Ukraine pays Russia for gas after Putin warning: PM

Interactive graphic on Russian gas supplies to Europe as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko meet in Yalta for talks aimed at preventing a repeat of last winter's gas crisis.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will meet Thursday with his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko for talks on energy amid unease in Europe over possible cuts in gas supplies this winter.The two premiers are due to meet at the Livadia Palace in Yalta, the venue for the historic Yalta Conference in 1945 between Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, said a Ukrainian official.

Ukraine will take a first major step away from dependency on Russian gas supplies on Thursday when it seals a $10 billion shale gas deal with Royal Dutch Shell. Due to be signed at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the production sharing agreement will mark the biggest contract yet to tap shale gas in Europe and the largest single foreign investment in the former Soviet republic.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was to hold rare talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko on Thursday aimed at preventing a repeat of last winter's gas crisis.They will meet at the Livadia Palace in the Crimean resort of Yalta, the venue for the 1945 conference between Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill where the Big Three leaders redrew the postwar map.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovich ended talks on Monday without any sign of a breakthrough to end a standoff over the price of gas imports to Kyiv. Ukraine, a transit route for more than half of Russian gas shipped to the European Union, wants to pay less for gas from Russia because it says a 2009 deal set an exorbitant price. Moscow has sought concessions in return, such as Ukraine joining a post-Soviet trade bloc led by Moscow and giving up control of ...

MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich postponed talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday at which they had been expected to try to resolve a gas pricing dispute. Kremlin foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov told reporters Yanukovich would not meet Putin as planned later on Tuesday because more time was needed to prepare documents they had planned to sign. The price of Ukraine's gas imports from Russia is a bone of contention between the two countries which has in the past led to reductions in the supply of Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine's pipeline network.