KIEV, Dec. 27 - Ukraine and Russia will be able to reach a compromise over natural gas prices after talks resume next month, Ukraine’s chief negotiator, energy and coal industry minister Yuriy Boyko, said Tuesday.

Boyko made comments in a statement released a day after his meeting with Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller in St. Petersburg.

“I believe we will find the compromise,” Boyko said in the statement.

Boyko and Miller agreed to resume the talks on January 15, 2012 after the negotiations had suddenly collapsed earlier this month with Moscow demanding major political concessions in exchange for the deal, a Ukrainian government official said.