Russian and Ukrainian officials were locked in fresh talks on Tuesday night in an attempt to resolve the energy crisis, as Russia pumped extra gas through transit pipelines to bring European supplies back to normal.
Ukraine braced itself for severe shortages after Russia’s decision to cut off its natural-gas supply on Sunday. Russia’s Energy Minister, Viktor Khristenko, upped the ante on Tuesday night by suggesting that Ukraine should pay $250 per 1 000 cubic metres for supplies, rather than the $230 currently on the table. The new figure is five times what it paid in 2005.
Russia’s state energy giant, Gazprom, maintained that Europe was suffering a shortfall because Ukraine had siphoned reserves crossing its territory. Kiev claimed it was taking contracted volumes only from Turkmenistan, which are normally carried to Ukraine through the Russian network. Gazprom cut off Ukraine by lowering pressure in the pipeline network that also carries supplies to Germany, France, Italy and elsewhere.
As European Union countries reported deliveries back to normal after a fall of up to 40% on Monday, Ukraine introduced austerity measures, with lack of supplies beginning to bite.
”Nobody’s freezing yet, but there are real worries that factories might have to close and people will lose their jobs,” said Viktoria Butenko, a programme coordinator at a non-profit organisation in Kiev. The Prosecutor General, Aleksander Medvedko, announced checks on Tuesday to ensure businesses were complying with energy-saving legislation.
The dispute has thrown doubt on Russia’s reliability as a gas supplier providing a quarter of EU needs, with calls for European importers to diversify resources.
”The situation has shown how vulnerable the union is to shortages of gas supply,” said EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs, who was to lead a meeting of the EU’s gas-coordination group on Wednesday.
Moscow says it no longer has any reason to subsidise its neighbour and is raising gas prices only to market levels, which are about $240 in Europe. Kiev has agreed in principle to pay a higher price for gas — a demand seen as revenge for Ukraine’s pro-Western stance — but wants a gradual transition.
A Ukrainian delegation flew to Moscow for fresh talks with Gazprom officials on Tuesday afternoon, but there was no breakthrough by late evening. In Kiev, the government set up a crisis centre headed by the Prime Minister, Yury Yekhanurov, to deal with the stopping of Russian gas supplies, which provided about a third of Ukraine’s needs.
Khristenko said on Tuesday he had ”indisputable” evidence that Ukraine was leaching from Russian gas exports. Gazprom accused Kiev of siphoning off 105-million cubic metres of gas on Sunday and 119-million on Monday.
Ukraine denied the claim and Deputy Foreign Minister Anton Buteyko irked Moscow by accusing it of ”economic pressure”, predicting Russia would one day ”fall apart like the Roman empire”. — Guardian Unlimited Â