Anatoliy Kinakh, the secretary of the National Security Council, said Ukraine was not stealing any Russian gas heading to Europe, but, according to the council's press service, "on the contrary, is providing today gas transit services to Europe, in effect, by using its own resources and reducing domestic gas consumption."
According to the official, this proves that Ukraine is a reliable transit state.
Russian energy giant Gazprom, however, said Ukraine had stolen 104.8 million cubic meters of Russian export gas from January 1 to January 2, and 118.7 million cu m from January 2 to 3.
Gazprom uses three pipelines for transit via Ukrainian territory. The concern decided to cut off supplies through two pipelines to Ukraine itself on January 1, when the latter refused to sign a contract on market prices for gas.
