KIEV, Aug. 3 - Ukraine must increase to maximum European natural gas imports in August to store greater reserves ahead of the winter, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said Monday.

Yatseniuk, who led an emergency meeting of the government on Monday, recently called “catastrophic” the situation in the energy sector.

“We have to maximum increase purchases of gas in the reverse mode in August,” Yatseniuk said at the meeting, according to the government’s press service.