European Commission: Ukraine does not pay for gas, preferring to buy weapons
Moscow - Kyiv, October 30 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Stamm) - Russia, Ukraine and the European Union yesterday made another attempt to resolve gas disputes - at least during the winter cold. Before the start of negotiations, European Commissioner Günther Oettinger was skeptical about the chances of reaching an interim agreement. Ukraine, according to him, is insolvent; its leadership considers the priority not to pay for gas, but to pay wages and purchase weapons.
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The main intrigue of yesterday's trilateral gas negotiations in Brussels was the question: will Ukraine agree to pay for Russian gas in the winter? According to European Commissioner for Energy Günter Oettinger, we are talking about paying a bill of 1,18 billion euros. The uninterrupted supply of gas through Ukraine to Europe depends on winter supplies.
A few hours before the negotiations, Ettinger said that the probability of achieving positive results during the negotiations was 50%, reports "NG" with reference to the German broadcaster ZDF. Ettinger hoped for the conclusion of at least an interim agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
But, according to him, Ukraine is actually insolvent, and Kiev now seems to have completely different priorities - not paying for gas, but, in particular, purchasing weapons. Therefore, as Oettinger explained, it is difficult for negotiators to convince Ukraine to spend part of the international financial assistance to pay for winter gas supplies.
Ukraine is now the party least interested in signing a gas agreement, the publication writes. European officials are afraid to leave their countries without gas. Ettinger will leave his post on November 1, and he would like to leave to a general ovation, to appear as a knight who did not let Europe freeze. Gazprom is concerned about compliance with contracts with European consumers. Moscow does not want to appear as an unreliable supplier in the eyes of Europeans.
But for Kyiv, all these problems of Moscow and Brussels are not relevant. It is much more interesting for him to drag out negotiations and demand more and more portions of financial assistance. Moreover, after the parliamentary elections, the position of Prime Minister Yatsenyuk, who can hardly be suspected of seeking compromises with Russia, clearly strengthened. And the voting results can be interpreted as a mandate for Ukrainian citizens to sever gas relations with the Russian Federation.
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