"It [the gas contract] is killing us,” he told a pressconference in the Ukrainian capital Kiev. “These losses place aburden on each citizen of Ukraine,” Yanukovych added.
“Ukraine currently pays about $510-515 for gas. It’s not amarket price; I have no clue how it [Russia] found a way toconvince [Tymoshenko] to sign the contract,” UkrainianPresident said, adding he does not blame Russia for signing the gasdeal.
Tymoshenko is currently in jail on charges of abuse of powerstemming from that agreement.
"It's very difficult for us to accuse Russia of something.They secured their national interests […] It's now their right tochange the contract or not to change it. For this reason, we nowneed to seek ways to resolve this issue," Interfax has quotedYanukovych as saying.
Ukraine is a transit state for up to 70 percent of all Russiangas shipped to the European Union. Being fully dependent on Russiansupplies, Ukraine has been in dispute with Russia over its gasbills.
"How can we protect our country from this unfair price? Wehave only one way – cutting down on gas pumping, consumption ofgas, and we are following this way," he said, according to theKiev Post, adding that consumption has dropped from 42 to 34billion cubic meters since 2010.
"We don't want to trade in our sovereignty in this issue andwe won’t do so,” Yanukovych added. “But it's clear that wehave to make concessions to find a price that Russia will accept tochange the contract," the Ukrainian President said.
In February Yanukovich said Kiev wouldn’t pay Gazprom $7 billionfor failing to import the agreed volume of natural gas in2012.
“I can’t imagine even in my wildest dreams that Ukraine willrefuse to fulfill its obligations. The 'take or pay' principlemeans you have to pay even if you don’t want to,” GazpromDeputy CEO Aleksandr Medvedev said in an earlier interview with TheFinancial Times.
Ukraine is going to cut gas supplies from Russia despite theagreements. In 2013 Kiev is planning to buy between 18 and 20 blncubic meters regardless of existing contracts stating it should buytwice as much.
According to the deputy chief of national oil and gas companyNaftogaz Ukrainy, Vadym Chuprun, Ukraine is looking to signagreements for the reverse delivery of natural gas from Germanythrough Hungary and Slovakia in the amount of 7 billion cubicmeters.
Next week Ukraine's President is due to discuss Russian gasimports at a meeting with Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The challengeis to try to bring down the price it pays for strategic supplies ofRussian gas.
