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Kiev talks on gas continue — Ukraine's Energy Ministry

EU energy commissioner re-joins gas talks

© EPA/NOEMI BRUZAK

KIEV, June 16, /ITAR-TASS/. The three-sided talks on gas are going on in Kiev, an official in the press service of the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy and the Coal Industry told ITAR-TASS early Monday.

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"The talks are going on," the Ministry official said without specifying either venue of the meeting or its participants.

According to unconfirmed information, the talks with the participation of representatives of Russia, Ukraine, and the European Union are being held in the building of Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers, not at Kiev-based Hilton Hotel, as was announced earlier. Media people were not allowed to be present at the talks.

The deadline for the introduction of a prepayment mode for Ukraine expires at ten a.m., Moscow time, on Monday unless Gazprom receives $1.950 billion from Naftogaz in repayment of the debt for November-December 2013 and repayment of the debt for the April and May of this year.

The three-sided talks on gas are going on in Kiev, an official in the press service of the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy and the Coal Industry told ITAR-TASS.

Lights are on on the 6th floor of the building where the meeting is taking place, an Itar-Tass correspondent reports from a place in the environs of the building in downtown area.

At about 01:10, Moscow time, EU Commissioner for Energy Guenther Oettinger re-joined the talks. He had adjourned from the negotiating process for some time earlier.

The talks are off limits to the press. Media people are keeping vigil near the main entrance to the government building. None of negotiators came out to meet them so far.

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