Ukraine continues insisting on the approval of the Ukrainian option of the Ukrainian gas transport system upgrade instead of the realization of the South Stream project in negotiations with Russia and the European Union, according to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
He said in an interview with Ukrainian television channels late on Friday that this does not concern the existing Ukrainian gas transport system, but the construction of additional gas pipelines, and the cost of the project is estimated at $3-3.5 billion.
The president said that the humblest value of the realization of the South Stream project is $15 billion.
Answering the question on the creation of a Ukrainian-Russian joint venture on the gas transport system, he said that if Russia and the European Union agree with the Ukrainian option of the Ukrainian gas transport system upgrade, the South Stream project would fall down.
"We would modernize a part of our pipelines in south Ukraine, we would complete them, boost the pumping capacity and receive some additional 35 billion [cubic meters] for gas pumping. This is a first stage," he said.
Yanukovych said that the project cannot exist without the European Union.
