Crisis-hit Ukraine has won a vital reprieve from Russia when Moscow pushed back a possible cut in gas shipments, which would also impact parts of Europe, until next week.
Russia's surprise decision on Monday came hours before the two sides were to lock horns in Brussels over a price dispute that emerged when Moscow cancelled the discounts it awarded the pro-Kremlin regime which was ousted in February street protests.
Moscow had threatened to halt all shipments to Ukraine - a vital gas transit nation - from Wednesday in a repetition of interruptions that also hurt swathes of Europe in 2006 and 2009.
Ukraine was due to receive another vital boost as it battles a bloody separatist insurgency along its Russian border with a visit to Kiev by US Assistant Secretary of Defence Derek Chollet.
But the seven-week campaign continued unabated when pro-Russian gunmen wounded several Ukrainian border guards in the eastern rust belt district of Lugansk in an overnight raid.
Russia's state-run gas giant Gazprom - long accused of acting as the Kremlin's political enforcer against neighbours seeking closer ties to the West - said it "welcomed" Ukraine's decision to transfer a $US786 million ($A850.42 million) payment to partially cover its debts.
"We welcome Ukraine starting to pay back its debt and postpone the pre-payment regime until June 9," Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller said in a statement."
Ukraine branded Gazprom's decision to nearly double its gas price a form of "economic aggression" and baulked at Russia's demand for advance payments for deliveries starting in June.
Gazprom had said it would halt all shipments to Ukraine unless it paid for June deliveries by Monday night.
Russian gas transits through Ukraine to supply about 15 per cent of European needs and a top European Union envoy is now urgently seeking a compromise that could save 18 member states from seeing their deliveries start dwindling this week.
Gazprom hinted on Monday that it might delay the gas supply cut even further if Ukraine starts making partial payments for April and May deliveries.
Ukraine's Naftogaz state energy company for its part said that it had sent Gazprom an additional agreement to their disputed 2009 contract that stipulates a lower gas price.
"The additional agreement provides for changes to (2009) contract conditions where they concern the price," Naftogaz said in a statement.
Gazprom says it is ready to discuss a lower price and analysts believe that a compromise is in sight because Russia would prefer to avoid complicating its relations with Europe still further.
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