BERLIN, September 26. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia wants to resolve the gas pricing dispute with Ukraine and has made a number of constructive proposals to tackle the problem which have been rejected in Kiev, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in newspaper comments on Friday.

Asked whether there were chances for a compromise, Novak told Germany's largest business and finance daily, Handelsblatt: “We are interested in it anyway.”

The minister said the parties already had eight rounds of talks on the dispute and Russia made some constructive proposals for pricing and the settlement of Ukraine’s debts.

“But Ukraine rejected them all,” Novak was quoted as saying.

Russia-Ukraine-EU gas talks

Russia, Ukraine and the European Union are scheduled to hold a trilateral gas meeting in Berlin on September 26.

Taking part in the consultations will be the EU outgoing energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuri Prodan. The focus will be made on Russian gas supplies to Ukraine and issues of energy security, a spokesman for the EU commission representation in Berlin told ITAR-TASS. The key task of the talks is to ensure uninterrupted gas supplies both to Ukraine and the European Union in the coming winter.

Previous discussions, launched on May 2, that involved the energy officials from the EU, Russia and Ukraine, ended on June 16 with no result.

Ukraine’s Naftogaz and Russian energy giant Gazprom later filed mutual claims to the Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal.

The Naftogaz oil and gas company stopped paying for the consumed Russian natural gas since March 25. As of August 1, the overall debt of Naftogaz to Gazprom for supplied gas totalled about $5.296 billion (excluding debts under “take or pay” contractual obligations).