BRUSSELS, May 23 – A senior European Commission official urged Ukraine and Russia for a new round of talks over natural gas issues to prevent any escalations in the future.

Maros Sefcovic, the Vice President for Energy Union at the European Commission, said the EC is ready to host the talks.

"Constructive and stable co-operation between Russia and Ukraine in the field of energy is of utmost importance for the European Union. In this context, I have always underlined the need for a continued, long-term transit of Russian gas through Ukraine to the EU in a reliable and commercially viable way. Therefore, I have reached out to both, Ukrainian and Russian partners, and invited them for trilateral talks which in the past, proved to be effective in reaching tangible, successful results," Sefcovic said in a statement spread on Wednesday in Brussels.