Ukraine is ready to begin negotiations in the trilateral format on Russian natural gas that it plans to buy in the "summer" period this year, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk told a press conference in Kyiv on Friday.

"We and our European partners are ready for negotiations, including with the Russians on the new agreement on the 'summer package' […] We are ready to reach agreements on market conditions, in the same way as we agreed at the trilateral level when we signed the winter package," he said.

Yatseniuk said the price of natural gas on the European markets in the summer may reach $250-300 per 1,000 cubic meters with regard for the fall in the oil prices.

Yatseniuk pointed out that Ukraine has recently managed to considerably diversify its natural gas sources, adding that the country's dependence on Russian natural gas reached 95% a year ago.