KIEV, March 30 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's president
said in an interview published on Monday that his country's
natural gas cooperation agreement with the EU would not lead to
a new "gas war" with Russia.
"Such wars are not planned," Viktor Yushchenko told the
Ukrainian paper Dilo.
Kiev and Brussels signed an agreement to modernize
Ukraine's Soviet-era gas pipeline network last week, triggering
an angry reaction from Russia, which exports most of its
Europe-bound gas via Ukraine.
Moscow said earlier it had been deliberately excluded from
the deal. It delayed inter-government talks with Kiev and
threatened to review energy ties with the European Union if its
interests continued to be disregarded.
The spat has stirred fears of a repeat of January's
dispute between Russia and Ukraine, when European Union
consumers were left without gas for about two weeks.
Yushchenko said as quoted by the paper that the agreement
with the EU was designed to make exports more reliable and
transparent.
Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko has said on several
occasions that Russia would have a full role in the
modernization of Ukraine's gas grid.
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