Ukraine pays off December gas bill: Gazprom
(KIEV) - Ukraine has paid off its December gas bill, the Russian energy company Gazprom said Thursday, confirming a statement made by Ukraine's national energy company Naftogaz a day earlier.
Naftogaz "has paid for December's gas," a spokesman for Gazprom, Sergei Kupryanov told AFP.
Ukraine's national energy company Naftogaz told AFP Wednesday that it had settled its bill, following concerns that it faced serious difficulties meeting a January 11 deadline.
"The company has settled the December bill for imported gas in full and in time," company spokesman Valentin Zemlyanski announced.
Relations between Russia and Ukraine over gas are followed closely by Europe.
Last year a dispute between the two former Soviet republics on natural gas prices led to a cutoff of Russian gas supplies to western Europe and severe shortages in some countries amidst freezing winter weather.
A quarter of the gas consumed in the European Union comes from Russia, 80 percent of which passes through Ukraine.
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