KIEV, Nov. 3 - Ukraine faces a penalty of about $7 billion from Russian gas giant Gazprom for importing less-than-expected amounts of natural gas this year, Bohdan Sokolovskiy, President Viktor Yushchenko’s top energy envoy, said Tuesday.

The growing penalty is one of the reasons why Yushchenko has recently urged the government to renegotiate natural gas agreement with Russia in order to prevent aggravations by the end of the year.