Ukraine has estimated that Russia, after capturing important fields on the Black Sea shelf, has caused $40 billion worth of damage to the country.

Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Yuriy Prodan said this in an interview with EurActiv.

"Russian aggression in Crimea has caused significant damage. We have lost important areas on the Black Sea shelf. We estimate the losses at $40 billion as possible revenues from extraction of shale gas in Crimea," he said.

Prodan also recalled that Ukraine had signed two contracts for the exploration of shale gas with Shell and Chevron. He said Kyiv hoped that the work in this direction would be accelerated and expected the first results within three years.

Ukrinform