KIEV, Sept. 13 – President Viktor Yanukovych on Monday assured the European Union that Ukraine is committed to providing reliable transit of Russian natural gas via its gas pipelines to markets in Europe.

Yanukovych made the comment at a meeting with Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, in Brussels after the two discussed the future of the gas transportation system.

“Ukraine is obliged, it is deemed to fulfill its obligations before the EU and Russia as a transit country concerning the stability and reliability of its gas transportation system,” Yanukovych told Barroso. “We will always fulfill these obligations.”

Meanwhile, the assurances were made as talks between Russia and Ukraine over natural gas prices had come to a deadlock with Moscow persistently refusing to agree to re-negotiate lower gas prices for Kiev.

Valeriy Yazyev, a powerful Russian lawmaker and the head of the Russian Gas Union, said Russia stands firms on position of leaving the gas agreement intact.

“From Russia’s point of view this agreement is fair, and it will continue to be in place,” Yazyev said in televised comments on Monday. “There are no talks and there cannot be any talks.”

The comment echoes an earlier remark by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who had ruled out any further price discounts for Ukraine.

The developments suggest the parties may be heading towards a major clash over the agreement that Prime Minister Mykola Azarov had recently called as “extremely unfavorable” for Ukraine.

Azarov warned that if Russia continue to refuse to re-negotiate the 10-year agreement, Ukraine may take unilateral actions that would simply cancel it.

Azarov said Ukraine insists on changing the agreement before the end of the year.

Ukraine has been trying for the past six months to re-negotiate the agreement, but Russia has been refusing to do so, resulting in high gas prices that Ukraine has to pay.

“We persistently - as partners and friends - are asking Russia to revise what they believe is a beautiful agreement,” Azarov said on Sept. 3.

“If our calls are not heard during the talks, we would think of some other ways,” Azarov said. “We will not be working with this agreement for 10 years.”

Among such actions, Ukraine may declare bankruptcy for Naftogaz Ukrayiny, the national oil and gas company, a move that would automatically cancel the agreement and require new talks over the new agreement, people familiar with the matter said.

The current 10-year agreement was negotiated directly by then Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and by her Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in January 2009.

The agreement was signed by Naftogaz and by Russian gas monopoly Gazprom to end an almost two-week standoff between the two companies that had resulted in disrupted European gas supplies.

The agreement set a formula for figuring out gas prices that Naftogaz must pay Gazprom, but critics said the prices appear to be higher than what other European countries, such as Germany, pay Gazprom.

“We are confidently saying that the agreement is extremely unfavorable,” Azarov said. “The prices are extremely unfavorable for our economy, for our people.” (tl/ez)