Gazprom Deputy Chief Executive Alexander Medvedev spoke to journalists in Paris:

• Alexander Medvedev stated that Ukraine was stealing 50 million cubic meters of gas and withholding deliveries to Hungary, Poland and Romania. Medvedev also said that Ukraine was siphoning off gas from the transit pipeline to Europe and from underground storage.

• Medvedev also noted that Gazprom has delivered gas through alternative routes, using the Yamal-Europe pipeline through Belarus and Poland and by tapping into underground storage tanks, to meet demand from Western Europe. "Our customers currently under our contracts don't feel any non-deliveries. We are doing it in order that our customers will not suffer, but it is not easy in the current circumstances because winter in Europe is getting colder," he said.

• He also confirmed that Gazprom plans to file a suit in the coming days with a Stockholm arbitration body accusing Ukraine of violating a contract for the transit of gas to Europe.

• "We expressed [to European governments] the opinion that the government of the states that are facing a shortage of supplies due to the policy of Ukraine, they should use all legal means ... to force Ukraine to conform to its contractual obligations," he said.

• "The overall volume of... better to say it in black and white -- stolen gas -- is 50 million cubic meters. It's a substantial amount," Medvedev said.