Putin agrees to extend ‘gas discount’ for Ukraine for three months

At the current gas price, the discount may amount to $100 per thousand cubic meters in the second quarter 2015.

At a meeting with the president, Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev said that the government considers it appropriate to satisfy a request of the Ukrainian side and Gazprom, provided that Kyiv strictly complies with all the conditions, "including repayment of the debt that has accumulated to date."

The Russian president said further decisions can be taken in three months on the issue of gas price for Ukraine. He noted that the price of gas is connected with oil prices, and the situation on the world markets for oil is rather volatile.

Earlier, Gazprom addressed the government with a request to provide discount on gas supplies to Ukraine for three months. The possibility of granting discounts for Ukraine is envisaged by the current contract between Russian Gazprom and Ukrainian state oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy. A similar discount was provided in October 2014 for a period of five months, but this expired on March 31.

As reported by Naftogaz, on March 27, 2015, Ukraine received a letter from European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič in which he referred to his proposal to the Russian side to leave in place the current pricing mechanism for Russian gas supplies to Ukrainian consumers.

Šefčovič also informed the Ukrainian and Russian sides about the readiness of the European Commission to hold a trilateral meeting in Brussels in mid-April.