KIEV, Ukraine, May 17 (UPI) -- Energy tops the agenda for a meeting Monday in Kiev between Russian and Ukrainian leaders, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said.
Medvedev arrived Monday for an official meeting with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, his second since the pro-Kremlin leader took office in Kiev in February.
The Kremlin said the Russian president was focusing on energy issues with the former Soviet republic, state-run news agency RIA Novosti reports. Ukraine transports around 80 percent of all Russian gas bound for Europe through its Soviet-era pipeline networks.
Yanukovych brokered a discount for the price of natural gas from Russia in an April agreement. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said a merger between Russian gas monopoly Gazprom and Ukrainian utility Naftogaz was a likely solution to simmering energy woes.
Medvedev, however, downplayed the likelihood of the merger, saying it could be problematic for both sides.
"But if we talk about some kind of joint projects, joint enterprises where different gas and gas transportation assets were consolidated not in a way of a direct merger, but in a way of consolidation, for example, of separate parts, then, I think, this would be possible," he said.
