Russia, Ukraine reach surprise gas deal in Milan talks

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russia and Ukraine made progress on Friday, Oct 17 towards resolving a dispute over gas supplies in time for winter, but European leaders said Moscow still had to do much more to prop up a fragile ceasefire, Reuters reported.

The mooted deal could re-open Russian gas to Ukraine cut off since June, and ensure supply to European buyers further west before demand surges in the cold months and stocks run down. It came as something of a surprise after talks in Milan that the Kremlin said were "full of misunderstandings and disagreements".

Russia's Vladimir Putin told reporters that a deal ensuring gas supplies "at least for the winter" had been reached after a final one-on-one meeting with Ukraine's Petro Poroshenko, which followed talks attended by European leaders.

"We agreed on all the parameters of this deal," Putin said, but he urged European countries to help Ukraine meet a debt for gas, which he said stood at $4.5 billion.

The agreement followed a hectic series of meetings on the margins of a summit between Asian and European leaders in Milan at which Europeans showed no signs of agreeing to lift sanctions against Moscow imposed over the Ukraine crisis.