Reuters: Ukraine starts to import some gas from Western Europe

Ukraine, which has for decades relied exclusively on natural gas supplies from Russia, has started importing small volumes of the fuel from Western Europe as part of its strategy to diversify energy sources, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said on Tuesday.

The former Soviet republic's government, which has tried in vain to negotiate a lower price for Russian gas for the last two years, signed a deal with Germany's RWE last May allowing for alternative shipments.

"Yes, we have started such supplies," Azarov told reporters without naming the seller of the gas. "They are not large-scale yet but they have started."

Azarov said the task at hand was testing the capacity of the pipelines which were originally built to ship gas to Western Europe rather than from it.

He did not say how much gas exactly Ukraine was importing. Officials had earlier said Ukraine could eventually buy up to 5 billion cubic metres of gas a year this way compared to 27 bcm it plans to buy from Russia this year.  MORE