MOSCOW, November 5 (RIA Novosti) — The European Union intends to continue the provision of financial assistance to Ukraine to help the country repay its debt for Russian gas, EU Ambassador to Russia Vigaudas Ushatskas stated Wednesday.
"Our aid reaches billion euros, including what we have already given and will give [to Ukraine]. We have been helping to reach a treaty between Russia and Ukraine on the whole range of complex gas issues. And we will allocate the amounts that will be needed to pay off [debts for] gas," Ushatskas told Ekho Moskvy radio.
According to him, the European Union and Russia share common interests in stabilizing the situation in Ukraine.
"Neither Russia, nor the European Commission, nor the IMF should be some kind of 'auntie' that would care for Ukraine all the time… Of course, this requires internal political, economic and social reforms for Ukraine not to be proclaimed as the most corrupt political system. On this basis the European Union highlights the unprecedented volumes of aid to Ukraine," Ushatskas added.
Ukraine's state oil and gas company Naftogaz said Tuesday that it had transferred the first tranche of $1.45 billion of its gas debt to Russia.
The final round of gas talks on October 30 between Russia and Ukraine, brokered by the European Union, ended with the signing of the so-called winter package agreement securing gas supplies to Ukraine until March.
Under the agreement, Russia will resume its delivery of gas to Ukraine at a price of $378 per 1,000 cubic meters till the end of 2014 and $365 for the same amount in the first quarter of 2015, while Kiev must pay Gazprom $3.1 billion of its debt to the company before the end of the year.
Gazprom switched Ukraine to a prepayment system for gas deliveries over its debt of more than $5 billion in June.
