EU, Russian and Ukrainian officials are meeting in Brussels with the view to striking a gas deal for Ukraine.<br /><br />Moscow and Kiev have been locked in a bitter row over unpaid bills since June.<br /><br />Brussels wants the taps to stay open and avoid disrupting supplies as winter approaches.<br /><br />“Our common ambition is to come to an interim solution, to come to a winter package, to solve our security of supply challenges for next winter… from now up to end of march 2015,” said Günther Oettinger, the EU Energy Commissioner.<br /><br />Russia shut off supplies to Ukraine in 2006 and 2009 over disputed gas debts.<br /><br />Now the country is bracing itself for another energy war.<br /><br />Some schools in Kiev say term times will be cut short if they cannot heat their premises.<br /><br />Russia provides one third of Europe’s gas, of which one half is shipped via Ukraine.<br /><br />The stakes are also high for Russia; its economy is already feeling the strain of Western sanctions.<br /><br />The gas sector amounts to nearly a fifth of the country’s GDP.
