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Russian, German, Ukrainian, French Leaders Open Meeting With Gas Talks: Kremlin

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The leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine started their four-party talks in Milan by discussing gas issues, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.

Updated 4:59 p.m. Moscow Time

MILAN, October 17 (RIA Novosti) – The leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine started their four-party talks in Milan by discussing gas issues, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Friday.

"They started [the meeting] by [discussing] gas," Peskov told journalists.

Earlier, the spokesperson said that the leaders of the four countries would meet after the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit to discuss the Ukrainian issues.

One of the main issues concerning Ukraine is the implementation of the ceasefire in the east of the country, which was discussed by the Russian president and the German chancellor on Thursday. Another issue discussed by Putin and Merkel is the gas dispute between Moscow and Kiev.

At the moment, Ukraine is about to face the approaching winter with low reserves of natural gas. Back in June, Russian energy giant Gazprom switched Ukraine to the prepayment system for gas supplies in light of Ukraine's gas debt of more than $5 billion.

In September, during ministerial talks in Berlin, Russia and the European Commission proposed the so-called winter package, which envisages Ukraine paying $3.1 billion of its debt by the end of 2014 in exchange for gas deliveries in winter. Russia also insisted that Ukraine pay the first tranche of $2 billion before the start of the deliveries.

On October 13, Russia said it was ready to offer Ukraine a more flexible schedule for the debt repayment, according to which Kiev should pay $1.45 billion in the first installment of $3.1 billion, with the rest of the debt to be paid by the year-end.

The same day, Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan said Ukraine was not willing to make any advanced payment for Russian gas supplies and insisted that payments be made upon delivery.

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