He indicated that Ukraine might join the consultations on gas that the European Commission and Russia had scheduled for the date.

"I think this isn’t ruled out because that’s a good idea," Demchishin said adding that a meeting of this kind might take place somewhat later, too.

He said he thought the chances for coming to terms on the winter gas package were good enough.

"Yes, I think the chances for this exist, of course," Demchishin said. "We’re ready to buy and the Russian side is ready to sell and the main issue is in the details, of course."

European Energy Commission Maros Sefcovic also expressed the hope before Thursday’s consultations Russia, Ukraine and the EU would be able to sign a trilateral agreement before the end of September.

The Commission would like to consider all the ways and to verify all the possibilities in order to make sure that agreement could be reached before the end of September.

Vladimir Demchishin said Ukraine and the European Commission had failed to agree on financing the Ukrainian purchases of natural gas from Russia because officials from financial institutions were absent from Wednesday’s consultations.

"We considered several options for financing but considering the absence of the financial institutions, which represent liquidity, from today’s meeting it was impossible to come to terms on anything," he indicated.

Demchishin expressed the hope Ukraine would have an opportunity to find enough financial resources for accumulating 19 bln cubic meters of gas in its underground storage farms as required by technological target parameters.