Russia will cut off gas supplies to Ukraine if Kiev fails to pay in “three or four days” and “will create a problem” for gas transit to Europe, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters following talks with the president of Cyprus on Wednesday, RT reports.
“Gazprom has been fully complying with its obligations under the Ukraine gas supply contract and will continue doing that.”
“The advance payment for gas supply made by the Ukrainian side will be in place for another three to four days. If there is no further prepayment, Gazprom will suspend supplies under the contract and its supplement. Of course, this could create a certain problem for [gas] transit to Europe to our European partners.”
According to the report, Putin expressed hope that the situation would not come to that and stressed that “it depends on the financial discipline of our Ukrainian partners.”
On Tuesday, Gazprom’s CEO Aleksey Miller reminded Ukraine’s state-owned Naftogaz of the gas prepayment as he said that Ukraine hadn’t paid for its March deliveries and warned that Kiev was risking an early termination of the advance settlement and a supply cutoff.
“It takes about two days to get payment from Naftogaz deposited to a Gazprom account. That’s why a delivery to Ukraine of 114 million cubic meters will lead to a complete termination of Russian gas supplies as early as in two days, which creates serious risks for the transit to Europe.”
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