MOSCOW/KIEV, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Russia accused Ukraine of deliberately jeopardising gas supplies to Europe on Wednesday, in a sign prospects were receding of averting a threatened gas cut-off on Jan. 1 that could disrupt supplies to Europe.
Ukraine said it guaranteed supplies of Russian gas through its territory to Europe, contradicting Russian gas giant Gazprom which alleged Kiev was planning to confiscate gas bound for Europe if Moscow cuts off supplies to Ukraine.
Russia has said it will turn off the taps to Ukraine on the Jan. 1 deadline if it does not receive $2 billion in arrears and a new supply deal is not concluded.
That threat has alarmed European states which depend on Russian gas for energy — most of it shipped through pipelines that cross the territory of Ukraine — and experienced brief supply disruption during a similar row in 2006.
Gazprom said on Wednesday Ukraine had begun paying the $2 billion Russia has been demanding in arrears for gas supplies — one of the central issues in their dispute.
Disagreements remained over the price Ukraine would pay for Russian gas in 2009. Without a deal on this, Gazprom says it will have to stop shipping the fuel to Ukraine hours after their current contact expires at the end of Wednesday.
Officials from the Russian company said they had received a letter from Ukraine’s state energy firm Naftogaz stating that if Russia turns off the gas, Ukraine could confiscate Russian fuel bound for customers in Western Europe.
“We cannot describe this position from Ukraine as anything other than blackmail,” Alexander Medvedev, head of Gazprom’s export arm, told a news conference. “And they are blackmailing Gazprom, Russia and western Europe.”
Naftogaz declined to comment on the existence of any letter.
But President Viktor Yushchenko’s First Deputy Chief of Staff Oleksander Shlapak said it would not interfere with European supplies.
“Ukraine guarantees the technical, secure, reliable and uninterrupted transportation of Russian natural gas to European countries through its territory,” he said.
Earlier on Wednesday there were indications Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was preparing to fly to Moscow for a last minute effort to reach agreement. But it was unclear if she would travel to Moscow with a deal still remote.
“No one knows for certain whether the visit will take place,” said a source close to the Ukrainian government.
SUPPLY DISRUPTION
European states, which receive a quarter of their gas from Russia, have called on both sides to reach a compromise.
They want to avoid a repeat of January 2006 when, during a row over arrears, Moscow cut off supplies to Ukraine causing a fall in gas pressure for some European consumers.
Russia denies any political motive behind the row but relations between the two-ex Soviet neighbours have been fraught since pro-Western leaders came to power in Kiev in 2004 and started to push for membership of the NATO alliance.
In previous disputes, Russia accused Ukraine of illegally siphoning off gas destined for European customers to meet domestic demand, an allegation that Kiev denied.
This year Ukraine says it has sufficient gas reserves to ride out the dispute, but it has warned that the fall in pressure in the pipeline system caused by a Gazprom cut-off could have a knock-on effect on deliveries to Europe.
The dispute is being played out as the economies of both Russia and Ukraine grapple with the effects of the global financial crisis.
Many analysts have said that Ukraine, struggling with a mounting financial crisis that has not been resolved by an International Monetary Fund loan, will struggle to pay the debt. (Reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kiev and Oleg Shchedrov, Vladimir Soldatkin and Maria Kiselyova in Moscow; Editing by William Hardy)
