Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostiantyn Hryschenko, who was Ukraine's ambassador to Russia in 2009, has said the 2009 gas crisis could have been avoided if there had been a meeting between the presidents of Ukraine and Russia.
"If a meeting at the highest level had taken place then… we could have avoided the gas crisis," Hryschenko said while testifying in court a criminal case on gas supply contracts against the former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
The foreign minister said he thought "every possible effort" should have been made in 2009 to prevent the gas crisis.
In 2009, Viktor Yuschenko was the president of Ukraine, and current Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was also in office.
