MOSCOW: The Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Thursday that Russia could cut natural gas supplies to Ukraine, a move that would also threaten supplies to the European Union if Ukraine’s $2.2 billion debt to Russian state-controlled company Gazprom is not swiftly addressed.
In a letter delivered to several European leaders, Putin expressed “extreme concern about the situation surrounding Ukraine’s gas debt and … supplies of gas to the European Union,” which flow through Ukraine, the Russian media quoted Putin’s spokesman Dmitri Peskov as saying.
Putin also called for immediate consultations with European leaders on stabilizing Ukraine’s economy, and said that about $5.5 billion in gas would need to be pumped into Ukrainian gas stores to guarantee uninterrupted transit.
