Russia-Ukraine gas deal collapses once again

12 January 2009

The European Union-brokered gas supply agreement last week to resume gas supplies to Europe, which was agreed to by Russia and Ukraine has collapsed.

The collapse came as a result of Ukraine arbitrarily altering and adding new clauses in the agreement, after it had been signed by Russia.

Russia had signed the agreement on Saturday night at Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's residence near Moscow and Ukraine's Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko signed it the following day, but with a declaration attached.

Speaking on state television, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said, "I am ordering the government not to accept the document signed on Saturday,'' even as EU monitors arrived in Ukraine to verifying the quantity of gas pumped in by Russia and whether the same quantity reached Europe as per the terms brokered in Brussels by Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, who is the current president of the EU.

The added declaration from the Ukrainian Prime Minister demanded that Moscow take back its allegations that her country had pilfered gas from the transit pipelines and said that it would take as much gas from the pipeline as was required by Ukrainian pumping stations to pump the gas onward to Europe - an act that Russia considers that to be theft.

The declaration, issued alongside a signed agreement setting up a monitoring mission for Ukraine's pipeline system, also blamed Russia for the gas cutoff to the EU.