Russia sparks fears over Kiev gas route to EU

Russian officials have warned Ukraine it faces the danger of civil war and will today examine the future of gas supplies to the embattled country, a key transit route for energy bound for the EU.

Fears of an energy crisis increased as Kiev and the United States accused Russian agents of fomenting unrest in eastern Ukraine, where local government buildings in two major cities were last night under the control of anti-government protesters.

The Kremlin announced that Russian president Vladimir Putin and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev would today "discuss the extraordinary situation surrounding economic co-operation with Ukraine, including in the sphere of energy dialogue".

Gas supplies
Kiev fears Moscow will cut gas supplies after hiking prices by 80 per cent and complaining of $2.2 billion (€1.59 billion) in arrears. Russia provides Ukraine with about half of its gas and supplies the EU with one-third of its needs, 40 per cent of which are pumped through Ukrainian pipelines.

Ukraine has refused to meet the new gas price. Its energy officials met EU counterparts and industry figures yesterday to discuss ways to counter a possible gas crisis.

Energy minister Yuri Prodan said: “If the situation is not resolved, there will be a threat not only for the supply of gas to Ukraine, but also for the transit of gas to Europe.”

US secretary of state John Kerry said he would hold talks with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Ukrainian officials in Europe next week. He threatened Moscow with fresh sanctions unless it took "concrete steps to disavow separatist actions in eastern Ukraine".

Moscow annexed Crimea last month, saying it was defending Russian-speakers in the region from “fascist” supporters of the new Kiev government.

Kiev and its western allies say Moscow is using provocateurs and a propaganda campaign to whip up fear in eastern Ukraine, and orchestrate protests calling for more autonomy for Russian-speaking areas, even union with Russia.

Demonstrators in the eastern cities of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv seized administrative buildings in recent days. Security forces cleared them from local government headquarters in Kharkiv yesterday, arresting 64 people, but the equivalent buildings in the other two cities were occupied last night.

Ukrainian media quoted officials saying protesters in Luhansk had taken 60 people hostage and had booby-trapped the building with explosives – a claim denied by pro-Russian activists inside.

“It is clear that Russian special forces and agents have been the catalyst behind the chaos,” Mr Kerry said, warning this “could potentially be a contrived pretext for military intervention just as we saw in Crimea”.

Russia’s foreign ministry, meanwhile, urged Kiev not to use force to quash protests. “We call for the immediate halt of all military preparations, which risk sparking a civil war,” it warned.