Russia agrees to EU-Ukraine gas talks on October 21

Russia on Friday agreed to take part in a fresh round of gas talks with the EU and Ukraine in Berlin on October 21 aimed at settling a dispute over gas deliveries.

"The Russian side accepted the date for the three-way negotiations on ensuring the security of gas transits through the territory of Ukraine," the energy ministry said in a statement.

The European Union on Thursday called for fresh talks with Russia and Ukraine to settle their ongoing dispute over gas deliveries.

European officials have been anxious to resume three-way talks with the two countries over gas since Russia cut off shipments to Ukraine in June and threatened to block the EU from gas supplies if countries deliver gas to Ukraine.

Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan has said that Kiev is also fine with holding the meeting.

This is the first agreement by all sides to meet for another round of talks after a meeting in Brussels was postponed at the last-minute last week.

That sit-down with ministers from Kiev and Moscow was due to have been hosted by the European Union's energy commissioner in the Belgian capital last week and follow the last round of talks in Berlin on September 26.

Russia nearly doubled Ukraine's gas price a few weeks after the February ouster in Kiev of a Kremlin-backed president who had earlier rejected a historic EU association pact.

The Russian state gas giant Gazprom cut deliveries to its western neighbour in mid-June after Kiev refused to pay the higher rate, and all European mediation efforts since have failed.

Russia natural gas accounted for slightly over a quarter of the total amount consumed in the EU last year, with about half of that flowing via pipelines through Ukraine.