The chief executives of Ukraine's Naftogaz, Olexiy Ivchenko, and of Russia's Gazprom, Alexey Miller, held an unexpected bilateral meeting for the first time since May 2014. Naftogaz asked Gazprom for a prepayment for the transit of Russian gas to Europe via the Ukrainian territory, which Kiev would then use to buy gas for winter, Sputnik reported. Ukraine has 13.9 billion cubic meters of gas in its underground storages and needs three billion more to make it through the winter. This would cost $750 million, which is equivalent to the price of gas transit for three months. Kiev suggested resorting to the old Yanukovych-era prepayment schee with Russia because its foreign partners fell short of Ukraine's expectations. No one from the World Bank, International Finance Corporation and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has yet agreed to provide Kiev a $1 billion loan that might be used to purchase gas.
