Putin: Russia to sign gas agreement acceptable for Ukraine

MOSCOW, Dec 19 (PRIME) -- Russia will definitely reach a gas transit agreement, which will suit Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday during his annual news conference.

“I think that we will agree on that. We are on the way to these agreements. And we will try to make Ukraine happy with these agreements as well. We have no wish to exacerbate the situation in the energy sector or somehow use it to have an influence on the situation in Ukraine. We are interested in Ukraine getting the resource in a normal way, and we want our European partners to be calm seeing that we have normal relations with our neighbors,” he said.

He also said that a decision of the Stockholm arbitration court in a U.S. $3 billion suit filed by Ukrainian energy holding Naftogaz Ukrainy against Russian gas giant Gazprom was political.

“I am sure, as a lawyer by my first degree, that the decision of the Stockholm arbitration court is not of a legal or a lawful character, but more of a political one. One of the basis for the decision of the Stockholm arbitration court says that it was done due to a heavy economic situation in Ukraine. It is nonsense,” he said.

“But the decision of the court exists, it is true, and we should be ruled by it. We will be ruled by it and find an acceptable solution for everyone, even for Ukraine. I have repeatedly said that we will keep transit through Ukraine despite construction of all these infrastructure facilities like Nord Stream-1, Nord Stream-2, and TurkStream,” he said.

The current supply and transit contracts between Russia and Ukraine expire at the end of 2019.

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