Ukraine to spend EU loan of $500 mln to buy Russian gas

The financing issue is a key issue in ensuring uninterrupted transit through the territory of Ukraine in the autumn-winter period, Miller said.

The draft protocol provides for the provision of $500 million to Ukraine, which will allow it to inject additional 2 billion cubic meters of gas in its underground storage, according to Miller.

In turn, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said after consultations with the European Commission that Russia will grant Ukraine a gas price discount for the fourth quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016.

"On our part, like in the previous periods, we are ready to give a gas price discount for the fourth quarter and the first quarter of 2016, i.e. for the autumn-winter season, to ensure pricing at the level of adjacent countries, such as Poland," the Russian energy minister said.

According to Novak, the agreements should now be discussed with the Ukrainian side. Novak said it is necessary "to continue work in the trilateral format in the near future, because there is little time left for the injection of gas into underground storage facilities."

"The season starts in mid-October, and so one month is left for the Ukrainian side to receive the necessary financial resources and buy gas in the required volumes," Novak said.

Terms of signing the protocol on gas supplies to Ukraine in the autumn-winter season will depend on the willingness of Kyiv to cooperate, according to Novak.

As for the next trilateral meeting on gas, it needs to be settled yet.

As UNIAN reported earlier, NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine plans to sign a new contract on natural gas supplies with Gazprom in September.

Company's CEO Andriy Kobolev expressed confidence that Ukraine would mobilize enough funds from international financial organizations by late September to secure necessary reserves in its underground gas storage facilities for the next heating season and to ensure stable transit to Europe.