Ukraine to supply neighbours from own gas reserves

By Yuri Kulikov and Anna Mudeva

KIEV/SOFIA (Reuters) - Ukraine said on Saturday it would pump gas to Bulgaria and Moldova from its own reserves after Russian supplies were cut this week, crippling factories across southeast Europe and leaving households shivering.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko told his Bulgarian counterpart, Georgi Parvanov, that Kiev wanted to help the Balkan country, which is among the hardest hit by the crisis, Parvanov's office said.

The cut-off of Russian gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine, with which Moscow is embroiled in a pricing dispute, has affected 18 countries.

In Bulgaria, dozens of schools have closed, factories have cut production and tens of thousands of households were left without central heating. Residents of Moldova also said heating in their apartments had been turned off.

Volodymyr Trikolych, deputy chief executive of Ukrainian state energy firm Naftogaz, said Ukraine wanted to supply Bulgaria with 2 million cubic metres a day and had already started pumping 1.5 mcm a day to Moldova.

"This isn't re-export," Trikolych told a news briefing. "This is just goodwill. Naftogaz has set no conditions, no pricing parameters on Bulgaria and Moldova."

Gazprom, Russia's state-controlled gas giant, welcomed the move, saying it would compensate for Russian gas it alleges Ukraine siphoned off illegally between January 1 and January 7 from supplies meant for other European countries -- a charge Kiev denies.

"The volumes supplied should be increased to the quantity of Russian gas for these countries that was taken in Ukraine," Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said in a statement.