Ukraine will pay for Russian natural gas supplies in February on time, the former Soviet state's acting finance minister said on Wednesday.
"We will pay on time... We plan to pay 5.1 billion hryvnias [$637.6 million] for gas [consumed] in February," Ihor Umanskiy said.
Earlier reports said Kiev had paid in full for 2.55 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas it consumed in January. Umanskiy said Ukraine paid $780 million last month.
Ukraine is paying $305.2 per 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas in the first quarter of 2010. Russian energy giant Gazprom expects Ukraine's average gas price this year to be $280 per 1,000 cubic meters, up from $228 in 2009.
Gazprom has been selling natural gas to Ukraine at a European market price without any discount since January 1, 2010.
Russia and Ukraine, which transits some 80% of Russia's EU-bound gas, has had a series of pricing and debt disputes in recent years, which led to brief cutoffs of supplies to consumers in the European Union.
The latest dispute, in early January 2009, was resolved when the neighbors signed deals under which they agreed to switch to market prices for gas supplies and transit fees from the start of 2010, abandoning a long-standing discounted pricing practice.
KIEV, February 24 (RIA Novosti)
