OREANDA-NEWS. September 09, 2009. The Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko assures that Ukraine will not undergo any punitive measures for non-implementation of gas contracts with Russia. She declared during the briefing.

“I would like to dispel all rumours with regards to punitive measures. For now no punitive sanctions have been imposed towards Ukraine and they cannot be imposed as we stick to the plan,” the Head of Government underlined.

Moreover, Yulia Tymoshenko doesn’t exclude the situation that over the global financial-economic crunch Ukraine can take less than 32 billion cubic meters of gas: “It depends on how cold the winter is, how the country is getting out of the crisis, in fact, on various factors”. The Head of Government of Ukraine reminded that the issue had been agreed during the meeting with the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Volodymyr Putin.

Yulia Tymoshenko also explained that signed with Gazprom contract “envisages a possibility to deviate to the one or the other side by 20% from the planned showing without any punitive measures applied”.

According to her, under the contract Ukraine has envisaged to purchase 40 billion cubic meters of gas in 2009: “If we haven’t faced the crisis, undoubtedly, this amount would be consumed by Ukraine”.

Besides, as the Prime Minister explained, a large-scale program on replacement of natural gas by other kinds of fuel was being realized in Ukraine. “That’s why we need a smaller amount and if to subtract 20% from 40 billion cubic meters of gas we will have the amount of gas we need – this is a sum in 32 billion cubic meters of gas for the current year. I called these numbers for you to understand that no punitive sanctions can be imposed pursuant to this contract,” Yulia Tymoshenko underlined.