Ukraine rejects Russian gas deal

MOSCOW -- Ukraine rejected Russia's late offer to delay briefly a crippling increase in natural gas prices late yesterday, opening the possibility that Moscow could turn off the fuel as early as today.

Both sides had hovered near a compromise for much of the week. But it was not clear whether Russia would follow through with its threat to stop the flow of the heating fuel in the depths of winter, or whether the state would make good on President Vladimir V. Putin's offer earlier in the day to hold off on a price increase until April.

Ukraine has reportedly refused to agree to Russia's demand that it pay ''market prices" for natural gas after that date.

In Ukraine, Russia's demands that it pay the higher rates are widely seen as a response to the Orange Revolution that a little more than a year ago toppled the country's pro-Russian government and ushered in President Viktor Yushchenko, whose leanings are toward the free-market economics of the West.

''Russia's firm position that Ukraine should buy gas at European prices is certainly a reaction to the new political course Ukraine is pursuing now," a Socialist Party parliamentary deputy, Mikola Rudkovsky, said in a telephone interview from Kiev, the Ukrainian capital.

The dispute might also ripple through Europe, which depends on Ukrainian pipelines for transit shipment of about 30 percent of its natural gas needs. Russia has insisted that the flow to Europe would not be interrupted, even if the supply to Ukraine was cut off.

Early today, officials at Gazprom, Russia's state-controlled gas giant, signaled a hard line. Gazprom announced that the government of Ukraine had declined Russia's offer to postpone the dispute, and said that the company's earlier threat to cut off supplies at 10 a.m. today remained in effect.