Ukraine prime minister warns of natural gas shutoff

Ukraine’s prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, warned that the country should ready itself for Russia to cut off its natural gas supplies, after pushing back against the energy monopoly Gazprom’s price hike.

Gazprom raised Ukraine’s natural gas bill by 81 percent last week, which Yatsenyuk called a form of “economic aggression” during a Cabinet meeting on Saturday, The Wall Street Journal reports.

{mosads}Yatsenyuk added that Kiev would not recognize Moscow’s price increase and is prepared to challenge it in international arbitrage court.

The conflict comes on the heels of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. While Ukraine is dependent on Gazprom’s natural gas, the energy giant relies on Ukraine’s pipeline to deliver its gas to Europe.

As the feud escalates, lawmakers in the U.S. will consider a bill in the House on Wednesday that would allow for the expedited approval of liquefied natural gas exports to allies.

A House Energy and Commerce subpanel will vote on the the bill proposed by Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), which would also clear the export applications currently pending at the Energy Department.