Ukrainian electricity imports from Russia will remain based solely on unmediated contracts between Ukrainian and Russian state companies, according to Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk.

"Yesterday the minister and Ukrainian energy companies informed me that they were negotiating a direct contract on imports. I want to stress this - a direct contract between Ukrinterenergo and Inter RAO," Yatseniuk said at a press conference in Kyiv.

"There have been attempts to insert some intermediate 'layer' into imports of electricity. It is exactly for that reason - to stop anyone having any temptations - that the government has issued its decision to sign strictly direct agreements on imports of electricity, direct agreements to be signed publicly between state companies," he said.

Yatseniuk mentioned deals that have existed for a long time between Ukrainian state electricity trading enterprise Energomarket and Russian companies on mutual emergency support.

"It's a so-called balancing contract: we supply them when they have accidents, and they supply us when we have accidents," Yatseniuk said.

Earlier Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Ukraine had begun electricity imports from Russia on Monday.