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Developments in eastern Ukraine

Head of Donetsk Republic: republic capable of paying for gas from Russia

On Friday, Ukraine’s Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Vladimir Demchishchin said he could not provide any information about supplies of natural gas to the conflict zone in Donbass

MOSCOW, 7 March. /TASS/. The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) is capable of paying for gas from Russia, the Republic’s head Alexander Zakharchenko said on Saturday.

"Ukraine, in its turn, believes our territory is the territory of Ukraine, and thus the Russian gas which comes to us is going to Ukraine. The DPR is capable of paying for Russian gas," he said.

On Friday, Ukraine’s Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Vladimir Demchishchin said he could not provide any information about supplies of natural gas to the conflict zone in Donbass.

The minister said that no clarity had been reached at the recent trilateral gas negotiations in Brussels. "It was a long discussion in Brussels about who and how is to supply gas. We had an argument /the Ukrainian and the Russian sides - TASS/ and representatives of the European Commission failed to make it out from our discussion who and how much of gas was to supply to this zone," he said.

Demchishin also said that Kiev could not confirm gas supplies to Donbass from Russia. This situation, he said, required verification. "Of course, /Russia’s gas giant/ Gazprom declares that it is supplying certain volumes, that it allegedly has proof concerning these volumes from Donbasstransgaz, but so far I find it difficult to say anything for sure. This issue requires to be looked at," he said.

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Eastern Ukraine

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