President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen invited Ukraine to take part in the system of joint gas purchases.

"We are inviting Ukraine to our Energy Platform for joint purchasing of gas. We want to make best use of our joint market power," she said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Thursday.

In turn, Energy Minister Herman Haluschenko at a joint meeting of the government of Ukraine and the EC confirmed Kyiv's interest not only in joint purchases of gas, but also in the provision of Ukrainian underground storage facilities (UGS) for the creation of strategic reserves by the EU countries.

"We are interested in active participation in joint purchases of gas and the creation of a reserve volume in our storage facilities," he said.

As reported, the EC intends in early spring to publish the volume of gas that European countries plan to jointly purchase in order to receive proposals from suppliers. The minimum volume of joint gas purchases is preliminarily estimated at 13.5 billion cubic meters.