Yuri Prodan

Russia and Ukraine are holding EU-brokered gas consultations in Berlin on Friday.

The meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian energy ministers Alexander Novak and Yuri Prodan and EU's outgoing energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger comes more than three months after Moscow cut off gas supplies to Kiev.

Kiev is prepared to pay an interim compromise price for Russian gas, energy minister Yuri Prodan said, and criticised Russia's Gazprom for being unwilling to negotiate.

Ukraine and Russia failed to hold expected talks on a gas pricing dispute June 15 morning, despite a deadline for Kiev to pay a $1.95 billion debt by June 16 or have its gas supplies cut off.

Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said it hoped the talks, being mediated by the European Union’s energy commissioner, would resume June 15 but both sides said a time had not been agreed.

Moscow, Kiev and Brussels will restart talks on Russian gas supplies today to try to resolve a dispute over price, a Russian energy ministry official said June 8.