Ukraine vows to meet all transit obligations

Ukraine will meet all its transit obligations, irrespective of the outcome of Russian-Ukrainian gas talks, Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko said on Thursday. "The minister…underlined that Ukraine will meet all its obligations to assure the transit of Russian gas to European consumers, whatever the results of the talks are," the Ukrainian energy ministry said in a statement. Ukraine wants Russia to tear up a 10-year deal, agreed on by former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko in 2009. Kiev says the deal set an excessively high price for Russian gas and forces it to import more gas than it needs. Tymoshenko is currently standing trial on abuse of office charges in connection with the agreement. A price row in 2009, which the Tymoshenko deal resolved, hit supplies to households in a number of EU countries.