The European Commission Thursday steered clear of intervening in a new natural gas payments row between Russia and Ukraine, calling it a bilateral issue.
Russian energy giant OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) has warned it will again cut off gas to Ukraine on March 8 if Kiev does not pay back $400 million of new debts, Russia's Kommersant daily reported on Thursday.
Ukraine's state gas company Naftogaz insisted the money would be paid on time.
A similar row in January left a dozen European countries without their gas supplies from Russia, which transit Ukraine, after the supply was cut during the standoff, prompting furious protests from the European Union.
The European Commission "is following the situation very closely on the bilateral commercial relations between Ukraine and Russia because they may have an impact on the supplies to the European Union as we have seen at the beginning of this year," said commission energy spokesman Ferran Tarradellas.
"The fact that we are following the situation very closely does not imply that we are going to intervene in the bilateral trade relations," he added.
Similar comments emanated from the commission ahead of the January gas crisis before the E.U. became part of a three-way lobbying blitz, with commission President Jose Manuel Barroso threatening legal action before the gas started flowing again after nearly three weeks.
The commission spokesman said Thursday that the independent monitors put in place to study the flow of Russian gas, part of the January deal to end the crisis, remained in place.