Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said Wednesday she had reached a framework agreement with Russian gas giant OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) on the politically sensitive issue of boosting the price of gas deliveries.
Disagreements over a planned gas price increase have raised the specter of a repetition of a 2006 pricing dispute which led Russia briefly to cut all of Ukraine's gas, disrupting supplies to several European Union countries.
"We have agreed on a compromise on the concept of forming prices for 2009," Tymoshenko said at a Cabinet meeting Wednesday after she had met Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller Tuesday, her press service said.
A specific price will be set after negotiations between Gazprom and central Asian suppliers Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, whose gas is delivered to Russia and then re-exported to Ukraine.