Ukraine asks Russia to pay for lost Crimean energy reserves

Kiev, May 15 (IANS) Ukraine has asked Russia to compensate it for the damage caused by the loss of offshore energy reserves in Crimea following the peninsula's incorporation by Moscow.

"On April 28, Ukraine's Naftogaz sent a letter to Russia's Gazprom offering to settle the issue at the corporate level," Xinhua quoted Igor Didenko, Ukrainian deputy energy and coal industry minister, as telling in a press conference Thursday.

Didenko said Kiev asked Moscow to pump 2 billion cubic metres of natural gas into Ukraine's underground storage reservoirs as compensation for the loss of Chornomornaftogaz, a company which pumps oil and gas from the Black Sea shelf.

On Wednesday, Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko said Kiev estimated losses from the Crimean crisis and the nationalisation of Ukraine's property in the peninsula at $85 billion and warned that Ukraine would seek financial compensation from Russia for "seized assets".

On March 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty to integrate Crimea and its city of Sevastopol into Russia following a referendum among Crimeans strongly supported the move.