KIEV, July 7 – Russia’s gas giant Gazprom agreed on Thursday to pay $2 billion to Ukraine in advance to finance massive purchases of natural gas to secure stable transit of the energy resource to the European Union.

The money, which covers almost a year of Russian gas transit via the Ukrainian gas pipelines, will be spent to buy gas for storage to meet Europe’s gas demand during high demand season.

Gazprom agreed to wire the payment two weeks after Naftogaz Ukrayiny had warned the Russian company it would stop massive purchases and would only buy enough gas to meet Ukraine’s own energy demand during the winter.