KIEV, Aug. 18 - Ukraine will soon start building a liquefied natural gas terminal near Odessa to reduce dependence on imports of Russian gas, Oleksandr Turchynov, the speaker of Parliament, said Monday.

The $1 billion project is supposed to use a floating platform to begin LNG imports before expanding the project on-shore.

The use of the platform “will save money and time,” Turchynov said in comments released by his press service. “But, even more importantly, this will not allow Gazprom to continue to blackmail our country, which will get diversified supplies of energy resources.”