MOSCOW, October 30. /TASS/. Russia and Ukraine may sign documents on settling their gas dispute on Thursday, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said.
Russia and Ukraine have agreed on the delivery of 4 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the next two months. Kiev is ready to pay for this volume while the European Union is ready to give payment guarantees, which should be sealed in a protocol, Novak said.
Representatives of the European Commission and Ukraine say they have found money to pay for current natural gas deliveries, the Russian energy minister said.
“The European Commission fully agrees with Russia’s position,” Novak said.
Ukraine is ready to pay for supplied Russian natural gas at the price of $268 per 1,000 cubic metres, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said at a meeting of the Ukrainian government on Thursday.
“We are ready to pay the price of $268 for the already supplied gas,” he said, adding that Kiev had funds for that in the amount of $3.1 billion.
“We will pay $1.450 billion right after the signing of the trilateral protocol between Ukraine, Russia and the EU, and $1.650 billion more by the end of the year,” the prime minister concluded.
Russia and Ukraine are set to sign an additional agreement to the existing gas contract defining the volume of natural gas deliveries and natural gas distribution, as well as two protocols on regulating payments for deliveries in case of their resumption, and debt repayment.
Russia’s position in gas talks testifies to Moscow’s desire to make its contribution to easing the situation in Ukraine, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said.
“We need to formulate a final position and we clearly keep all the basic approaches, which served as our initial guidance with regard to determining the contract price and the possibilities, which we can use and what we’ll not do and, of course, with regard to the need for debt repayment in full,” Medvedev said.