Gazprom to Halt Gas Flows to Ukraine if No Payment by Monday-CEO

From Reuters:

Russian natural gas exporter Gazprom will halt supplies to Ukraine if it fails to pay off $1.95 billion of its gas debts by Monday, chief executive Alexei Miller said on Thursday.

His remarks signalled Gazprom has ruled out extending the deadline for a third time to increase the chances of resolving a pricing dispute at talks and averting cuts in supplies that could also disrupt deliveries to the European Union.

The gas pricing disagreement is central to Russia's crisis in relations with Ukraine, which has led to the worst standoff with the West since the end of the Cold War.

No agreement has been reached in several rounds of talks brokered by the European Commission. As the latest talks hit an impasse, Gazprom set June 16 as the deadline for Ukraine to pay off part of its debt.

"If Ukraine pays for no (gas) volumes at all, it means that ... gas shipments to Ukraine will be zero," Miller said in televised comments....MORE