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New Ukraine govt. must address gas urgently - chief of staff

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"It is absolutely clear that the government will have to wrestle with these problems from the very first days in office," Oleh Rybachuk, the head of the presidential secretariat, said, adding that the issues required immediate solution.
KIEV, June 23 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's new government will have to tackle issues connected with natural gas immediately, the head of the presidential secretariat said Friday.

The new gas price formula for Russian natural gas introduced late last year sparked a gas row between the two countries and led to Russia suspending gas supplies to Ukraine, which affected European nations.

"It is absolutely clear that the government will have to wrestle with these problems from the very first days in office," Oleh Rybachuk said, adding that the issues required immediate solution.

"As the future prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko will certainly have to deal with these issues quickly and effectively," he said.

After a parliamentary coalition was formed Thursday, former prime minister and prime minister-designate in the new government, Tymoshenko said she would revise all of Ukraine's gas deals, including with Russia and seek lower gas prices for the former Communist country.

Russia's Minister for Industry and Energy Viktor Khristenko responded robustly Friday by saying that Russian-Ukrainian gas agreements needed to be honored rather than revised.

"The first thing that must be done is to honor the agreements," the minister said. "Statements about reviewing them can only be made when they [the deals] expire."

A spokesman for Russia's natural gas giant Gazprom also reacted to Tymoshenko's comments Thursday with a strongly worded statement.

"We believe that Yulia Tymoshenko's words again prove that Ukraine is regrettably the weak link in the chain of Russia's gas supplies to Europe," Sergei Kupriyanov said, adding that Tymoshenko's threats could lead to a new crisis similar to the one that hit Ukraine-Russian relations at the start of the year.

In January, Gazprom cut off supplies to neighboring Ukraine after it refused to agree to a new price for supplies of Russian natural gas. Gazprom clients in Europe registered a shortfall shortly afterward as the company accused Ukraine of siphoning off European-bound gas.

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