KIEV, Ukraine, March 19 (UPI) -- Ukraine, to balance its national budget, needs to renegotiate the price it pays Russia for natural gas, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister said.
The economic recession that battered the global economy in 2009 pummeled Ukraine, forcing it to look to the International Monetary Fund for assistance.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Tigipko told delegates at an investment conference in Kiev that his country needed to restructure gas agreements with Moscow to address budget concerns, Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency reports.
"To balance the budget, we have to resolve the situation with Naftogaz, whose transfers made up 2.3 percent of the gross domestic product in 2009," he said. "To this end, it is necessary to negotiate with Russia."
Ukrainian state utility Naftogaz pays $334 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas under the terms of a January 2009 deal with Moscow. Russian gas monopoly Gazprom cut gas supplies to Ukraine briefly in January 2009 because of lingering disputes over contracts and debt.
Around 80 percent of all Russian gas supplies for Europe travel through Soviet-era pipelines in Ukraine.
Kiev in December said the Naftogaz was "in fact bankrupt" and European leaders told the Ukrainian government that the European Union needed "urgent" energy reforms from Kiev.
