DHAKA: Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko has confirmed that an agreement has been reached with Russia on a provisional price for gas deliveries during the coming winter months.

Poroshenko said the deal was agreed at talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Milan on Friday, and he hoped it would finally end the gas dispute between the two countries.

He added that he hoped the solution would be finalized before October 21, ahead of scheduled talks in Brussels, reports Aljazeera on Sunday.

“On the basis of consultations, I can say that Ukraine will have the gas, will have heating,” Poroshenko said in an interview broadcast on Ukrainian television late on Saturday.

Progress towards settling the gas row has raised hopes of an EU-backed resolution of the broader conflict embroiling Moscow and Kiev over the border dispute that is wracking eastern Ukraine.

Gazprom cut deliveries to Ukraine in June after Kiev disputed a price increase set by Moscow.

But Poroshenko said that a price had now been agreed by both sides and that Russia had ‘accepted’ the Ukrainian position.

The agreed price will be $385 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres, Poroshenko said, down from the current price of $485.

Poroshenko met Putin three times in the space of 10 hours in Milan on Friday, twice in the company of various European Union leaders then, finally, in their first private meeting since late August.

BDST: 1747 HRS, OCT 19, 2014