KIEV, Nov. 12 - Ukraine is within days to break ground on a $1 billion liquefied natural gas terminal on the Black Sea, Energy and Coal Industry Minister Yuriy Boyko said Monday.

The terminal, which is to be built in near the port of Odessa, is part of a plan to ease Ukraine’s dependence on imports of Russian natural gas, he said.

Ukraine “begins a practical stage of implementing the important project,” Boyko said in a statement. “We begin construction of the LNG-terminal that will allow diversifying supplies of gas to Ukraine.”

The ministry is working on the project jointly with the State Investment and National Projects Management Agency, which has been supervising the terminal over the past two years.