KIEV, Jan. 31 – Ukraine's government is open to raising gas prices for some consumers, Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in Brussels.

The minister added that in such a way one of the major stumbling blocks to a new International Monetary Fund loan deal could be removed.

Kozhara also said Ukraine wouldn't pay a $7 billion gas bill that Russian energy giant OJSC Gazprom sent its state-run energy company Naftogaz Ukrayiny this week for gas Ukraine failed to import in 2012 under its 2009 contract terms.