Addressing reporters in Kyiv, Fuel and Energy Minister Yuriy Boiko said Ukraine would instead import gas from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan through a Russian-Ukrainian joint venture, RosUkrEnergo.
Boiko said on October 4 that Ukraine has received firm assurances that it will receive at least 57.5 billion cubic meters of Central Asian natural gas in 2007.
Ukraine consumes an average 78 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year.
Also on October 6, Ukraine's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych pledged that his country will not hinder the transit through Ukraine of Russian natural gas meant for European markets.
A bitter dispute between Kyiv and Moscow over gas prices resulted in a short reduction in Russian gas supplies to Ukraine and to Europe.
(Interfax-Ukraiyna, Korrespondent.net, ITAR-TASS, RIA Novosti, press-uz.info)