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The European Union has recommended  Ukraine not to link its claims to Crimea’s gas reserves with the three-party talks on repayment of Ukraine’s debt for Russian gas supplies, European Commissioner for Energy, Guenther Oettinger said Wednesday. According to itar-tass, with Crimea’s secession, Ukraine assessed that it incurred losses of billions of dollars, Oettinger said. He said this is a legal position Europe can support, adding that the EU believes Crimea’s accession to Russia is unacceptable, but warned that inclusion of the Crimean issue in the gas talks may deadlock them. The energy commissioner said Ukraine’s financial claims against Russia on Crimea, including via the Stockholm Arbitration Institute, may take many months to deal with. Oettinger said that is why the EU is calling on Ukraine not to peg the issue to the current three-party gas talks and not try to resolve it within the next few days or weeks. Oettinger said Monday at after three-party gas talks inv

Ukraine’s government-appointed Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has confirmed that Ukraine is ready to sue Russia at the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce Arbitration Institute over its dispute over gas prices, reports itar-tass. “We are not going to pay $500 per thousand cubic meters of gas,” Yatsenyuk told an energy security conference in Stockholm. “No one has the right to use gas as a political weapon. At the same time, Kiev admits there is an outstanding debt,” Yatsenyuk said. Gazprom’s Chief Alexei Miller said that Ukraine’s outstanding debt for Russia might reach $5.2 billion by June 7.

Ukraine's newly elected president vowed on Wednesday to quickly end an eastern revolt after a ferocious army push to reclaim a major airport saw more than 40 pro-Russian rebels killed. The deserted streets of the million-strong rust belt city of Donetsk echoed with bursts of morning gunfire after a devastating two-day firefight in which Ukrainian fighter bombers flushed out more than 100 gunmen who had seized the region's most important air hub. Ukrainian officials said they were now in control of the airport and working hard to secure the release of four European civilian observers abducted at a rebel roadblock outside the city on Monday. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, said it had briefly lost contact on Wednesday with another 11-member team of unarmed monitors who were "stopped at a roadblock" west of Donetsk before being released. Meanwhile, president-elect Petro Poroshenko and his pro-Western cabinet were bracing for a

(Nigeria) The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, said that the recent pipeline explosion at Arepo would not affect products supply. Its Group General Manager (Public Affairs), Mr Ohi Alegbe, disclosed this to News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday in Abuja. Alegbe said the corporation had shut down its System 2B Pipeline due to the fire incident that was sparked off by a gun battle between suspected oil thieves and policemen deployed to protect the pipeline. He stressed that the development would not affect products supply. Alegbe said all the inland depots, being serviced by the System 2B pipeline, had enough stock of products to meet demand until the situation would be brought under control. He said that preliminary report from the police indicated that armed men, in military uniform and suspected to be oil thieves, attacked the police on guard at the Arepo section of the pipeline. “The gunfire exchange between the vandals and the policemen apparently sparked of

The president-elect of Ukraine told a German newspaper Wednesday that he planned to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a bid to "ease" the crisis in Ukraine. "We will hold talks with Putin in order to ease the situation and make peace. When and where these talks will take place, is not yet decided," Petro Poroshenko told the Bild daily. He was responding to a question on whether direct talks with Putin were planned for next week's D-Day commemorations in France to which both he and the Russian leader are invited. French officials announced earlier Wednesday that President Francois Hollande had invited the Ukrainian president-elect to join the 70th anniversary commemorations of D-Day. Putin, US President Barack Obama, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are also due to attend the June 6 ceremonies in Normandy. "We are very happy about the possibility to be able to take part in this special event in

One person was killed and another was injured in a shooting incident at Cape Town's international airport Wednesday, an official said. The shooting happened in an airport restaurant on a mezzanine floor around 6.00 pm (1600GMT) and there was no disruption to flight operations, airport communications manager Deidre Davids told AFP. Most passengers were unaware of the incident, she said. Police would not comment on media reports that a man shot his girlfriend in a domestic incident before turning the gun on himself. "The shooter jumped over the Ocean Basket sushi bar and chased one of the ladies working at the back," News24 quoted witness William Scott as saying. "She ran though the side door, just past where I was sitting, and the man following behind her pulled out his pistol. "He stopped her right in front of the Ocean Basket entrance when he then shot her and followed to shoot himself in the head. Before I left the lady who was shot was still al

Ukraine needs direct United States military aid, leading presidential candidate in the country’s elections told The Washington Post, reports itar-tass. “Now we should create a new security treaty exactly like Lend-Lease,” Petro Poroshenko said. “We should cooperate in military technical assistance and in advising assistance. We are ready to fight for independence, and we should build up the armed forces of Ukraine,” he stressed. With 99.42 percent of electronic vote protocols counted, billionaire businessman and politician Petro Poroshenko is leading in Sunday’s presidential election in Ukraine with 54.71 percent of the vote, the Ukrainian Central Election Commission, CEC, reported on Wednesday. On May 27, United States President Barack Obama,  promised full support to Ukraine in a telephone conversation with Poroshenko. “President Obama called President-elect Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine today to congratulate him on his victory and offer the full support of the United