The President of Russia has invited the President of Ukraine to take part in the Moscow International Conference of Heads of State and Government on Ensuring Russian Gas Supplies to European Consumers.

During the conversation they discussed the current situation: Dmitry Medvedev noted that Ukraine’s gas transmission system was still not accepting gas from Russia.

Viktor Yushchenko explained that the Ukrainian system has already the pressure necessary for transporting gas. In this case, the head of the Russian state declared, Ukraine must immediately begin to supply gas to European consumers.

In the ensuing detailed exchange of views on this issue, the Russian side suggested that possible way of recovering Ukraine’s gas transmission system be considered, namely to have an International Consortium of European countries give Ukraine the volume of process gas it needs. After receiving this gas Ukraine’s system will be operational and, therefore, able to ensure the transit of Russian gas to European consumers.

At the same time, Dmitry Medvedev invited Viktor Yushchenko to consider temporary support for a number of European customers through a gas swap, whereby the supply of gas to European consumers from Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities would be offset by a similar amount of Russian gas.

The Russian side once again spoke of its constant readiness to resume talks on gas supplies for Ukrainian consumers at European market prices.

The conversation was initiated by the Ukrainian side.

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