Roman Bessmertniy

Deputy Head of the Presidential Secretariat Roman Bezsmertny, in the background, at a meeting with regional governors in Kyiv, Ukraine, January 12, 2009. Roman Bezsmertny said that the current situation with gas supply remains "rather difficult," but "it should not be dramatized." He noted that the largest industrial companies in Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions had managed to stabilize the situation and that the control of payments for energy resources is a problem that should be immediately resolved, because gas supply debts "are sharply growing." Bezsmertny also said that local authorities and local government bodies should do all they can to keep the population warm. Photo by Mikhail Markiv / POOL / UNIAN