Alexei Miller / Photo from UNIAN
A gas agreement concluded in Brussels does not cover the issue how Kyiv will pay for gas supplied during the winter period, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller stated, according to Russian economic news agency Prime.
He noted that Russia has not received a prepayment for gas supplies, although all the necessary documents have been prepared and signed in Moscow.
"Russian gas supplies to Ukraine will be made strictly on prepayment [basis] ... the trilateral agreement, which was signed in Brussels in late September, does not fully cover an issue of how Ukraine will pay for gas supplies in winter," Miller said in an interview with TV channel Russia 24.
As reported earlier, following gas talks in Brussels between Ukraine, EU and Russia on September 25, the parties initialed the trilateral gas agreement for the upcoming winter. The signing of the basic document was planned until October 1. On October 2, Ukrainian Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Volodymyr Demchyshyn said that gas mechanisms would be agreed in Paris in the "Normandy Format" meeting.
However, on October 2, after a five-hour meeting in the Elysee Palace (Paris) between German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin, there was no clarity in the issue. Signing of the agreement was postponed until November, Western media reported referring to French President, since further negotiations in the "Normandy Quartet" are scheduled for this month.