MOSCOW, February 18. /TASS/. The Ukrainian authorities do not reject receiving payments for transit of Russian gas, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Rossiya-1 TV channel’s Pavel Zarubin published on the journalist’s Telegram channel, adding that Kiev for some reason does not open another line of the gas pipeline running through Ukrainian territory.

"One line of the gas pipeline operates through Ukraine, but there is another one. The Ukrainian side has closed it - not we, they closed it. Though what is the point of closing? They receive money for transit from us strange though it may appear," he said.

"They receive money from Gazprom. What is the problem of opening the second line for Germany?" Putin added. "The same with Poland. Poland probably receives most of all from European funds, while the main payer to those funds is Germany," he noted.