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Russia cuts off gas as Ukraine rejects proposal
Moscow/Kiev - Russia began cutting off natural gas supplies to Kiev at 0700 GMT on Sunday, a move described by Ukraine President Yushchenko 'as showing clear signs of a threat to our national security'.Officials at Gazprom Schroeder must be helping Putin with a spine injection., Russia's state-run gas concern, said Russia began reducing pressure in gas pipelines to Ukraine immediately after a 0700 GMT deadline passed. The Russian energy giant had threatened to cut Ukraine's gas supplies off, if Kiev did not agree to a five-fold price hike by midnight on New Year's Eve. After meetings with senior government and energy industry officials, Yushchenko declared Sunday the Russian severance as directly threatening Ukrainian national security, and announced 'readiness' ask nuclear club nations and the European Union to intervene in the conflict with Moscow. 'We consider this an obvious form of economic pressure ... and a violation (by Russia) of treaty obligations,' Yushchenko said. In 1996, Ukraine became the first country in history to renounce nuclear weapons, in exchange for a commitment from the U.S. and Russia of support in case of an external threat to the former Soviet republic. Yushchenko's threat, if made good, would mark a dramatic escalation of a long-running energy conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Representatives from both countries have been wrangling over gas prices for almost a year. Gazprom said it was only allowing gas intended for Europe into Ukraine, and was halting all other deliveries including its own supplies to Ukraine, and Turkmenistan gas contracted by the Ukrainians, and delivered to Ukraine via pipelines across Russia, Kuprianov said. Ukrnafta executives were quick to retaliate, and to try and shift the onus for economic fall-out from the boycott onto Moscow by declaring mid-afternoon that as far as Ukraine was concerned, Gazprom had reduced overall volumes intended for Europe. 'This could bring a reduction of pressure in pipelines and as a result a limitation in deliveries of gas to Europe, and a partial reduction to Ukrainian consumers,' a Sunday Ukrnafta statement said in part. The initial effect of the severance on Ukrainian households was negligible, with cities across the country reporting normal gas supplies. Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-01-01 |
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