(AFP) - Ukraine said it would pay off a $300 million gas debt to the Russian-Ukrainian group RosUkrEnergo by the end of the year.
The company is 50 percent controlled by Russian gas giant Gazprom and 50 percent by two Ukrainian businessmen. It is Ukraine's sole gas importer under a deal signed last January by Kiev and Moscow to end a row over Russian gas prices.
Ukrainan Energy Minister Yuri Boiko said that of a total debt $600 million this year, half has already been paid back, reports Trend.
"The other half will be paid off by the end of the year," he said.
The contract worked out last January requires Ukraine to pay $95 per 1,000 cubic meters (35,000 cubic feet) of gas, a rate that will rise to $130 per 1,000 cubic meters starting in January 2007.
The price war between Russia and Ukraine earlier this year prompted a brief interruption in Russian gas exports to Ukraine and disrupted supplies to Europe as well.
Eighty percent of Russian gas destined for Europe passes through Ukraine.