The Prime
Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko assures that Ukraine will not undergo any punitive
measures for non-implementation of gas contracts with Russia. She declared during the briefing
today.
“I would
like to dispel all rumours with regards to punitive
measures. For now no punitive sanctions have been imposed towards Ukraine and they cannot be imposed as we
stick to the plan,” the Head of Government underlined.
Moreover,
Yulia Tymoshenko doesn’t exclude the situation that over the global
financial-economic crunch Ukraine can take less than 32 billion cubic
meters of gas: “It depends on how cold the winter is, how the country is
getting out of the crisis, in fact, on various factors”. The Head of Government
of Ukraine reminded that the issue had been agreed during the meeting with the
Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Volodymyr Putin.
Yulia
Tymoshenko also explained that signed with Gazprom contract “envisages a
possibility to deviate to the one or the other side by 20% from the planned
showing without any punitive measures applied”.
According
to her, under the contract Ukraine has envisaged to purchase 40
billion cubic meters of gas in 2009: “If we haven’t faced the crisis,
undoubtedly, this amount would be consumed by Ukraine”.
Besides, as
the Prime Minister explained, a large-scale program on replacement of natural
gas by other kinds of fuel was being realized in Ukraine. “That’s why we need a smaller
amount and if to subtract 20% from 40 billion cubic meters of gas we will have
the amount of gas we need – this is a sum in 32 billion cubic meters of gas for
the current year. I called these numbers for you to understand that no punitive
sanctions can be imposed pursuant to this contract,” Yulia Tymoshenko
underlined.
Source: Government Portal
