Russia cuts gas flow to Ukraine
KYIV Russia cut the flow of gas to Ukraine on Monday after last-ditch talks failed to end a dispute over debts that threatens to disrupt supplies to Europe for the third time in a decade.
Ukraine hosted the last-gasp talks hoping to keep an energy shortage from compounding the problems of its new pro-western leaders as they confront a two-month separatist insurgency threatening the very survival of the ex-Soviet state.
Kyiv was dealt a further blow on Monday when dozens of Kalashnikov-wielding pro-Russian rebels seized the central bank building in the eastern separatist stronghold city of Donetsk in a bid to win control over its assets. Russia’s state gas giant Gazprom said it had switched Ukraine to a pre-payment system, a move that effectively halts all shipments because Kyiv has not forwarded any money for future gas deliveries to Moscow.