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OAO Gazprom (OGZD), Russias natural-gas exporter, sent Ukraine a bill for an estimated $1.7 billion of imports next month, saying it will cut off supplies if the neighboring country doesnt start paying in advance.

Ukraines June bill was based on average deliveries of 114 million cubic meters a day, at the second-quarter price of $485 per 1,000 cubic meters, Sergei Kupriyanov, a spokesman for Gazprom in Moscow, said today.

Payment is due by June 2, and starting from the following day, Ukraine will only get what it pays for, Kupriyanov said.

Russia is to stop to use natural gas as a new type of Russian weapon, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said today in Brussels. We are ready for the market-based approach.

Ukraine depends on Russia for about half its gas, making energy a battleground in the wider struggle between the two countries. Because 15 percent of the European Unions gas passes through the Ukrainian pipeline network, a cutoff could disrupt shipments to the rest of the region.

A Snapshot of Ukraine's Past and Future

Gazproms demands are a premature signal, Vygaudas Usackas, head of the EU delegation to Russia, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television today. The EU is eager to work with Russia to calm the Ukraine crisis, he said.

Russias relations with the U.S. and EU have sunk to the lowest since the fall of the Iron Curtain. They have backed the Ukrainian government in accusing Russia of fomenting unrest in the country before a presidential election on May 25.

Ukraine has the ability to pay off at least part of its debt after receiving the first $3.2 billion of a $17 billion International Monetary Fund aid package last week, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said yesterday. He ordered Gazprom to send Ukraine a June bill, as the company claims $3.51 billion in overdue payments for fuel delivered in 2013 and through April. NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy, the state oil and gas company, doesnt recognize the full debt.

Ukraine has been boosting imports of Russian gas since April 17, the day Russian President Vladimir Putin first warned of the impending move to prepayments and possible disruptions in fuel supplies to Europe.

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Ukraine Boosts Russian Gas Imports as Gazprom Deadline Looms