Energy-starved Ukraine gets first Russian gas since June

Energy-starved Ukraine said on Tuesday it had received the first Russian natural gas shipments since a politically charged price dispute saw Moscow cut off its Westward-leaning neighbour in June.
The resumption of gas flows means the war-scarred nation of 45 million people should have enough supplies to heat homes through the bitter winter months.
Ukraine was forced to delay school openings by a month and postpone the launch of winter household heating due to fast-depleting fuel reserves.
Western allies and global markets hope an interim solution to the two sides' longest-ever gas dispute bodes well for peace returning to the outer edge of the European Union's eastern frontier.
"Imports from Russia began two days earlier than planned," Ukraine's gas transport company Ukrtransgaz said in a statement.
The former Soviet republic received nearly half its gas from Russia prior to a February revolution that ousted a Moscow-backed leadership and saw its successors strike a landmark EU partnership pact.
The dramatic political shift out of Russia's orbit prompted Moscow to cancel the special rates it had offered Ukraine's more compliant rulers.
Kiev called the near doubling of its gas bill a form of "economic aggression" and refused to pay up.
Months of EU-led negotiations made no progress and Russia halted the flow of gas meant for Ukraine -- but not its other European clients -- on June 16.
EU mediations ultimately produced a six-month deal at the end of October that requires Ukraine to pay Russia $3.1 billion by the end of the year to cover past debts.
Ukraine separately agreed to pay up to $1.5 billion for slightly discounted winter deliveries from funds made available by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
The country's state energy company Naftogaz transferred a payment of $378 million to its Russian counterpart Gazprom on Friday for the delivery of about one billion cubic metres of gas this month.
- IMF to the rescue -
Ukraine was dealt more good news on Tuesday with the arrival of an International Monetary Fund team that will determine if Kiev was paring down its bloated Soviet-era social benefits system enough to merit the release of new emergency loans.
The Fund helped piece together a $27-billion global Ukrainian rescue package -- contributing $17.1 billion of its own funds over two years -- just weeks after the historic change in Kiev leadership.
But it has since warned that the effectively bankrupt country may need at least $19 billion more in international aid should its war against pro-Russian insurgents rage across the industrial east through the end of next year.
Economists believe that Ukraine -- its hard currency and gold reserves dipping bellow $10 billion for the first time in nearly a decade -- was facing an inevitable default on its foreign debt and an even more dramatic fall in output in the coming months.
"On the economics alone, we think default looks almost inevitable," Capital Economic consultancy said in a research note.
The London-based consultancy estimated that monthly repayments on the public sector's foreign currency debt would average $500 million a month over the coming year.
It added that Russia has the right to demand the early repayment of a $3-billion bond it issued the ousted government last year should Ukraine's debt-to-GDP ratio reach more than 60 percent -- a condition the consultancy said is probably already in effect.
"But the picture is complicated by politics," Capital Economics added. "The US, EU and IMF are unlikely to allow Ukraine to have a messy default."
Analysts believe that Kiev's Western backers and lenders were especially cheered by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's decision to appoint as finance minister a US investment banker who once worked in the State Department.
The Chicago native Natalie Jaresko will work alongside new Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius -- a Lithuanian private equity firm director whose business is focused on frontier markets such as Ukraine.
Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk "were clearly taking into account that the new ministers will have to work closely with our foreign partners," said Razumkov Centre economist Vasiliy Yurchyshyn.
"I expect a positive outcome from this visit. The amount of aid will be increased -- not right away, but soon enough," said the Kiev-based analyst.