“The Declaration added by the Ukrainian party to the Terms of Reference for the monitoring of gas transit through Ukraine signed by Russia and the EU proves Ukraine to have unilaterally changed the basic provisions of the mentioned document.

The declaration wording has not been submitted to the Russian party yet; however, it’s already in circulation so we could take notice of it.

Let us not comment on the politic section of the declaration related to the reliability of the Russian gas transit through Ukraine territory, unauthorized extraction of gas and the arrears of supplied gas. The Russia’s vision of the issues was repeatedly set forth in details. Presently we consider technical issues of the Ukraine’s declaration to be more relevant.

Whereas Russia’s and EU experts has already coordinated the technical instructions of the monitoring and working regulations for Monitoring Commission representatives, Ukraine took the destructive position again.

Ukraine requires Russia to supply them 21 million cubic meters of gas daily on the free of charge basis to cover transit needs. However, according to the existing transit contract NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy has to utilize its own gas reserves for the process needs or to purchase gas from Gazprom or from any other supplier. One of the possible ways is to buy it from the importers of Russian gas in transit through Ukraine.

Besides, Ukraine’s Declaration allows maximum two months for the Commission activities. It is our opinion that the Commission has to keep on acting unless the conflict related to gas transit for European consumers is fully resolved and judicial proceedings on this issue are terminated. By the way, the lawsuits on outstanding arrears of gas in the amount of USD 614 million are facing the Ukrainian party,” said the Gazprom official spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov.