KIEV, April 2 - Ukraine’s new government fully backs project of building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in order to diversify the country’s energy imports away from Russia, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said Wednesday.

The $1-billion project was originally suggested in 2010 and pushed for by the previous government, but Yatseniuk, appointed as the prime minister on February 27, said the project will get his full support.

“The previous government tried to build LNG-terminal. We have not abandoned the idea,” Yatseniuk said at a conference in Kiev. “We support this project.”