OREANDA-NEWS The Head of the analytical Department of the National Energy Security Fund Alexander Pasechnik in an interview earlier called the statement of "Naftogaz" on the arrest of foreign assets of "Gazprom" in the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK "speculation", which are made by the Ukrainian company on the eve of trilateral negotiations with representatives of the European Union.

As noted by beekeeper, gas companies will have "difficult rounds" of negotiations, and it is unclear how they will end. He also stressed that the Russian side announced the possibility of preserving Ukrainian transit on certain conditions.

Executive Director of Naftogaz of Ukraine Yuriy Vitrenko said on January, 12 that Gazprom allegedly blackmails the Ukrainian company, demanding to refuse to win in the arbitration court. According to the top Manager, referring to the words of the head of the Russian company Alexei Miller, Gazprom States that this is a condition for further constructive negotiations. In addition, Vitrenko calculated how much Ukraine would have to pay Russia without winning the arbitration.

According to him, this amount would be more than 77 billion dollars for the period from 2012 to 2018, and allegedly this price is much higher than that at which Ukraine buys gas in Europe. The Stockholm arbitration on February 28, 2018 made a final decision on the dispute between Naftogaz of Ukraine and Gazprom under the contract for gas transit through the Ukrainian territory.

In connection with the significant procedural violations committed by the arbitrators on March 29, 2018, Gazprom filed an application to challenge the final decision of February 28, 2018 and its partial cancellation to the court of appeal of the Swedish district of Svea, on May 28, 2018, Gazprom filed an application to the court for the full cancellation of the arbitral award. In late May - early June, Naftogaz reported that, according to the decision of the Stockholm arbitration, which ordered Gazprom to pay $2.56 billion to the Ukrainian company for the non-delivery of gas in transit, it began to collect a fine through the arrest of Gazprom's European assets in Switzerland, the UK and the Netherlands.