KIEV, July 9 (RAPSI) - The High Administrative Court of Ukraine has dismissed the lawsuit against Viktor Yushchenko filed by lawyer Stanislav Batryn to recognize the former president's actions during the gas conflict with Russia in late 2008 and early 2009 as unlawful, Lions Litigate law firm reports.

"The court claims that the plaintiff has missed the six-month time limit for filing charges," the law firm headed by Batryn said.

Batryn filed the lawsuit in June. Earlier, he appealed to the government and the State Property Fund to invalidate the gas supply contracts signed by Naftogaz and Gazprom on January 19, 2009. The Kiev District Administrative Court opened proceedings in the case in April.

Ukraine and Russia were negotiating gas supplies to Kiev and gas transit to Europe via Ukraine in late December 2008, but failed to come to an agreement. Naftogaz head Oleh Dubyna walked out of the talks.

A "gas conflict" began in January 2009, when Russia suspended gas supplies to Ukraine due to the absence of a new contract, and subsequently also stopped gas transit to Europe.

The conflict ended with the signing of contracts on January 19, 2009 in Moscow.

In October 2011, a Kiev district court sentenced former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for abuse of power in signing gas contracts between Naftogaz and Gazprom in 2009.

According to the court, she issued her own instructions to Dubyna, which differed from the government's. The Naftogaz head said in the court that he would not have signed the contract had he known that he was not acting on the cabinet's instructions.

Tymoshenko's lawyers pointed to contradictions in Yushchenko's and Dubyna's testimonies. In particular, Yushchenko said he had not recalled the Naftogaz delegation from the Moscow gas talks in late 2008, whereas Dubyna said that he did.