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Ukraine PM: Kiev will continue buying natural gas from Russia

The Ukrainian government will be working on diversification of its gas supply sources

KIEV, March 11. /TASS/. Ukraine’s government does not plan to exclude Russia from the list of its natural gas suppliers, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenuyk told a cabinet meeting Wednesday.

He also said that the Ukrainian government will be working on diversification of its gas supply sources.

Yatsenyuk said he expects concrete results from the coming trilateral gas meeting of Russia, Ukraine and the EU in Brussels on March 20.

"We hope to reach an agreement on summer gas supplies. The idea is to fill up our gas storages in summer. The second issue is to agree on switching to gas exports from the EU countries", Yatsenyuk said.

Gas reserves in underground storages in Ukraine ensure stable supplies of Russian gas to Europe.

Ukraine should maintain gas volume in its underground storages in winter at 6-7 billion cubic meters. In the beginning of winter Ukraine’s gas storages contained 16.7 billion cubic meters of gas. Currently, according to the Association of European Underground Gas Storage Operators, Ukraine’s gas reserves have decreased to 7.9 billion cubic meters.