Ukraine and national oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy have confirmed their readiness to immediately pay gas debts totaling $2.2 billion and make on-time payments for subsequent deliveries if Gazprom agrees to maintain the price of natural gas at the level of the first quarter: $268.5 per 1,000 cubic meters, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said at a briefing in Kyiv on Monday.

"If Gazprom gives an affirmative response to maintaining the price that was set from the beginning of 2014, then Ukraine is ready to immediately repay $2.2 billion in debt," Yatseniuk said following a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council.

Kyiv has already sent Gazprom a number of statements expressing readiness to pay for Russian gas at that price.

"We await a response from Gazprom," Yatseniuk said.

Gazprom has been demanding approximately $485 per 1,000 cubic meters as of the beginning of April following the renunciation of the so-called Kharkiv agreements on gas signed in 2010.