Ukraine said Wednesday that its natural gas imports from Russia in 2012 dropped by 27 percent as the country explores means of diversification to ease a dependence on Russia, according to Xinhua.

Ukraine imported around 32.926 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2012, of which 32.874 billion cubic meters were from Russia, down from 44.801 billion cubic meters a year ago, the State Statistics Service said.

The average price of gas imported from Russia last year amounted to 426 U.S. dollars per 1,000 cubic meters in 2012, up nearly 4.5 percent from 2011, the agency said.

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In the same time, the ex-Soviet republic imported 52.702 million cubic meters of gas from Germany at the price of 417 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters, it said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Ukrainian Energy and Coal Minister Eduard Stavytskiy said his country plans to resume imports of natural gas from Turkmenistan to ease the dependence on expensive Russian supply.