Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin ordered his officials today to re-start gas supplies via Ukraine to Europe tomorrow, six days after a contract row cut off customers in freezing temperatures.
Alexei Miller, chief executive of Russia's gas export monopoly Gazprom told Mr Putin he proposed restarting gas deliveries at 0700 GMT on Tuesday. Putin replied: "Good, I agree. Let's get down to work."
Russia, whose bitter row with its neighbour over gas prices has left European countries scrabbling to find alternative energy supplies, agreed to resume supplies after signing a deal with Kiev on monitoring gas flows.
Russia has accused Ukraine of siphoning off gas to make up for a shortfall since Moscow turned off the tap on January 1st in a dispute over gas prices. Ukraine denies the charge and says Moscow is holding European energy consumers to ransom.
Moscow and Kiev have though still not settled their contract row -- played out against a backdrop of furious disagreements over Ukraine's pro-Western policies -- leaving Ukraine itself cut off from Russian gas.
Even as Mr Putin was giving the order to restart supplies, Gazprom accused Ukraine of creating a fresh crisis over gas transit by disputing who will pay for technical gas -- the fuel needed to restore pressure in the pipeline system.
The monitoring deal, signed in Brussels today, set out the procedures for international observers to deploy to strategic points along the gas export route to check no gas is being stolen -- a condition set by Russia for resuming supplies.
The gas could reach the first customers in the EU within 24 hours of the restart, European Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs told a briefing in Brussels. Russian and Ukrainian officials had predicted it would take 36 hours.
An attempt to get the deal signed over the weekend collapsed after Russia objected to hand-written comments Ukraine had added to the document at the last minute. Under pressure from the European Union, Kiev later dropped its addition.
But Russian officials said there was still a possibility fresh disagreements, including Ukraine's refusal to pay for the technical gas, could undercut the latest deal.
"By making such statements the Ukrainian side is once again creating a crisis situation with the transit of Russian gas to European consumers," Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said in a statement.
The dispute has highlighted Europe's dependence on Russian gas and galvanised efforts to find alternative supply routes.
The gas row is yet another power-play between Moscow and Kiev, whose relations have been strained since Ukraine elected pro-Western leaders after the "Orange revolution" in 2004 and applied to join the NATO military alliance.
Kiev has said it has enough gas stockpiled to cope without Russian supplies until the spring, and has said it will not be pressured into paying the $450 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas that Gazprom is demanding.
The price is broadly in line with what European customers pay but is a huge jump on the $179.5 Ukraine paid last year.
"I think we are about to end a six-day war between Gazprom and the EU customers," Ukraine's Deputy prime minister Hryhory Nemyrya said in Brussels. "But we still, I think, have to make joint efforts to end the Gazprom-Ukrainian customers' war."
Eastern Europe has been badly hit by the gas shutdown, with several countries forced to look to alternative means of power or to use their reserves.
Bulgaria said it would ask the European Union to provide 400 million euros ($536 million) in aid to help ease its dependence on Russia, its sole gas supplier, by expanding storage and building pipeline links to Greece and Romania.
Bulgaria, like Slovakia, said it might be forced to restart a nuclear reactor to produce enough electricity.
Slovakia, which declared a state of emergency last week after the cut-off, said it was on the brink of a power blackout after a fire forced the partial shutdown of a coal power plant, news agency SITA reported.
Analysts say the dispute has damaged both Moscow and Kiev: Ukraine's ambitions to integrate with Western institutions have suffered a setback, while questions are again being asked about Russia's reliability as an energy supplier.
Reuters