The EU is prepared to provide Ukraine with funding to buy gas to get it through the winter, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters following a meeting with European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic.

Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said the EU might provide Ukraine with $500 million. "That would give Ukraine the opportunity to pump another 2 billion cubic meters of gas" into underground storage, he said.

But that would "still not be enough to form the necessary stocks of 19 bcm," Miller said