Ukraine: Can't pay for Russian gas

Ukraine, says it's unable to pay for natural gas imported from Russia in October, and will try to raise funds from other sources. The announcement comes a day after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin urged the European Union to help Ukraine pay for natural gas supplies from Russia and avoid another disruption of fuel flows to Europe.

In Kiev, a Ukraine official says Ukraine's state-owned natural gas company, Naftogaz, did not make enough money to pay for last month's imports from Russia.

Bohdan Sokolovsky, Ukrainian President's representative, said, "The Naftogas Oil Company unfortunately did not earn enough as in previous months. So today we are looking into obtaining funds from other sources."

Naftogaz has been paying its monthly gas bills on time. The next bill is due Saturday.

Putin has been warning Ukraine may not be able to meet its commitments to Russia's state-controlled gas company, Gazprom. He suggests this could lead to another cut-off.

Putin said, "We already paid Ukraine 2.5 billion dollars for transit. Let the Europeans throw in a lousy billion. Let them get something out of their pockets.