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Ukraine said on Tuesday that it will suspend the flow of gas through a transit point which it said delivers almost a third of the fuel piped from Russia to Europe.
Officials said the gas would be directed elsewhere and blamed Russia for the situation.
Even after Russia’s invasion of the country, Ukraine has remained a major transit route for its gas to Europe.
The operator of Ukraine’s gas system, GTSOU, said it would stop shipments via the Sokhranivka route from Wednesday, declaring “force majeure”, a clause invoked when a business is affected by something beyond its control.
The company said it could not operate at the Novopskov gas compressor station due to “the interference of the occupying forces in technical processes”.
To fulfil its “transit obligations to European partners in full”, it said it could "temporarily transfer unavailable capacity" to the Sudzha physical interconnection point located farther to the west in territory controlled by Ukraine.
But Gazprom, which holds a monopoly on Russian pipeline gas exports, said it was “technologically impossible” to shift all volumes to the Sudzha interconnection point.
GTSOU chief executive Sergiy Makogon told Reuters that Russian forces had begun commandeering gas transiting through Ukraine and sending it to two Russia-backed separatist regions in the country's east, though he did not cite evidence to support his claims.
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An injured Ukrainian service member sits at a field hospital inside Azovstal steel works in Mariupol, Ukraine. Reuters -
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a meeting in Kyiv with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra. Reuters -
Ukrainian servicemen study a Swedish shoulder-launched weapon system during a training session near Kharkiv. AP Photo -
Russian emergency personnel clear debris inside Mariupol's drama theatre. AFP -
Ukrainian servicemen study a map near Kharkiv. EPA -
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends an online meeting with the Saratov region's acting governor, Roman Busargin, in Moscow. AP -
Belgian soldiers take part in a Nato military exercise near Munster, Germany. Getty -
Ukraine's prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova, left, speaks with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, right, during her visit to mass graves in Bucha, Ukraine. EPA -
A guard of honour stands at attention during the funerals of Sgt Olexandr Moisenko and Sergiy Turpetko in Lviv, Ukraine. Getty -
Plumes of smoke rise above the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol amid Russian shelling. AFP -
US President Joe Biden signs into law a measure making it easier for Washington to send weapons and supplies to the government in Kyiv. Bloomberg -
A Ukrainian soldier fires with a mortar, in the Kharkiv region. Reuters -
The Eiffel Tower is lit up in blue and yellow, the national colours of Ukraine, to express solidarity with its people at the request of the French Presidency of the EU, in Paris. Reuters -
A Ukrainian Army tank drives over an infantryman during a training exercise near Kryvyi Rih. Getty Images -
A Ukrainian soldier rests in his room at a front-line field hospital near Popasna, Luhansk region. EPA -
Russian President Vladimir Putin lays flowers at the Memorial to Hero Cities at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier after the Victory Day military parade in Moscow. EPA -
Ukrainian refugees from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol are seen in a bus as they arrive at a humanitarian aid centre for internally displaced people, in Zaporizhzhia. Reuters -
A hotel complex destroyed by a Russian missile is pictured in Odesa, Ukraine. Reuters -
Maksym, 3, is photographed with his brother, Dmytro, 16, on top of a destroyed Russian tank on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine. AP Photo -
A video of a press conference from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol by Azov regiment servicemen Illia Samoilenko, right, and Sviatoslav Palamar, seen on a computer screen in Kyiv. EPA -
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy take part in a online meeting of G7 leaders in Kyiv. Reuters -
US first lady Jill Biden greets Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, outside a public school in Uzhhorod, Ukraine. Reuters -
Irish singer and activist Bono, the lead vocalist of rock band U2, performs at a subway station that has been turned into a bomb shelter in Kyiv. AFP -
A boy looks out of a bus window as people evacuated from Mariupol arrive in Zaporizhzhia. AFP -
A night-vision image shows fire on Ukraine's Zmiinyi Island. Reuters -
Women sing the Ukrainian national anthem below the Euro Monument during a demonstration in Frankfurt, Germany. AP -
Emergency personnel at a school building hit by shelling, in the village of Bilohorivka, Luhansk. Reuters -
A man plays piano in an abandoned photo studio in Severodonetsk, eastern Ukraine. AFP -
A man and his son wait for an evacuation bus in Lysychansk, eastern Ukraine. AFP -
Volunteers deliver food supplies to residents, taken from the warehouse of a humanitarian aid distribution centre in Severodonetsk. AFP -
An unexploded ordnance on a road in Severodonetsk. AFP -
Galina Abdurashikova, 65, has been staying in an abondoned car in front of her apartment since her room was destroyed by shelling five days ago, in Severodonetsk. AFP -
A large hole at the site where a missile strike hit a residential area in Bakhmut, Donetsk region. Reuters -
A man searches for useful items inside his house after a missile strike in a residential area, in Bakhmut. Reuters -
Two men look at the damage after a missile struck a cement plant, in Bakhmut. Reuters -
Civilians attempting to leave Mariupol wait in line at a checkpoint near the temporary accommodation centre in Bezimenoye village. EPA -
Civilians who were evacuated from Azovstal, walk in the temporary accommodation centre in Bezimenoye village, near Mariupol. EPA -
A cyclist photographs the destroyed bridge over the Irpin river, in Irpin. Getty Images -
A residential area destroyed by Russian shelling, in Irpin. Reuters -
People with their luggage walk to a station to wait for the evacuation train heading to the west of Ukraine, in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region. EPA -
A volunteer shapes metal plates at a factory producing material for Ukrainian soldiers in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. AP -
Workers clean shattered glass and debris in front of a residential building next to a site of a Russian missile attack in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa. AFP -
A Ukrainian Army tank moves towards a fron-tline position in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Getty Images -
Eugene Yevchenko cries as he bids farewell to his daughter Maria at a coach station in Lviv. Getty Images -
A child stands on a destroyed Russian tank near Makariv, Kyiv region. Reuters -
A Ukrainian national guard soldier mans a fighting position near the front line in Zelenodolsk. Getty Images -
Museum workers carry the sculpture of Ukrainian philosopher Hryhorri Skovoroda from the destroyed building of the Hryhoriy Skovoroda National Literary Memorial Museum in the village of Skovorodynivka, in Kharkiv Region. AFP
Ukraine's suspension of Russian natural gas flows through the Sokhranivka route should not have an impact on the domestic Ukrainian market, state energy firm Naftogaz head Yuriy Vitrenko told Reuters.
The state gas company in Moldova, a small nation on Ukraine's western border, said it had not received any notice from GTSOU or Gazprom that supplies would be interrupted.
The Novopskov compressor station in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine was occupied by Russian forces and separatist fighters soon after Moscow began what it describes as a “special military operation” on February 24.
It is the first compressor in the Ukrainian gas transit system in the Luhansk region and the transit route for about 32.6 million cubic metres of gas a day — a third of the Russian gas that is piped to Europe through Ukraine, GTSOU said.
Gazprom said it had received notification from Ukraine that the country would stop the transit of gas to Europe via the Sokhranivka interconnector from 0700 local time on Wednesday.
The Russian company said it had seen no proof of force majeure or obstacles to continuing as before. Gazprom added that it was meeting all obligations to buyers of gas in Europe.
The US has urged countries to decrease their dependence on Russian energy and has banned oil and other energy imports from Russia in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said that Tuesday's announcement does not change the drive to decrease global dependence on Russian oil “as soon as possible”.
