Ukraine warns Russia may cut gas supply on Monday

Kiev has warned that Russia might cut gas supplies next week, as Nato aired fears that Moscow is supplying tanks and other heavy weapons to rebels in eastern Ukraine. Prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told Ukrainian ministries, energy firms and local administrations to prepare for a possible halt to Russian gas flows on Monday, a move that could have a knock-on effect in EU states.

He also said Kiev was ready to “take Russia to court” over their dispute about the price of Moscow’s gas, as the bitter crisis in relations threatened to disrupt the vital energy sector.

Tariffs to supply EU

The premier ordered officials to revise the tariffs Russia must pay to pump gas across Ukraine to the EU, which receives about 15 per cent of its gas supplies that way.

“As the Russian Federation purposefully and unilaterally refuses to settle the conflict, the energy security of Ukraine and the EU is undermined,” Mr Yatsenyuk said yesterday.

Previous price disputes between Ukraine and Russia have disrupted gas flow to EU states, and Brussels is brokering talks to break the impasse before Monday – Moscow’s deadline for Kiev to repay an alleged $1.95 billion (€1.44 billion) in arrears.

Ukrainian officials have said the country will pay the debt if Russian energy firm Gazprom accepts an EU proposal to cut the gas price for Kiev by 33 per cent; Ukraine has rejected Moscow’s offer of a 20 per cent cut.

Russia offered Ukraine’s Kremlin-backed president Viktor Yanukovich a deep discount on gas after he rejected a major EU deal last November, but doubled the price after he was ousted in February and replaced by pro-western leaders.

The EU’s energy commissioner, Günther Oettinger, said he was “optimistic that we will do all to avoid disruption” of Russian gas flows.

On Wednesday, Russian president Vladimir Putin said Ukraine’s continuing requests for cheaper gas were a “dead end”, and warned that the issue would enter “another phase” if Gazprom’s offer was rejected.

Kiev has refused to yield to Russia on the gas price, with officials noting the heavy financial losses Ukraine suffered when Moscow annexed its Crimean peninsula in March.

Ukraine accuses Moscow of backing separatist rebels who have seized swathes of its industrial eastern provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk, declaring their independence from Kiev and calling for unification with Russia.

In their first official telephone conversation, Ukraine's new president Petro Poroshenko told Mr Putin on Thursday the reported arrival in Donetsk region of three tanks from Russia was "unacceptable".

"I am concerned about reports that pro-Russian armed gangs are acquiring heavy weapons from Russia, including Russian tanks," Nato secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said yesterday.

“If these reports are confirmed, this would mark a serious escalation of the crisis in eastern Ukraine.”

Mr Poroshenko’s office announced yesterday that government forces had retaken control of the Donetsk-region port of Mariupol. Russia has called for an immediate halt to an “anti-terrorist” operation in the east that has claimed more than 200 lives.