Vladimir Putin is using winter as a weapon, says Ukraine prime minister

Ukraine PM Arseny Yatseniuk says Russia's government wants his country "to freeze" after cutting gas supplies

Ukraine's PM said a plan to help Ukraine secure more gas "would be helpful for us"

Ukraine's prime minister has accused Russia of letting Ukraine freeze by using its critical gas supplies as a weapon in their ongoing conflict.

Vladimir Putin's government has already warned of a "high risk" that gas deliveries to its neighbour will be disrupted this winter, when temperatures can fall to -12 degrees Celsius, while state-controlled Gazprom cut off supplies in June.

Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Ukraine PM Arseny Yatseniuk said the moves are simply military action by another means.

"They want us to freeze. This is the aim and this is another trump card in Russian hands. So, except military offense, except military operation against Ukraine, they have another trump card, which is energy," he said.

"The ultimate goal of Russia is to organise, to orchestrate another frozen conflict in Ukraine."

Russia has pulled much of its military out of Ukraine in recent weeks, with Ukraine president Petro Poroshenko claiming that "the main and most dangerous part of the war is behind" after he called a ceasfire on September 5.

However, his prime minister fears Russia has now turned to using its huge energy resources as a weapon.

Gazprom cut its gas deliveries to Ukraine in June amid a dispute over prices that the Kremlin claimed had racked up a $5.3bn (£3.2bn) debt for Ukraine. This has raised fears that Ukraine will not have enough gas to cover the peak winter period.

^{Many countries rely on Gazprom, Russia's state energy company, for their gas imports (Source: Morgan Stanley, Gazprom)}

The European Commission brokered an apparent interim solution to the row at talks in Berlin on Friday. Gazprom would send Ukraine 5bn cubic metres of gas if Ukraine pays it €3.1bn by the end of the year. Further talks to end the stalemate are scheduled for next week.

Mr Yatseniuk told Reuters that a plan to help Ukraine secure more gas "would be helpful for us".

Ratings agency Fitch said last month that Europe will remain heavilyreliant on Russian gas for at least another decade.

A lack of alternative sources meant policymakers would have no choice but to continue buying gas from Russia until at least the mid-2020s and "potentially much longer", Fitch claimed.

Europe already buys a quarter of its gas from Russia, and analysts expect consumption to increase by a third by 2030 as economies recover from the debt crisis and gas-fired electricity generation replaces old coal and nuclear power.

Ukraine's gas supply issues worsened on Thursday after Hungary's gas pipeline network operator FGSZ said it was indefinitely suspending gas supplies to the country for technical reasons, a move branded "unexpected and unexplained" by Ukraine state-owned gas firm Naftogaz.

Ukraine has been fighting an insurgency since armed separatists seized police stations and local government buildings in several eastern towns in April, sparking a bitter conflict that has claimed more than 3,500 lives.

Despite Mr Poroshenko seeking a meeting with Mr Putin in a bid to move towards a permanent solution to the conflict, no date has yet been set.

If a peace deal is agreed, it will leave the separatists in control of large swathes of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where they have said they want to set up a breakaway state called Novorossia.

By Andrew Trotman