"MOSCOW (AFX) - Ukraine said it hopes for a compromise over gas prices with Russian state-controlled gas group Gazprom ahead of a Jan 1 deadline.
"Ukraine acknowledged and does acknowledge the need to charge international prices, but the key issue is the timetable for that," chief of the presidential secretariat Oleg Rybachuk said as quoted by ITAR-TASS, adding that "no country triples its prices overnight."
Gazprom has threatened to shut off gas supplies to Ukraine at 10 am on Jan 1 if agreement on a new market-based pricing structure is not reached.
In an interview on Russian television, Gazprom deputy chairman Alexander Medvedev noted late Sunday that the European Union formally recognized Ukraine as a market economy on Dec 1 and described Kiev's complaints that it could not pay world market rates for Russian gas shipments as disingenuous.
Gazprom plans to start charging Ukraine standard market rates for the natural gas it receives from Russia, abolishing the current barter system under which Ukraine receives cheap gas in exchange for use of the gas pipeline system in its territory."
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