Head of public joint-stock company Ukrtransgaz Ihor Prokopiv has said negotiations on gas imports between Ukraine and Russia could resume after the completion of arbitration in Stockholm over the gas supply contract.

"As soon as the hearings end and there is no threat, we can meet," he told reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday.

He said that by the end of 2016 Ukraine would not need to import gas from Russia. He said that the country could require Russian gas imports in the first quarter of 2017.

Prokopiv said this is one of the issues to be discussed by European Commission Vice President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak. The two officials are scheduled to meet on October 15 when trilateral talks on the conditions of gas supplies to Ukraine from Russia are resumed.