Ukraine counts on agreements with Russia on temporary gas price, otherwise price will be set by Stockholm court - Yatsenyuk

Ukraine still needs additional 5 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to live through the winter and expects to agree on the temporary price of this gas at the joint talks involving Russia and the EU, but if the talks fail the price of gas will be established by the Stockholm arbitration court, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatsenyuk has said.

"To make it through the winter, Ukraine will need to purchase additional 5 billion cubic meters of gas," the premier said when opening a government meeting in Kyiv on Wednesday.

"There are two ways: to pursue joint energy policy together with the EU in order to sign a temporary agreement for the gas supply until the Stockholm arbitration [tribunal] resolves the dispute (between Naftogaz and Gazprom concerning the 2009 contract). If no agreement is reached the second option is to appeal to the court so that the court should set the price and conditions for the gas supply," Yatsenyuk said.

According to him, Ukraine and the EU have taken a common stand at the talks. "We expect further negotiations," he said.

The prime minister also said that Ukraine currently has 16.7 billion cubic meters of gas in its underground gas storage facilities and on October 1 Ukraine started receiving under a contract with the Norwegian Statoil.

As Capital reported, norwegian contract – a loophole for legalization of the reverse flow gas supply to Ukraine.