KIEV, Oct. 11 - Ukraine will stop importing any Russian natural gas whatsoever unless Russia agrees to lower its natural gas prices, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov warned Thursday.

The warning is aimed at putting pressure on Russia in talks over renegotiating a 10-year natural gas agreement signed in January 2009 as Ukraine is the largest single importer of Russian natural gas.

“In our talks with the Russian partners we are telling them: listen, you are now receiving temporary benefits from the traitorous agreement. But these are only temporary benefits, because you are losing the largest buyer of your gas,” Azarov told local officials in the Dnipropetrovsk region.