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 again after he ouster of Viktor Yanukovych as president last February. On October 30, 2014, Russia and Ukraine agreed to a 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)