Gazprom threatens to cut off Ukraine's gas

(CNN) -- Russian energy monopoly Gazprom on Wednesday said it would stop natural gas deliveries to Ukraine over a dispute about payments.

Gazprom chief Alexey Miller said talks with Ukraine have been "unproductive" and accused Ukraine of using the issue as "a political bargaining chip."

"The talks with Ukraine haven't brought any concrete result ... Gazprom hasn't received any money from Ukraine as payment for the supplies of Russian gas," Miller said in a statement on the Gazprom Web site.

The state-controlled Gazprom said supplies to its other European customers would not be affected by Ukraine's cut-off, which the company said would take place at 10 a.m. Thursday (2 a.m. ET).

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko also assured the European Union that there would be no disruptions in deliveries, the Kiev Post reported.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko called "for every effort to be made for the earliest possible signature of an agreement with Russia," Yuschenko energy security commissioner, Bohdan Sokolovsky, told the Russian news agency Interfax on Wednesday evening. Watch a report on Gazprom's threats to cut off gas supplies to Ukraine »

It is the second time in three years Gazprom has threatened to cut off gas supplies to Ukraine. The company made good on its threat on January 1, 2006, but turned the spigots back on a day later.

Russia, the world's biggest producer of natural gas, supplies Europe with more than 40 percent of its imports -- mainly via pipelines that cross the former Soviet republic of Ukraine.

Ukraine owes Gazprom about $2 billion for past natural gas deliveries. Ukraine's state-controlled energy company, Naftogaz Ukrainy, initially denied it owed the payment to Gazprom, but later retreated from that claim.

The Kiev Post reported Tuesday that Naftogaz said it had paid $1.5 billion toward the debt, but Gazprom said it had not received the payment.

Also at issue is Gazprom's contract for 2009 deliveries. Gazprom had wanted to more than double Ukraine's payments, but on Wednesday offered a much lesser payment of $250 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas. Ukraine, which currently pays about $100 per 1,000 cubic meters, balked at that figure.

"We have heard a negative reply to the offers from the Russian side on the favorable terms of gas supply to Ukraine in 2009, and we are getting the impression that there are political forces in Ukraine which have a strong interest in the gas standoff between our two countries," Miller said.