MOSCOW — As European diplomats labored to patch up a flagging peace agreement in Ukraine on Tuesday, Russia warned the Ukrainians that they could run out of natural gas within two days because of a dispute over payments.
The warning by Aleksei B. Miller, the chief executive of Gazprom, the state-controlled Russian energy behemoth, illustrated how the hostilities between Russia and Ukraine are hardly limited to the battlefields in eastern Ukraine, where a cease-fire agreed to nearly two weeks ago has still not fully taken hold.
Russia has long used its muscle as the region’s major energy supplier to wield political and economic influence, particularly in disputes with Ukraine and other former Soviet republics. A bitter feud over gas payments has been a subplot of the wider political dispute between Moscow and Kiev over the past year.
As part of that dispute, Russia last year cut off supplies and ended a longstanding practice of selling gas to Ukraine on credit and instead demanded prepayment.
“Ukraine has not made prepayment for gas on time,” Mr. Miller said at a news conference in Russia, local news agencies reported. He added that the time needed for Kiev to make a payment “will result in a total end to supplies of Russian gas to Ukraine in just two days, which poses serious risks for gas transit to Europe.”
However, Ukraine says it has already paid for all the gas it requested for this year, and for an additional 287 million cubic meters not yet ordered. Kiev is now accusing Russia of violating an agreement reached in October, under which Ukraine paid $3.1 billion in past gas bills and Gazprom resumed supplies on a prepaid basis. That agreement was expected to keep Ukraine fully supplied with gas through the winter.
The dispute seems to hinge at least in part on the gas that Russia has delivered to the breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, which it says counts toward the total Kiev bought in advance. Earlier this month, Gazprom said that it would supply natural gas directly to the regions, which are largely controlled by separatists, because it said the Ukrainian government had shut off supplies.
Gazprom said that it would charge Ukraine for that gas, and that the amount of gas supplied to the east would be deducted from Ukraine’s prepaid allotment.
Mindful of how Russia has used gas as a political weapon, Ukraine in recent months has taken strong steps to reduce its dependence on Russian gas. It reached a deal with Slovakia for reverse piping of gas already purchased in Europe as well as a separate deal to buy gas from Norway.
And despite Mr. Miller’s comments, there was no reason to believe that Europe would find itself short of gas as a result of the dispute. Europe, too, has reduced its dependence on Russian gas by engaging other suppliers, and in recent months Europe has built up reserves in anticipation of potential difficulties with Russia.
Russia, while controlling the supply, is in turn dependent on Ukraine for allowing gas through its pipelines to other customers in Europe. Painfully aware of that reliance, Russia has sought to cut Ukraine out by building a new pipeline under the Black Sea and through Turkey.
The continuing gas dispute demonstrated the extent to which Ukraine would still be at Russia’s mercy even without the war against Russian-backed separatists. Fighting, however, has continued despite the cease-fire brokered this month in Minsk, Belarus, and on Tuesday, the foreign ministers of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany met in Paris in a bid to get it back on track. It did not appear that they had much success.
In a statement after the meeting, the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, said the four nations remained committed to the Minsk accord and were demanding that all sides observe the truce without exception.
“The four of us are calling for strict implementation of all the provisions in the Minsk agreements, starting with a total cease-fire and the complete withdrawal of heavy weapons,” Mr. Fabius said.
Mr. Fabius said the meeting also involved discussion of the situation in Debaltseve, a strategic transportation hub that was the scene of fierce and bloody fighting in the days after the Minsk accord was signed.
After Ukrainian troops endured heavy losses, and weeks of bombardment, President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine last week ordered a retreat from the town, allowing separatists to seize control.
Mr. Fabius said there concerns were also raised about the coastal city of Mariupol. Ukraine and its allies have long feared that the separatists would make a push for Mariupol as part of a bid to establish a land connection to Crimea, which Russia invaded and annexed last March.
The Ukrainian foreign minister, Pavlo Klimkin, speaking to reporters after the meeting, said that “unfortunately” there had been no agreement among the four diplomats to condemn the fighting in Debaltseve as a violation of the truce.
The four foreign ministers also called for unfettered access throughout the conflict zone for observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which is charged with monitoring the cease-fire agreement.
The organization has complained in recent days that its observer teams could not reach some areas, including Debaltseve.
- http://bit.ly/1A3TI0E
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu