KIEV, April 7 - Russia is ignoring invitations from the European Commission to broker new gas supply talks between Moscow and Kiev, the CEO of Ukraine's state oil firm Naftogaz said on Thursday.

European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic said on Wednesday he stood ready to mediate.

"Unfortunately Gazprom is refusing to negotiate. They will negotiate only in Moscow. We will not go to Moscow for understandable reasons," CEO Andriy Kobolev told a group of journalists in Brussels, Reuters reported.

Relations between Moscow and Kiev have been tense since Russia seized Ukraine's Crimea region in March 2014. Gazprom cut off gas supplies to Kiev in June of that year because of a pricing dispute.

It resumed shipments after the European Commission brokered temporary gas supply deals, pending a resolution of the price dispute between Moscow and Kiev in an international court in Stockholm, which is not expected until late this year or next year, Kobolev said.

The last round of Commission-brokered talks to prevent any supply outages over the peak demand winter months was in September last year. That supply agreement, which ran until the end of March, was only initialed not signed.

At the same time, Ukraine has been seeking to buy as little gas as possible directly from Russia, preferring to buy reverse flow shipments from EU sellers, which it says are cheaper than Russia's current gas price of around $180 per 1,000 cubic metres. Kobolev said he could not disclose the price he had paid EU sellers for reasons of commercial confidentiality.

"We can survive without buying any Russian gas at all. We are comfortable buying gas from elsewhere," he said, but added he would consider buying from Gazprom at the right price.

He also said he would welcome a further round of trilateral talks to be brokered by the European Commission to cover transit even though he believed Ukraine could survive without Russian gas.

Russia has been seeking to build a new pipeline, Nord Stream-2, directly to Germany, which would bypass Ukraine, currently the transit route for roughly half of the gas Russia supplies to the EU.

Gazprom was not immediately available for comment, while a European Commission spokeswoman reiterated the Commission stood ready to facilitate trilateral talks. (rt/ez)