The United States said Tuesday that the gas cutoffs in Europe in the winter were unacceptable while calling on Russia and Ukraine to solve the gas dispute.
"We regret the escalation of the gas dispute between Ukraine and Russia, which has resulted in decreased gas flow to European customers. There gas cutoffs are unacceptable," State Department Sean McCormack said in a statement.
"We welcome the announcement that Gazprom and Naftogaz will restart negotiation on Jan. 8 and call on both sides to engage in a good faith effort to resolve their dispute in a transparent, commercial manner," the spokesman said.
A gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine worsened Tuesday after Russian energy giant Gazprom, according to order by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, has cut gas supplies to countries in Europe, which gets about a fifth of its needs via pipelines through Ukraine.
Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece and Croatia said flows of Russian gas via Ukraine have come to a halt, creating what Bulgaria calls a "crisis situation" in the middle of winter. Austria and Romania also said deliveries were down 90 percent and 75 percent respectively.
The European Union described Russia's abrupt stoppage of gas supplies to the bloc via Ukraine as "completely unacceptable," and urged Moscow and Kiev to find a solution by the end of the week.
Russia's Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz failed to reach compromise over the gas and transit prices for a new contract in 2009, and over the size of gas debts owned by Ukraine. Same dispute resulted in a briefly interrupted delivery of Russia's gas to many European countries in January 2006.
Source:Xinhua
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