Gas bought by Ukraine via its LNG terminal will be 20% cheaper than Russian gas, Head of the State Agency for Investment and National Projects of Ukraine Vladyslav Kaskiv has said.

"According to our assessments, the price of gas will be 20% lower than today's contract with Russia," he told reporters in Kyiv on Monday.

Kaskiv said that the LNG terminal would be fully supplied. Now Ukraine is in talks with some countries and the country is selecting better conditions and prices. He expects that a large project discrediting campaign will be launched.

"We're ready for the campaign. The project changes the energy map of the whole region. The fact that Ukraine is becoming an energy-independent country radically changes the alignment of forces and interests in the region," he added.

As reported, the construction of the LNG terminal in Ukraine is to be divided in two stages. The first stage (set to launch in 2016) will include a marine vessel terminal with capacity of 5 bcm of gas a year. The second stage (to launch in 2018) covers the construction of an onshore terminal able to handle 10 bcm of gas a year.

The first stage includes dredging operations (with funds raised by state-run LNG Terminal against state guarantees, at a cost of EUR 121 million). In addition, the terminal will be connected with a high-pressure gas pipeline (using Ukrtransgaz company's funds, at a cost of under EUR 113 million) along with a vessel terminal.

The second stage will be implemented using funds from an investor consortium (EUR 735 million).

The project foresees the construction of a LNG terminal close to the town of Yuzhne near to PJSC Ukrtransnafta's oil terminal and Yuzhny port.