OREANDA-NEWS. Any decisions taken by the Russian Federation on Ukraine are political in nature. And one of the Kremlin's political ideas was the economic blockade of Ukraine, Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk stated at a press conference on December 30, 2014.

"Any decisions taken in our bilateral relations, if they can be called relations, the Kremlin accepts only through political prism. What was the idea of the Kremlin? Of course, to make energy blockade of Ukraine. It all began with gas contracts when they have disconnected us from gas and thought that we would freeze," Arseniy Yatsenyuk stated.

According to him, the Russian Federation was convinced that Ukraine would be unable to defend themselves: "It was clear that they thought that we would not go to court - we went to court, we would not sue against Russian Gazprom in Stockholm - we filed this lawsuit, we would not file a claim for reviewing the transit with Russia and that under the pressure we would agree with the terms on the gas supply that were publicly offered by the leader of the neighboring northern state, Arseniy Yatsenyuk noted. Russian mentality implies that if you can be bent- you will be bent, if you can be broken - you will be definitely broken. If you stand, they will speak with you. So we decided to stand."

He stressed that Ukraine took the decision despite the extremely high risks: "If we had not got reverse gas, what Russia hoped for, well, the wood would have been the most popular product in Ukraine. But if we had given up, we would have lost, so, it was hard to imagine how to continue building the country's energy policy."

But the policy of the Ukrainian Government and the position of the state’s leadership along with European partners allowed us to take a number of steps. Moreover, gas supply has been diversified - Ukraine has switched on gas supply from the European Union by 60%.

In addition, we managed to achieve a significant reduction in gas prices through its supply from the EU. It was signed a tripartite agreement, where Europe became part of the agreement on gas supply, and thus we managed to balance the gas market of Ukraine. "We saved up to a billion of dollars on the difference in price between the price of Russia and the European Union, member states of the European Union," the Prime Minister noted and stressed that we now have 11.7 billion of cubic meters of gas in our storage facilities.

Moreover, Arseniy Yatsenyuk has emphasized that the Government is working on normalizing the situation in the electricity market. "Today in Brussels an agreement with "Westin House" on increasing the supply of nuclear fuel for Ukrainian nuclear power plants is being signed. This is diversification as well. If earlier we had total dependence only on Rosatom, now we are diversifying," the Prime Minister noted.

He has underlined that the main problem in the electricity market is blocking of coal supply by Russian terrorists, our Ukrainian coal mined in Ukrainian mines, almost 4 million tonnes in the territories temporarily controlled by Russian terrorists".

Arseniy Yatsenyuk has stressed that there are negotiations between Ukrinterenergo and Inter RAO on an additional direct contract regarding electricity imports. "There have been attempts to insert some intermediate “layer” into electricity imports. That is why, to give up any having any temptations, the Government has decided to sign strictly direct contracts on imports of electricity, direct contracts to be signed publicly between state companies," the Prime Minister emphasized.

He has noted that the Government will continue to work hard in order to increase its own energy potential: "I want Ukraine to be an exporter of electricity, as she has always been, including an exporter to the countries of the European Union."

The Prime Minister has also informed that as of today Ukraine finally has a positive balance between consumed and produced coal. "Plus 10 thousand tons daily. That is something we have accumulated coal in the storages, 1.4 million tons, he said and added that this figure was 3.4 million tons last year. But we are gradually restoring the process of coal supply and as a temporary measure we hope to conclude a public and transparent contract between Ukrainian and Russian state companies at a price that should not exceed the price of domestic Ukrainian thermal power."