The contract signed in 2009 by Ukraine's government led by then-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko with Russia's Gazprom for the supply of natural gas to Ukraine is costing the country $6 billion annually, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has said.
“The contract that was signed for 2009 until 2019 by Tymoshenko, if its terms remain unchanged, will lose the country around $6 billion annually. These losses place a burden on each citizen of Ukraine,” he told a Friday press conference in Kyiv.
“Tymoshenko suffered the consequences of her deeds. What did the country do? Why does it have to suffer? Why do we have to pay under this contract until 2019? That’s the question we have to answer… I am really upset about this,” the president said.
“It is terrible – the biggest problem we have today. If we did not have this problem, then we would have resources to resolve other problems we are going to discuss today – in medicine, housing and utilities, as well as poverty,” he said.
Yanukovych said that he does not blame Russia for signing the gas contract.
“It [the gas contract] is a noose around our neck,” he said.
The president also said he was surprised by a bill received by Ukraine from Russia’s Gazprom for importing less gas in 2012 than it was to under a take-or-pay contractual commitment.
“How can we protect our country from this unfair price? We have only one way – cutting down on gas pumping, consumption of gas, and we are following this way,” he said, adding that this figure has dropped from 42 to 34 billion cubic meters since 2010.
