Ukraine is set to make another attempt to agree with Russia to review their gas contracts, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has said.
"We will make yet another attempt to agree with our Russian colleagues. If this does not happen, then certainly the entire responsibility for the consequences will lay on the executives who do not want to heed our argument," he told the alumni of the Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv on Thursday.
Ukraine is keen on building normal, equal and friendly relations with Russia, the prime minister said. "Despite what is being heard from our friendly Russia that we very much appreciate, we want to build absolutely normal, equal and friendly economic relations with this country," he added.
The position of the Russian authorities on the gas issue forces Ukraine to consider terminating the gas contract through a court, Azarov said earlier this week. The Ukrainian government has already received advice from both Ukrainian and international experts with regard to prospects for litigation with Moscow and is ready to initiate proceedings.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday he was stunned by the Ukrainian position over the gas price.
"They have always asked for relaxations. It seemed to me that we have made a clear offer: if you want a gas discount, you must become a part of the integration space. Or, if you don’t want that, you make us a commercial offer, profitable for Russia, such as the Belarusian offer to sell its gas transportation system, for example," Medvedev told Russian journalists in Sochi.
"They want neither this, nor that. Give us a discount, and that’s it," the president said.
Such a negotiating position "is very said, this is dependency," he said.
This shows "the lack of understanding of the laws of political life and communication between states," he said.
At the same time, Medvedev said he is "not losing hope" that the relevant agreements with Ukraine will be reached.
When asked about Ukraine’s plans to take the gas case to the international court, the Russian president said: "If they have no proposals, which might be of interest to us, then we believe that there are agreements which must be complied with."
