BRUSSELS, March 3 (UPI) -- Ukraine and Russia have agreed to a gas shipment deal which will keep Ukraine supplied with natural gas until the end of March.
The agreement, brokered in Brussels by the European Union (EU), was announced Monday. The Russian energy conglomerate Gazprom threatened to stop gas deliveries, referred to as the Winter Package, to its Ukrainian counterpart Naftogaz, unless it received pre-payment.
Last week Gazprom began diverting gas supplies to eastern Ukraine, where a violent conflict involving pro-Russian separatists has been continuing since February 2014, and counting those shipments as part of Ukraine's agree-upon supply.
Russia supplies Ukraine with about one-third of its gas needs. "We also agreed to take up trilateral negotiations on the follow-up to the Winter Package. I am reassured that the supply of gas to the EU markets remains secure," said EU representative Maros Sefcovic of the agreement, negotiated between Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and his Ukrainian Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn, in a statement.
The statement added that talks on Ukraine's near-term future needs, called the Summer Package, will begin in March.
