Russia/Ukraine/EU

Gazprom and Kiev fight over gas as EU calls for legal action

Article published on the 2009-01-14 Latest update 2009-01-14 15:00 TU

Youths protest in front of the Russian embassy in Kiev
(Credit: Reuters)

EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said Wednesday European companies should take legal action if the flow of Russian gas to Europe is not urgently resumed. Russian gas giant Gazprom says Ukraine refused to transit Russian natural gas to several countries in Europe.

Russia's president Dmitri Medvedev said Gazprom has lost over a billion dollars in revenue since 1 January.

Hundreds of thousands of Europeans begin a second week with little or no heat in their homes, offices or schools in the middle of winter.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev and Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico are due in Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin. Both countries are among those to have been badly hit by the gas crisis, which has continued despite EU efforts to broker a solution.

Fico was in Kiev earlier today for talks with Ukranian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. In the latest in a series of diplomatic exchanges over who is responsible for the crisis Tymoshenko said that Ukraine is ready to immediately send gas on to Europe if it receives delivery from Russia.

Russia had resumed gas supplies yesterday after international experts were placed along the pipeline route through Ukraine only to shut off them off again several hours later.