Russia’s Gazprom halts gas delivery to Ukraine
Russia’s state-owned gas giant, Gazprom, has announced halting natural gas supply to Ukraine after Kiev failed to make upfront payments for more supplies.
Gazprom chief, Alexei Miller, said in a statement that Kiev had not paid in advance for future supplies, nor had it placed new orders.
He said Ukraine received its final prepaid volumes of Russian gas on Wednesday.
Miller warned that the halt could threaten supplies to the rest of Europe during freezing weather, saying, "The refusal to buy Russian gas creates serious risks for the safe gas transit to Europe as well as to supplies to Ukrainian customers in the coming winter."
Ukraine is a key transit country for the delivery of Russian gas to Europe.
Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak has already announced the end of gas deliveries to Ukraine. In a radio interview Tuesday, Novak explained that the move was required as Kiev had not paid upfront for more deliveries.
"We could - and maybe in this situation we need to - take a decision about halting supplies of coal by our commercial organizations, which deliver coal to Ukrainian power stations," he added.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuks said authorities in Kiev would prevent state energy firm Naftogaz from buying any more gas from Russia to reduce its energy dependence on Moscow.
Russia and Ukraine have experienced gas disputes and have repeatedly clashed over gas pricing over the past years.
Russia supplies around a third of Europe's natural gas, half of which flows through Ukraine.
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