being considered, including Vienna, but the problem is that we have to also prepare a coordinated agenda and that’s what we are working on now,” Yuriy Vitrenko, Chief Adviser of Naftogaz CEO, said in an interview with Ukraine’s Channel 24 television.
Previous trilateral talks took place in several rounds between April and mid-June, but did not yield major results. Kiev insisted on a dramatic reduction in prices for Russian gas and refused to clear its debt of $4.5 billion at the time. Russia suggested a price reduction, but Ukraine did not agree to the conditions of the offer.
Mid-June, Russia’s Gazprom introduced a prepayment system for gas deliveries to Ukraine due to Kiev’s massive gas debt to Russia. And on September 3, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that Moscow will resume gas cooperation with Ukraine only when Kiev repays its “astronomical” debt in full and agrees to the average annual price of $385 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas.
