Gas pumping into underground storage facilities in Ukraine will be an all-time low of 18 billion cubic meters this year, Alexei Miler, chief executive of Russia's Gazprom said at a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

"The pumping of gas into underground storage facilities in Ukraine looks like it'll be its lowest in the history of pumping gas into underground storage facilities in Ukraine by the time the period for gas pumping is over. Last year, more than 21 bcm of gas was pumped, but this season it'll be around 18 bcm," Miller said.

He said 5 bcm had been pumped at a low price.

Miller said Gazprom had made concessions to Ukraine in view of financial difficulties there, and allowed it to pump 5 bcm of gas at a cut-price $269 per thousand cu m in order to enable it to get through the autumn and winter period with ease and keep consumers supplied with gas. He said Ukrainian consumers stood to gain $500 million from the measure.

"You could say the signal we are essentially receiving from our Ukrainian colleagues, that they have nothing to pay for gas with, is a sign that the situation with payments for gas on Ukraine's part will worsen. If all our opportunities to make advance payment for gas transit are exhausted, and if there was no money to pump gas, and we made concessions and provided the necessary help; and if we see that August gas supplies were not paid for in full and that the deadline that we extended for them to pay has passed, then this all suggests Ukraine's problems with paying for gas could become systemic," Miller said.