While there is unrest in Ukraine, the problem of supplying Russian gas is acute now more than ever. Until recently, Ukraine received bills for every cubic meter of the gas supplied by Russia. However, today amid turbulent times it is difficult to keep tabs on the matter. Still, there are some figures.
According to rough estimates, Ukraine keeps importing from 40 million to 60 million cubic meters of gas from Russia every day. Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Yuriy Prodan confirmed that Ukraine was not making payments for Russian gas. “We assume the needs that are necessary for Ukraine. These are from 40 million cubic meters to 60 million cubic meters of gas per day," he said.
This caused no sensation since unlawful energy imports often take place in this country. Attempts have been made to resolve the issue, with varying degrees of success. “We have a problem with them [Ukrainian partners]. These problems did not arise today. Unfortunately, almost any Ukrainian leadership, no matter who the president or the prime minister was, has continued in the same line, the line of illegally using Russian gas,” Russian Prime Minister Medvedev said.
Later he reportedly called the actions of Ukraine “banal theft”. Now, Moscow has one more reason for transition to advance payment system as soon as possible. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin did not rush into taking drastic measures saying Russia is ready to “wait another month”. In case $2.2 billion gas debt is not paid off, Gazprom will switch to a pre-payment scheme.
Interestingly, Yuriy Prodan officially said that Ukraine stopped pumping Russian gas before settling the price issue and at the same time admitted it daily uses from 40 million to 60 million cubic meters of it. He explained this decision by the fact that the Ukrainian side is not satisfied with the gas price set by Gazprom on April 1. Kiev wants to negotiate with Moscow the return of the old price that was in the first quarter of 2014.