KIEV: Ukraine has tripled its tariff for Russian natural gas supplies to the European Union, Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform reported Monday.
Ukraine‘s state gas company, Naftogaz, raised the tariff as of January 1 to 7.9 dollars to transport 1,000 cubic metres of gas a distance of 100 kilometres, the report said.
The news agency reported on December 31 that Ukraine would increase the tariff from 2.7 dollars for Russia‘s state gas export monopoly, Gazprom. That report did not name the new fee.
Relations between Russia and Ukraine sank to an all-time low in 2014, when Kiev ousted its pro-Russian president amid mass protests calling for closer ties with the West.
Russia subsequently occupied and annexed Ukraine‘s southern Crimea peninsula and supported a pro-Russian separatist rebellion in Ukraine‘s two easternmost regions.
