Speaking at his joint press conference with President Lech Kaczynski of Poland that took place today in Wisla town, President Yushchenko said that Ukraine would agree to transfer Russian gas to Europe even without contract if Russia restored supplies in full volume.
“If Russian Gazprom provides 300 to 310 million cubic meters of gas intended for European consumers, Ukraine would guarantee transit of this gas even without having a transit contract and without charging transit fee until the question is resolved”, - he said.
“With the above I want to declare to our partners in Europe: the problem is not in Ukrainian transit but in supplies of proper volumes of gas to European customers”, - he added.
According to Victor Yushchenko Ukraine’s transit system has been working in reverse mode since Russia cut of supplies of gas, in order to provide supplies of gas to Europe out of Ukraine’s underground storages. Although Ukraine is ready to switch the system in forward mode at any time, he said, given the volume of gas supplied daily by Russia is suitable for that, 70 million cubic meters suggested by the Russian side is not enough to do that.
“For us to renew functioning of the system, Russia has to provide supplies of gas in volumes contracted with the EU countries”, - said Victor Yushchenko.
