Ukraine: Russian gas debt paid on time

By MARIA AKSYONOVA and NATALIYA VASILYEVA

KIEV

Ukraine has paid for the Russian gas it used in October just days before the deadline, the prime minister said Friday, seeking to avoid a repeat of the January conflict that saw Russia cut gas supplies to Europe.

Monday is the deadline for Ukraine to settle its $500 million gas bill for October, and Ukraine's Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said Friday that the full amount had been paid. A Gazprom spokeman, however, declined to comment on whether the payment had been received.

Tymoshenko's announcement followed a string of mixed signals from Ukraine, which has kept Europe and Russia in suspense as to whether it could foot the bill and avoid another gas dispute.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned European countries last week that Ukraine may not be able to meet its commitments to Gazprom, Russia's state gas monopoly. On Monday, he urged the European Union to lend Ukraine at least $1 billion to help it pay for the gas supplies.

Bogdan Sokolovsy, the chief energy advisor to the Ukrainian president, said last week that Kiev's ability to pay for the gas was "an open question" and may even require a loan from Moscow.

Ukraine has been sticking to the payment schedule since it settled its January gas dispute with Russia. That dispute saw Gazprom cut supplies to EU nations through Ukraine for two weeks after price negotiations failed. The halt in supplies led to severe fuel shortages across southeastern Europe in the dead of winter.

Europe gets around 20 percent of its gas from Russia, most of it via pipelines that cross Ukraine.

In July, the European Commission brokered an agreement between Ukraine and international lenders -- including the World Bank, the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development -- to provide up to $1.7 billion in loans to help it pay its gas bills. As part of that deal, the Ukrainian government also agreed to make its gas transport system more transparent.

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Associated Press writer Nataliya Vasilyeva reported from Moscow.