(14 Jan 2009)
AP Television
Kiev, Ukraine
1. Wide tilt-up of Ukrainian cabinet building
2. Close-up of Ukranian national emblem
POOL
Kiev, Ukraine
3. Wide of Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko at desk during news conference
4. SOUNDBITE: (Ukranian) Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukrainian Prime Minister:
"Ukraine did not halt Russian gas transit to Europe. This was done unilaterally by Russian Federation and as soon as Russia resumes gas supplies for the European Union, Ukraine, without a doubt, will fulfil transit."
5. Cutaway close-up of camera
6. SOUNDBITE: (Ukranian) Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukrainian Prime Minister:
"The gas, which Russia claims was supplied (to Ukraine), was first of all supplied in minimum volume. That did not allow the creation of pressure in gas pipe lines necessary to transfer these 72 (m) million cubic metres of gas. Secondly, Russia wanted this gas to be transported through the pipe line, through which the Ukraine's gas is moving in the opposite direction. And if Ukraine hypothetically met Russia's demand, then the whole of the Eastern Ukraine would have been left without natural gas."
7. Cutaway of press
8. Tymoshenko leaving news conference
AP Television
Pisarevka, Russia
9. Wide of Pisarevka gas station, zoom in
10. Various of pipeline at gas station
STORYLINE
Leaders of gas-starved European nations pressed Ukraine and Russia to restore supplies immediately Wednesday as the European Union threatened both with legal action for ripping apart the continent's winter heating plans.
But the natural gas drought persisted along with virulent mutual recriminations between Russia and Ukraine.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of holding Europe hostage, while Kiev said Russia was deliberately erecting technical obstacles to
delivering gas to Europe through Ukrainian pipelines.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko defended Ukraine's actions and told a news conference in Kiev how the Russian natural gas had not been sent with enough pressure for the proper transit of the gas.
Tymoshenko also repeated claims that the pipeline system Moscow wanted Kiev to use for the gas transport would result in parts of Ukraine being left without natural gas.
For his part, Putin insisted the EU should not accept Ukraine's claims.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who travelled on Wednesday to Poland for talks on the crisis, has accused Russia of trying to wrest control of Ukraine's 23,000-mile (37,000-kilometre) gas pipeline network.
With no end to the politically charged dispute in sight - despite a weekend agreement that sent teams of EU monitors out to pumping stations to keep tabs on the gas flows - the EU was fed up.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso warned Gazprom and Naftogaz, Ukraine's state-run gas company, that he will urge European energy companies to sue them unless they move quickly to restore gas supplies.
The crisis has deepened European concerns about Russia's willingness to use its energy riches as a political tool and raised questions about the
reliability of Ukraine, whose pro-Western leaders want to join the EU but are mired in dangerous disputes with Russia.
Gazprom stopped sending gas into Ukraine's pipeline system on 7 January, alleging that Ukraine was siphoning off supplies destined for Europe.
Ukraine has denied the charges, claiming that Russia has not sent enough so-called "technical gas" to pump the rest of the gas west to Europe.
Gazprom cut off all gas supplies to Ukraine itself on 1 January, amid a clash over what price Ukraine should pay for gas in 2009.

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