Ukraine PM confident Russia won't cut gas

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2008

KIEV (AFP) — Ukraine's prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, gave assurances Saturday that Russia would not go ahead with a threatened cut in gas supplies next week.

"I am convinced that there will be no cut-off," Tymoshenko said at a press conference, without giving details.

She said that Russian gas giant Gazprom had not yet made a formal warning and that "no official document on this exists."

Gazprom warned Friday it would cut its supplies to Ukraine by 25 percent from 0700 GMT Monday after talks on outstanding debts failed.

A spokesman for Ukrainian gas company Naftogaz, Valentin Zemlyansky, told AFP that fresh talks were underway in Moscow on Saturday.

However, Gazprom's spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov told AFP he had "no new information" on the...