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MOSCOW (AP) — Russian gas giant Gazprom on Thursday urged Ukraine to pay its debt, and announced a 70 percent rise in the charge for future supplies.
Ukraine relies on Russia for the greater part of its energy consumption. Russia earlier this month canceled a discount to Ukraine, a few weeks after pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych fled the country and an interim government stepped in.
Gazprom said in a statement on Thursday that Ukraine "must take urgent steps to clear the debt that has accumulated." Gazprom's chief executive Alexei Miller met with Oleksiy Kobolev, head of Ukrainian state-owned Naftogaz, in Moscow on Thursday.
Miller, who then met with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, said that his company is scrapping the remaining discount to Ukraine and will be charging it 70 percent more starting this month, Russian news agencies reported.
Gazprom said on Thursday that Ukraine owes Russia $2.2 billion for gas while Medvedev mentioned a "possibility" of seeking the repayment of an unspecified amount that Ukraine should have paid Russia in export duties. The duty was scrapped in 2010 in return for the extension of the lease for the Russian Black Sea fleet in Crimea. Russia has now annexed the Crimean Peninsula.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday pledged to help wean Ukraine off Russian gas.
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