KIEV, January 11. /TASS/. Ukraine can well do without Russian gas, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Monday.
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"Russia has proclaimed a trade war on us, but we can do without Russian gas. Our manufacturers can find new markets," Proshenko’s press secretary Svyatoslav Tsegolko quoted him as saying on his Twitter account.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said on Sunday Kiev continued to import gas from European Union countries as it was cheaper than gas imported from Russia. "On January 1, they [Russia - TASS] issued an invoice with a gas price of $212 per 1,000 cubic meters," he said. "We don’t buy gas in Russia because we buy gas in the European Union at a lower price than the one offered by Russia. An average price of gas from the European Union is about $200."
Currently, according to Yatsenyuk, Ukraine has about 13 billion cubic meters of gas at its underground storages facilities, which is by 2.3 billion cubic meters more than a year ago. "We do have gas in Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities. Now we have about 13 billion cubic meters, or by 2.3 billion cubic meters more than last year," he said.