Gazprom: Ukraine to pay full price 

MOSCOW – The chief of Russian gas giant Gazprom says Ukraine’s discount “winter price” for natural gas will end on April 1. Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller said in a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on January 20 that the gas price on April 1 for Kyiv would be set in accordance with a longstanding contract. He did not specify a price, but Gazprom previously charged Ukraine $485 per 1,000 cubic meters under a 2009 contract that Kyiv long sought to change. Russia lowered the price from that level late in 2013 as part of a reward to Kyiv for scrapping a landmark pact with the European Union, then raised it again after the ouster of Viktor Yanukovych as president last February. On October 30, 2014, Russia and Ukraine agreed to an EU-brokered deal under which Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Kyiv would pay Gazprom $378 per 1,000 cubic meters until the end of 2014 and $365 per 1,000 cubic meters in the first quarter of 2015. Mr. Miller also said that Ukraine’s debt to Russia for previous gas shipments is $2.44 billion. (RFE/RL, based on reporting by Interfax and Bloomberg)