KIEV, March 2. /TASS/. The Russia-Ukraine-EU negotiations on gas contracts will be held until the end of this month, Ukrainian Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Vladimir Demchishin said on Wednesday.
- Russia may supply gas through Ukraine even after Nord Stream 2 is commissioned — minister
- Kiev agrees to provide transit of Russian gas to Europe at existing tariffs — minister
- Cost of gas transportation across Ukraine up nearly 50% — energy minister
- Gazprom draws $2.549 bln gas bill to Naftogaz of Ukraine
"There will definitely be such a meeting until the end of the month," he said. Demchishin added that the European Commission would contact Ukraine and Russia so that each side could propose its date of the meeting.
Naftogas CEO Andrey Kobolev earlier said that Ukraine was ready to hold talks with Russia on changing gas transit conditions and other issues in a trilateral format with the participation of the European Commission. "They will deal with the entire array of issues of both gas transit and purchase. Currently, we discuss the format. We offer the trilateral format," he said, adding that he was not sure that Russia would agree to this.
Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Energy Union Maros Sefcovic earlier told TASS that the commission was discussing the trilateral gas meeting during the bilateral contacts with Russia and Ukraine. He noted that he talked informally with both parties regarding the possibility of such a meeting, but there is no concrete decision yet, and the date of the meeting has not been determined.