Naftogaz late Monday denied information that Russia and Ukraine reached an agreement on Russian gas transit via Ukraine. "No deal on Russian gas transit through Ukraine after 2019 has been agreed," the company said on its Twitter account. It added that the parties continue negotiations at the level of experts as well as in the trilateral format mediated by the European Commission.
"Naftogaz will inform [the public] about any agreements reached through official sources. Ukraine and the European Commission are very constructive in these negotiations, and we readily discuss various solutions. However any step must be matched by reciprocal moves of equal value from the Russian side," Naftogaz noted.
The extension of the contract for gas transit from Russia to Europe through Ukraine after 2019 is the main agenda of the two countries, since the current ten-year agreement expires at the end of this year.
"Negotiations on gas transit between Gazprom and Naftogaz of Ukraine in Vienna were successful, the parties continue working," Executive Director of the Ukrainian company Yury Vitrenko told Russian news agency TASS on December 13.
According to Kremlin, Russia's President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel at the initiative of the German side.
Kremlin said in a statement that one of the topics Putin and Merkel covered was gas cooperation, which is a topical issue for the energy security of the European Union, including the prospects of Russian gas transit via Ukraine after January 1, 2020, and the implementation of the Nord Stream 2 project.
(Anadolu Agency)
