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ROME — Political tensions between Russia and Ukraine intensified on Monday when Russian energy giant Gazprom halted natural gas supplies to Ukraine after talks to settle a payment dispute failed.
“Gas supplies to Ukraine have been reduce to zero,” Ukrainian energy minister Yuri Prodan said, according to a BBC report.
Mr. Prodan’s announcement came shortly after Gazprom said it would only deliver gas to Ukraine that is paid for up front. For months, Gazprom and Ukraine have been locked in contract dispute over gas arrears payments. Gazprom puts Ukraine’s unpaid gas bill at $4-billion (U.S.) and demanded that almost half of it be paid by today’s deadline or face supply disruptions.
Gazprom said it had filed a lawsuit at a Stockholm arbitration court to try to recover the debt. Ukraine’s state oil and gas company, Naftogaz, said it was filing a suit at the same court to recover $6-billion in alleged overpayments.
The gas shut-off came as clashes between pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine and Ukraine government forces turn more bloody. On Saturday, rebels shot down a Ukrainian military plane as it approached an airport in Luhansk, killing all 49 on board.
At a cabinet meeting on Monday morning, Ukrainian prime minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said “This is not about gas…This is part of the general plan of Russia to destroy Ukraine. We will not subsidize Russia’s Gazprom …Ukrainians will not pull $5-billion out of their pockets a year so that Russia can use the money to buy arms, tanks and plans and bomb Ukrainian territory.”
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