BRUSSELS- The European Commission said Monday it was “convinced” a solution to a bitter Russia-Ukraine gas supply dispute was possible, after the latest round of EU-brokered talks finished without a deal in Kiev.

The Commission “is convinced that a solution is still possible and in the interest of all parties concerned (and) it will reflect on the next steps and on when to bring the parties together again,” a statement said.

A top official from Russia’s state gas firm Gazprom said after Monday’s EU-brokered talks that failed to bridge the two sides’ acrimonious disagreement over price and how much debt Kiev exactly owed Moscow.

“We reached no agreement and the chances that we will meet again are slim — we are already on the plane heading back (to Moscow),” official Gazprom the Russian gas company’s official spokesman Sergei Kuprianov said by telephone.

“If we receive no pre-payment by 10:00 am (0600GMT), then we obviously will deliver no gas.”

An EU source told AFP that the 28-nation bloc “tabled a compromise proposal (package)” submitted by EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger in a bid to broker an interim solution.
The third “gas war” between Russia and Ukraine since 2006 flared when Moscow nearly doubled its rates in the wake of a deadly winter uprising that pulled Kiev out of the Kremlin’s historic orbit.