Gazprom wants prepayment for its gas / Photo from UNIAN
A failure to reach a final agreement at recent gas talks in Vienna has resulted in Russian gas deliveries to Ukraine being suspended.
CEO of Russian energy giant Gazprom Alexei Miller said his company would not deliver gas to Ukraine without prepayment, regardless of the agreed price, the company's information department reported.
Miller said that Russia halted the gas supply at 10:00 a.m. local time because Ukraine had not transfer advance payment for shipments in July.
"Gazprom is not going to send gas to Ukraine at any price without the advance payment," Miller said being quoted by Russian news agencies.
The Russian and Ukrainian energy ministers on Tuesday failed to reach an agreement on future gas supplies.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Gazprom announced in June that it would supply only gas that Ukraine paid for in advance.
On July 1, Ukrtransgaz reported Ukraine had suspended gas deliveries from Russia after fruitless talks in Vienna and significantly reduced its purchases in the European Union.