European plans to upgrade the crumbling Ukrainian gas pipeline network were the focus of a telephone conversation today between the Russian and Ukrainian premiers, according to UPI. A January row between Kiev and Moscow over gas debts and contract terms prompted gas giant Gazprom to cut supplies to Ukraine. The bulk of Russian gas bound for Europe travels through Ukraine, leaving the region starved for gas for weeks. The European Union came forward in March with a bilateral economic assistance package for the Soviet-era pipelines in Ukraine, much to the ire of Moscow. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and her Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, were scheduled to discuss the matter last week, but those talks were delayed while Moscow sought "clarification" of the EU deal, RIA Novosti reports. Putin said in the wake of the EU deal that he would review the relationship with Brussels, saying it was an error to discuss the Ukrainian gas sector without the supplier nation.
