"To be quite honest we would need much stronger demonstration of the political will from the both sides," said EU Commission Vice-President Marcos Sefcovic in Vienna. The price proposed by Russia that Sefcovic calls “more or less on the same level as in the region” is seen by Ukrainian officials as unacceptable, reports Ukraine Today.

Europe gets around a third of its gas from Russia and around half of that comes via Ukraine. Relations over the supply route have become increasingly tense since Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and invaded east Ukraine, prompting the European Union to impose sanctions on Russia.

Ukraine has been making efforts to diversify gas supplies and thus reduce dependence on Russian deliveries. According to Ukrainian Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn, the country will purchase natural gas from other sources and return to the negotiation table with Russia in September.

See unian.info’s video section for more of the latest news from Ukraine in video from Ukraine Today, Ukraine’s 24-hour English-language news channel.