Kiev-Moscow gas deal-hours away from supply cut

Moscow and Ukraine are to resume negotiations over the $5.2 billion gas supply debt that Kiev has to pay and the Gazprom established price of $485 per 1,000 cubic meters for future natural gas delivery, the highest price a European country has to pay for energy.

Today also marks the set deadline Moscow gave Ukraine to either pay its debt or have their gas delivery cut, along with that of countries in the EU that receive gas via Ukraine.

As the EU has obvious interests in resolving the crisis between the two nations, Brussels is supervising the meeting between Russian and Ukrainian energy ministers and the heads of Gazprom and Naftogas.

If an agreement is not reached today, gas supply delivery to Ukraine and, implicitly, other EU countries, could be halted within hours.