KIEV, March 20 – The attraction of a European company to the management of the Ukrainian gas transport system (GTS) would allow the country to retain the status of a large natural gas transit country, Naftogaz Ukrayiny Chairman Andriy Kobolev said.

"We again, as a team of Naftogaz, call on all parties involved in the discussion of processes around the Ukrainian GTS to hear one obvious, to our opinion, fact: without attracting a large and transparent European partner it would be almost impossible to retain transit across Ukraine," he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.