Ukraine faces a lack of cash to fulfill gas contracts it signed with Russia in 2009, Ukrainian Premier Mykola Azarov said.

"We face a lack of [financial] forces, and they are on the edge. The country cannot bear any more, and pay $800 million too much [for gas] every month," the premier said, speaking in the Ukrainian parliament on Tuesday.

The premier said that the onerous gas contracts between Ukraine and Russia were signed in 2009.

"The opposition says that the president and the government allegedly sold Ukraine to Russia. My dear friends, let's say who sold Ukraine when signing a gas contract with Russia that actually put Ukraine on knees and which bled white the financial and economic system of Ukraine? For three-and-a-half years the president and the government have borne this pressure and these horrible financial dictates," the premier said.