Russia, Ukraine, EU Submit Trilateral Gas Protocol for Gov’ts Approval

A protocol on gas supplies to Ukraine initialled in Brussels on Friday was submitted by Kiev, Moscow and the European Commission for approval to their respective governments, the EU Delegation to Ukraine announced Saturday.

KIEV (Sputnik) — On Friday, European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Demchyshyn, took part in the talks on supplies of Russian natural gas to Kiev and its transit to Europe.

"The European Commission, the Russian Federation and Ukraine have agreed on the terms of gas deliveries to Ukraine for the upcoming winter period from the 1st of October until the end of March 2016. They have initialised the binding protocol and submitted it to the respective governments for confirmation," the EU delegation said in a statement on its Facebook page.

The meeting resulted in the protocol on the so-called winter package of delivering Russian gas to Ukraine. Under the agreement, Kiev committed to buying 2 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Russian gas for storage next month.

According to Sevcovic, the final signature of Russia’s gas deliveries contract to Ukraine for the fourth quarter of 2015 needs a separate procedure.