Russia treats Ukraine's plans to continue reducing purchases of natural gas with understanding, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yuriy Boiko said.

"Our great problem was to stop stipulating the volume of gas we buy. We are significantly reducing gas consumption and have cut it by about 25% in the past three years. We will maintain this trend, because we are switching to our own energy resources," Boiko said at the nationwide roundtable meeting under the motto Unite Ukraine in Kyiv on Friday.

"Our Russian partners have taken our plans to continue to change the volume of gas purchases and its consumption at our own energy plants by replacing it by our own energy resources with understanding," he said.