The agreement in question laid out terms for international monitors to check the flow of natural gas transiting through pipelines in Ukraine from Russia to customers in Europe. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW/BRUSSELS - RUSSIA and Ukraine signed a deal on Monday for a second time to help secure the resumption of Russian gas supplies to Europe, cut off for nearly a week in freezing temperatures.
Earlier on Monday Ukraine removed additions to the deal struck over the weekend to resolve the latest row holding up the deployment of monitors to check Russian gas flowing across Ukraine to Europe.
Shivering Europe kept waiting for gas taps to be turned back on
VIENNA - MUCH of Europe, in particular countries in the centre of the continent and the Balkans, waited on Sunday with growing impatience for gas supplies to be restored after six days in the cold in the depths of winter.
An EU-brokered agreement to turn the taps back on was reached between Russia and Ukraine over the weekend, but Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said late on Sunday that the deal aimed at restoring the supply of Russian gas to European consumers via Ukrainian pipelines was off.
Ukraine says all gas payments are up to date: declaration
BRUSSELS - UKRAINE maintains it does not owe money to Russia's Gazprom and denies stealing gas intended for European customers, according to a controversial Kiev declaration seen by AFP late on Sunday.
At several points during the written declaration, Kiev says that 'Ukraine has not any debt vis-a-vis Gazprom and fixed its financial settlements for all consumed gas.'
Russia has accused Ukraine of siphoning off gas to make up for losses it has suffered since Moscow turned off the tap on Jan 1 in a dispute over gas prices. Ukraine denies the charge.
'The document has been finally signed,' Mr Alexander Medvedev, deputy chief executive of Russia's state gas export monopoly Gazprom told a news conference in Brussels.
The European Union's energy commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, told reporters the 27-nation bloc believed supplies could start at 0700 GMT (3.00pm Singapore time) on Tuesday.
'Russia has announced all conditions have been met and we expect now that gas will be flowing in the morning,' Mr Piebalgs told reporters.
Gazprom and Ukraine have said it will take at least 36 hours before gas reaches EU borders after flows resume.
Power-play
The gas row is yet another power-play between the neighbours, whose relations have been strained since Ukraine elected pro-Western leaders after the 'Orange revolution' in 2004 and tried to shrug off Russia's influence.
The EU, which backed Ukraine in a similar dispute in 2006, has tried to steer a neutral course between the two, and helped broker the deal over the weekend to allow monitors on Ukrainian territory.
But some diplomats have criticised both for holding the Union which gets a fifth of all its gas supplies from pipelines that run from Russia across Ukraine, to ransom.
'It is unbearable that Russia and Ukraine carry out their conflict in the middle of a grim cold winter on Europe's back,' German economics secretary, Peter Hintze, said in Brussels.
'We need a mechanism so we can act faster in future crises.'
Russia and Ukraine traded blame for the weekend's false-start. Moscow has accused the Kiev authorities of being corrupt and inept. Ukraine said on Monday Russia was delaying the settlement because it had insufficient gas supplies. -- REUTERS
