KIEV, June 19 – Ukraine is planning to spend $250 million on gas imported in June and $1 billion on gas supplied in July, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said at a council on gas payments in Kiev on Friday.

According to the gas contracts signed between Naftogaz Ukrayiny and Russia's Gazprom in January 2009, the price of gas imported to Ukraine in the second quarter of this year dropped to $271 per 1,000 cubic meters, from $360 per 1,000 cubic meters in the first quarter.

Naftogaz expected that the gas price would fall to around $202 per 1,000 cubic meters in the third quarter, but in the light of oil prices growing in recent months, the real price will be slightly higher. Taking this into account, the actual amount of gas imported in July could grow to five billion cubic meters, from 920 million cubic meters in June.