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Ukrainian official dismisses allegations of unsanctioned gas tapping

Ukraine expresses concern over the attempts from the outside to create a feeling that the Ukrainian gas transportation system is unreliable

KIEV, February 28 (Itar-Tass) — Secretary of Ukraine's National Security Council Andrei Klyuyev said the statements alleging Ukraine's unsanctioned tapping of Russian gas in early February were speculations.

Klyuyev said so at the Ukraine-EU conference in Brussels, the press service of the Security Council reported on Tuesday.

To put it mildly, these are small speculations /on siphoning off gas/ for European consumers by Ukraine. Ukraine even offered Russia and the EU to take part of its gas from underground storages in order to boost supplies of natural gas to Europe, he said.

He expressed concern over the "attempts from the outside to create a feeling that the Ukrainian gas transportation system is unreliable."

"The problems with the gas transportation system do not exist. It operates reliably," Klyuyev said.

According to the Security Council secretary, "even if small investments are needed for modernizing the gas transportation system, it is realistic to find them and carry out these works."

On February 22, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, in the course of a meeting with the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, stated that in February, Ukraine siphoned off Russian gas intended for European consumers.

In early February, seven European countries reported a decrease in Russian gas supplies: Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Greece, Romania and Italy.

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