With the Russian gas supply to Ukraine now halted, the EU is considering ways to replenish Kiev with imports from neighbouring Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.
Moscow is strongly opposed to so-called "reverse flows", but the European Commission on Tuesday said the process was perfectly legal.
"The option of the reverse flows ... is legally perfectly sound," said the EU's Energy Commission spokeswoman Sabine Berger.
Comment: Of course this is what the European Commission would say. It appears that there is no allowance in the existing contracts for reverse gas flows. See: Ukraine seeks to fill 'gas gap' with illegal reverse flows
"There are possibilities (for Ukraine) to buy gas from European companies," she said.
Ever since the Ukraine-Russia gas feud erupted earlier this year, Gazprom has cast doubt on the legality of European companies, who are locked into their own Gazprom contracts, pumping gas back into Ukraine.
European energy groups "do not have the right to do that," Miller said again on Monday.
A Ukrainian delegation set out for Budapest on Tuesday to confirm support for "reverse flows", with Kiev confident it can win a cheaper price than what Russia is willing to offer.
Weeks of acrimonious debt and price negotiations broke up on Monday with Russia walking away from a compromise solution proposed in Kiev by the European Union's energy commissioner.
Ukraine receives half its gas from Russia and transports 15 percent of the fuel consumed in Europe -- a dependence that has not diminished despite similar supply disruptions in 2006 and 2009.
The reverse flow option did not exist at the time and was developed as a way to reduce the impact of any new cut-off from Russia.
The EU also said Tuesday that 500 million euros ($680 million), part of a 1.6 billion euro aid package, had been disbursed to Kiev, the proceeds of which could pay for the reverse flows.
Comment: And why not just pay of their very real, current debt to Russia?
Amid the gas dispute, the European Commission also said Russia's President Vladimir Putin had accepted a proposal for talks on the impact on Russia of a planned EU-Ukraine association accord.
Putin bitterly opposes the association accord which Ukraine's pro-Russian former president Viktor Yanukovych ditched in November, setting off the current crisis, and called for talks with both Brussels and Kiev to discuss its impact on Russia.
"We are working at many levels to alleviate concerns," said European Commission spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde-Hansen, adding that officials from Moscow and Brussels had just held technical talks on the impact of the agreement on the Russian economy.
Source: AFP
I will be laughing when Russia shows that all of this is illegal and stops the flow of gas to the whole EU. (Yeah, not gonna happen, but it would be priceless.)
"The EU is exploring alternative gas sources for Ukraine"
The EU should be exploring how to convince Poroshenko to stop being an idiot.
And what will be the price for the gas? It seems that Porosh would only accept a price lower than the EU pays. So the EU is going to sell him gas for less than they buy it? Is anybody in Europe thinking? The EU seems too willing to engage in suicidal policies just because the US wants it.