MOSCOW, September 16. /ITAR-TASS/. Next Russia-EU-Ukraine gas meeting is scheduled for September 22, Russian energy minister Alexander Novak said.

“As you know, we have proposed holding the meeting on September 6, but we received a proposal from the European Commission to set the event for September 20. However, as you know, Sochi will be hosting an economic forum at that time, that’s why we are ready to meet on Monday,” the minister said.

The discussion is aimed at ensuring uninterrupted Russian gas supply to the EU countries through the Ukrainian territory during the winter and resuming Russian gas flows to Ukraine’s energy company Naftogaz.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel exchanged views in a phone conversation on Monday on Russian natural gas supplies to the European Union. Putin also discussed the gas transit issue with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

Ukraine's energy giant Naftogaz stopped paying for the consumed Russian gas since March 25. As of August 1, the overall debt of Naftogaz to Gazprom for supplied gas totaled about $5.296 billion.

The previous trilateral talks on the price for Russian gas and Ukraine’s gas debt, attended by Novak, his Ukrainian counterpart Yuriy Prodan and EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger, ended with no result in mid-June. Naftogaz and Gazprom later filed mutual claims to the Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal.