By America Hernandez

LONDON, Feb 25 - Private Ukrainian gas company DTEK hopes to sign long-term gas import deals with U.S. firms Venture Global or Cheniere next month to supply the country and neighbours Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, its chief executive told Reuters on Tuesday.

Maxim Timchenko said DTEK's trading arm is looking to sign a 10-20-year LNG deal, with the gas first being imported into Ukrainian storage facilities and then piped westward.

"It's an active discussion of our trading arm -- another round of discussions and meetings will be taking place at (the) CERAWeek (conference) in Houston, so they will be speaking not only to Venture Global but to other big LNG suppliers. Cheniere, for example," the CEO said.

DTEK is also in discussions to offtake Qatari LNG, Timchenko added.

Ukraine has been a net importer of natural gas from EU countries as its gas production and storage facilities come under heavy fire by Russian forces.

Timchenko said the country will likely import 1-2 billion cubic meters from Europe this year, and acknowledged that Russian attacks on Ukrainian gas storage infrastructure threaten the business case for importing and reselling U.S. LNG.

When asked if DTEK was concerned about Venture Global's ability to reliably supply cargoes given legal challenges over long-term contracts with major companies, Timchenko said "all parties honored obligations" for a first cargo Venture Global delivered in December on what could become an initial two-year agreement for between six and 12 LNG cargoes.

(Reporting by America Hernandez in London; Editing by Sharon Singleton)

((america.hernandez@thomsonreuters.com; +33623014155))