You're reading: Kuchma: Ukraine cannot retreat after catastrophic ‘victories’ on gas front

Ukraine's second president (1995-2005), Leonid Kuchma, has said that a rise in the price of imported natural gas is payment for Ukraine's independence.

"We should always be prepared to pay for our independence, when it’s necessary – with blood, and in a quiet time – with money, if there’s not enough political wisdom and economic calculation. At the same time, it’s unnecessary to confuse payment for independence with payment for stupidity. The New Year ‘gas wars’ of 2006 and 2009, the failed results of which were constantly declared as victories, began in 2005, when the price of $50 [per 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas] for ten years or the creation of a gas consortium with Russia and Germany seemed the ‘betrayal of national interests’ to someone," Kuchma said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

Kuchma wished firmness to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and courage to the negotiators "and everyone who is holding our gas defense this autumn."

"We cannot retreat after catastrophic ‘victories.’ And there’s nowhere to retreat to," he said.

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