Putin warns gas cuts are possible

MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Ukraine faces a natural-gas cutoff that could leave Europe with shortages while saying Kyiv’s suspension of gas supplies to separatist parts of eastern Ukraine “smells of genocide.” Mr. Putin said on February 25 that Russia hopes it will not halt the delivery of gas to Ukraine, but that depends on Kyiv’s “financial discipline.” The Russian company Gazprom said it would stop sending gas to Ukraine on February 26 if Kyiv does not make a prepayment for more gas. But Ukraine’s state energy company, Naftohaz, said earlier this week it had only received about half the gas it has paid for and would not pay for new supplies until it received all the gas it is due. Gazprom said the missing gas was being sent to rebel-controlled parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions that were no longer receiving gas from Ukraine. Gazprom started shipping gas directly to separatist-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine on February 19 after Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered his Energy Ministry to work out a supply plan as “humanitarian aid.” Those shipments are passing through the Prokhorovka and Platovo gas-metering stations on Russia’s border with the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Mr. Putin said Ukraine’s reported failure to provide some areas in those regions with gas amounts to “genocide.” He said, “Imagine these people will be left without gas in winter. Not only that there is famine… It smells of genocide.” Gazprom said it is supplying gas to the parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine that are controlled by pro-Russian separatists since Kyiv stopped supplying them. (RFE/RL, with reporting by news services)