Sputnik: EC to Finance Ukraine's Winter Gas Purchase for Ongoing Demands

The European Commission will also continue to provide [Ukraine’s] ongoing funding in the winter period because for its safe passage, as you know, Ukraine not only needs to store gas, but purchase current volumes to meet its domestic needs,” Novak said.

Kiev’s gas purchases to meet real-time demands will also ensure the reliable transit of Russia’s natural gas to Europe, the Russian energy minister said after initialing a winter package gas delivery protocol.

Novak initialed the protocol, in which Ukraine committed to buying 2 billion cubic meters of Russian gas for storage next month, with his Ukrainian counterpart and the European Commission vice president in charge of the energy union.