BERLIN, March 13. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine’s debt for Russian gas supplies by country’s gas giant Gazprom makes more than $1.8 billion now, Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller told reporters Thursday.

“Today Ukraine’s gas debt makes more than $1.8 billion . Meanwhile, the debt keeps growing from month to month from the beginning of the year. Yes, Ukraine is in a deep political crisis, but it is needed to pay for gas. Today we see that our actions towards Ukraine are absolutely lawful. We have all rights under effective contract to pass to prepayment for Russian gas supplies to Ukraine. But we do not do this and we realise that this is a very important aspect so that an economic collapse will not break out in Ukraine and so that risks for Russian gas transit to Europe will not arise,” Miller said.