Ukraine doesn’t want cheaper Russian gas, ex-finance minister claims

Naftohaz Ukrayiny should stop acting like a charity fund. Due to low gas prices for the populace, Ukrainians think that the state covers the difference. No, it is the Ukrainians who cover the difference from their pockets, Pynzenyk said.
The current gas pricing policy is not only cost-intensive but also immoral. Paradoxically, the rich Ukrainians who build posh homes are paying the same price the poor Ukrainians have to pay. Prices for well-off segments of population must be raised, Pynzenyk believes.
Viktor Pynzenyk was very critical of the idea to form a gas-pumping concession with Russia, saying there are conflicting business interests as gas sellers are eager to have higher prices for gas and gas transmitters to have higher tariffs for pumping gas.
Ukraine gas pumping system can well earn the money for its modernization itself. The more so that Ukraine has unique infrastructure, underground gas reservoirs, located near Europe’s eastern borders. These reservoirs are no less valuable an asset than the pipe itself, Pynzenyk argues.