WISLA, Poland (AFP)--Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko, who is locked in a politically-charged row with Moscow that has left many European consumers without gas, Wednesday dismissed accusations that Kiev was to blame for the crisis.
"Ukraine can clearly prove it has no fault in this dispute. We have not cut gas deliveries, nor have we stolen gas. We will do all in our power to resume deliveries to Western Europe," Yushchenko told reporters during a visit to Poland.
"Russia wants to undermine our credibility as a transit state for gas to Europe, but our technical system is sound," he said.
Russia cut supplies of European gas via Ukraine a week ago following a payments dispute between Ukraine's Naftogaz and Russian gas supplier OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS).
Russia resumed natural gas supplies Tuesday after international experts were placed along pipeline routes through Ukraine under an agreement reached with the European Union, only to shut them off again several hours later.
Gazprom said Ukraine was blocking gas. It has also accused Kiev of siphoning gas.
Ukraine countered that the Russian energy giant had deliberately routed the supply in such a way that it was impossible for Ukraine to pump it on to European customers.
E.U. Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso Wednesday urged European nations and companies to take legal action if the flow of Russian gas to Europe does not resume quickly.
Yushchenko reaffirmed Ukraine wasn't at fault.
"We've asked the European Union to examine the circumstances under which this crisis arose. If (Russia) claims we stole gas, it can take Ukraine to an arbitration court. There we can prove this is not true," he said.
Yushchenko also blasted Russia for demanding that Ukraine pay $450 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas it receives for its own use.
He said the rate was two to three times higher than that charged to other European countries, and said that a loan offered by Russia to help Ukraine pay was part of a strategy to push Kiev into debt and allow Gazprom to take control of Ukraine's pipelines, through which more than 80% of Russian gas transits.
Poland is a staunch ally of pro-Western Ukraine in the row with their communist-era master Moscow.
Poland has been relatively untouched by the gas-supply crisis which has hit badly other central and southern European countries.
Deliveries of Russian natural gas to Poland dropped to 84% of their contracted volume. While supplies via Ukraine have been halted, Poland had a buffer thanks to deliveries through a pipeline crossing Belarus.