Sergei Kupriyanov Ukrainian Quotations

However, we will not put Ukrainian people into a difficult situation.

In this situation, which is the fault of the Ukrainian side, we have been forced to start reducing pressure in the pipeline to Ukraine.

Ukraine refused, which shows that the Ukrainian authorities planned a conflict from the very beginning, i.e. to tap, or rather steal, gas intended for European consumers.

Literally 40 minutes ago, we received an official answer from the Ukrainian side. The answer said: 'We cannot sign it' and that is all.

We believe it will be extremely difficult, or impossible, to be more precise, for the Ukrainian authorities to explain to their people the reason for such a short-sighted policy.

Yesterday, we made a proposal on how to break out of this very knotty situation. We were ready to meet the Ukrainian people's needs halfway and to provide them with normal conditions of work during the winter, the most complex period of the year.

Rejection of the solutions we proposed will play a very bad havoc on the Ukrainian economy and, which is most unfortunate, on the Ukrainian people.

But our proposals were turned down, which means that the Ukrainian authorities were tuned to confrontational moods from the very start.