Ukraine Backs Off from EU-Backed Russia Gas Deal
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - War-torn Ukraine on Saturday distanced itself from an EU-brokered agreement with Russia that would have restored its gas supplies during winter and helped rebuild trust between the neighboring foes.
The European Union's energy commissioner emerged from hours of acrimonious negotiations in Berlin on Friday to pronounce the three month dispute on the verge of being resolved.
"We have developed a workable design for a winter package," Guenther Oettinger said.
Both he and Russia's energy minister added that a final agreement could be signed after consultations in Moscow and Kiev next week, AFP reported.
A compromise would not only save the westward leaning nation from adopting drastic energy savings measures in freezing weather but also make sure that Russian gas flowed uninterrupted to European homes.
Yet the meeting came with trust between all sides lacking and any remaining good will between Moscow and Kiev dependent on the fate of a fragile truce in a pro-Russian uprising that has claimed more than 3,200 lives.
And Ukraine's top energy officials vowed on Saturday to keep fighting over both the gas price and Moscow's claim that Kiev owed it billions of dollars in debt.
"No final decision was adopted. Not a single document was signed -- period," Naftogaz state energy firm chief Andriy Kobolev wrote in a Facebook post.
The deal's interpretations in Moscow and Kiev diverged on almost every point that led to the original freeze of Russian deliveries in June.
Oettinger said the compromise would see Russia ship at least 5.0 billion cubic metres of gas to Ukraine over a six month period in exchange for an early payment of $3.1 billion (2.4 billion euros).
