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Ukraine starts taking into account Russian gas delivered to Donbas from March 2

Earlier Ukraine did not take into account volumes of gas delivered to Donbas in its statistics

MOSCOW, March 4. /TASS/. Ukraine started to take into account the volumes of Russian gas delivered to Donbas, Ukraine's gas pipeline operator Ukrtransgaz reported Wednesday.

According to the report, on March 2 the country imported 11.5 million cubic meters of gas through the Prokhorovka gas-measuring station, which is situated on the border of Russia’s Rostov region and the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR). Gas was not supplied through the Platovo gas-measuring station (on the border of Russia’s Rostov region and the DPR) on March 2, the report said.

Earlier Ukraine did not take into account volumes of gas delivered to Donbas in its statistics.

Speaker of the LPR’s legislature Alexey Karyakin said Tuesday that the republic is ready to pay for Russian gas under separate contracts.

"The LPR can entirely rely only on Russian gas supplies. The LPR is ready to pay for Russian gas, but it is a matter of separate contracts," he said. "Unfortunately, gas supplies from Ukraine have been interrupted, which means tougher blockade by Kiev," he added.

He said that the gas price fixed by Ukraine "was not very convenient" but the self-proclaimed republic was ready to pay it. In his words, by now the republic’s budget was receiving proceeds from taxes, which made it possible to gradually resume routine work.

"According to our estimates, if we manage to restore infrastructure and jobs, we will be solvent and self-reliant," he said in an interview aired by the Rossiya-24 TV news channel.

Karyakin also said the LPR was ready to take part in negotiations on gas supplies to Donbas.

Earlier on Tuesday, Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that Russia’s position implied that gas supplies to Ukraine and the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics were to be done under a single contract. "It [gas supplies to the LPR and DPR — TASS] is a separate issue, which requires consideration and quickest possible solution. We believe we should supply gas to Ukraine under a single contract," he said.

He also said that Russia’s gas giant Gazprom had already pumped 100 million cubic meters of gas to Donbas. The price for the gas supplied to Donbas was calculated at $329 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters. Over the past week, the LPR and DPR had been using 10-12 million cubic meters of gas per day, Novak said, adding that it was not correct to compare this volume of gas with the volumes of Russian gas supplies to Ukraine, since Ukraine’s Naftogaz had other sources of gas (reverse gas supplies from Europe and its own gas production).