Kiev has paid the first tranche of its debt to Russia's Gazprom, fulfilling the terms of a gas deal in order to get Moscow to resume deliveries to the former Soviet state, Ukraine's energy company Naftogaz said Tuesday.
The state-owned energy group "Naftogaz has transferred to Gazprom the first tranche of 1.45 billion dollars in debt", it said in a statement. Under the agreement, the full amount of $3.1 billion must be repaid by the end of the year in order to keep gas flowing in 2015.