YALTA, Sept. 23 – It is expensive for Ukraine to maintain the capacity of the Ukrainian gas transport system at 150 billion cubic meters per year amid a significant reduction in gas transit, therefore, without the support of Russia and the EU Kiev can resort to partial conversion of the system, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said.

"Ukraine cannot bear such huge costs on its own. Perhaps, we should conserve two pipelines and leave 50 billion cubic meters? Let's make a joint decision for the future," he said at the 10th Yalta Annual Meeting on Saturday.