KIEV: Ukraine Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Tuesday his government would take Russia to court unless it agreed to a gas supply contract based on market prices.

Yatsenyuk, after meeting top European Union officials, also charged that after annexing Crimea in March, Russia has “seized Ukraine property including oil and gas and they have stolen two billion cubic meters of Ukraine gas.”

Meanwhile, Europe stepped up diplomatic efforts Tuesday to resolve the crisis in Ukraine, with the German foreign minister in Kiev pushing authorities and pro-Moscow rebels to come together at the negotiating table. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s efforts came amid guarded optimism as Moscow expressed support for the “extremely important” roadmap prepared by the OSCE East-West security body to resolve the crisis.

Russia’s lukewarm endorsement on Monday of weekend independence votes in the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk also allayed fears that President Vladimir Putin would move quickly to annex the territories, as he did with Crimea earlier this year.

But Moscow kept the pressure on Kiev, insisting that negotiations on regional rights must take place before a presidential vote on May 25 and accusing the pro-Western interim government of refusing “real dialogue.”

Later in the day the European Commission will host Ukrainian premier in Brussels to offer support and discuss the next move in attempts to defuse a crisis that has brought the West’s relations with Russia to their lowest point since the Cold War.

After talks with Yatsenyuk, Steinmeier said the situation in Ukraine remained “very threatening” but that he hoped progress was being made on resolving the crisis peacefully.

Calling for “a national dialogue under Ukrainian leadership,” Steinmeier said: “I hope this will create the conditions to take a step to bring back occupied territory, disarm armed groups step-by-step and reinstall the authority of the state.”

He also said the presidential election will “play a crucial role” in bringing the country out of crisis.





Steinmeier later met Interim President Oleksandr Turchynov and was to travel to the southern city of Odessa.

In Moscow, the Foreign Ministry called on Kiev to agree to talks “in the near future, and in any case before the May 25 elections.”

It said it “expects” Ukraine’s rebels to comply with the OSCE roadmap if Kiev does, calling the plan “extremely important.”