New Crisis with Russia Averted as Ukraine Pays Natural Gas Dues

Ukrainian PM Tymoshenko announced Friday her country had paid the Russians for the October gas deliveries. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Ukraine has paid Russia for the October 2009 natural gas supplies, which has assuaged fears about the breakup of a new gas crisis between the two states not unlike the one in January.

The news was announced Friday by Ukrainian Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, during her visit to the Eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

In her words, the Ukrainian national gas company Naftogaz has paid the Russian provider Gazprom the due USD 500 M (EUR 336 M) for the gas supplied in October.

At the end of last week, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared a new gas crisis might be looming as Ukraine seemed to have trouble coming up with the needed funds. Shortly after his statement, the Ukrainian gas company Naftogaz admitted in a communique it had difficulties finding the money.

Bulgaria was one of the worst affected countries in the January 2009 Russia-Ukraine gas war, and Bulgarian analysts have recently underscored the country's unpreparedness for a repetition of the same scenario.

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