BRUSSELS, April 15. /ITAR-TASS/. An instruction given to the European Commission and formulated in a final document of the EU Council on Foreign Affairs in Luxembourg to prepare a reply to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s message to several European leaders on gas supplies looks strange, Russian Permanent Representative in the European Union Vladimir Chizhov believes. He gave this comment to Russian journalists on the content of a final EU document on Ukraine adopted in Luxembourg on Monday.

“The EU Council conclusions said about the need for financial and economic aid to Ukraine, but a substantive response lacks to our president’s message sent to leaders of 18 European countries last Thursday, except for a reference that the European Union instructed the European Commission to prepare a response,” the Russian diplomat told reporters in comments on the conclusions drawn at a meeting of the EU foreign ministers.

“This looks a little bit strange, because this message was not addressed to the European Commission, moreover, 13 from 18 countries to which the letter was sent are EU states,” he said.

“But if these 13 countries prefer that the European Commission will reply for them, let’s wait and see which response it will give,” Chizhov noted.