Ukraine is halting transit of gas through Luhansk, one of its contested eastern regions, gas network operator OGTSU’s data showed on Wednesday as Russian bombardment of the country continues.

Ukraine had announced the halt for Wednesday, which could have a knock-on effect on gas supplies in Europe.

Ukraine was only accepting orders for gas passing through the Soyuz pipeline from Russian energy giant, Gazprom, which was being pumped through a station on Russian territory.

Operator OGTSU’s data showed this on Wednesday morning, and Russian news agencies  reported on the data.

Ukraine did not initially confirm the partial transit stop.

The data showed that 72 million cubic metres of Russian gas are due to transit through Ukraine on Wednesday, down from the level of more than 88 million cubic metres the previous day.

On Tuesday, Ukraine said it would have to stop the transit of Russian gas in Luhansk due to the war, a step that translates to a daily reduction of 32.6 million cubic metres of gas.

There is almost a third of the maximum daily volume that can be transported to Europe through Ukraine.

Russia’s occupation of the region made it impossible to access a node at Sokhranovka and the Novopskov compressor station.

The operator described this as a case of force majeure.

Gazprom, however, said it had not received “any confirmation of force majeure circumstances,’’ adding that Ukrainians had been working at Sokhranovka without disturbance in recent weeks.

Ukraine has repeatedly called for tougher measures against Moscow but gas supplies are a concern for many European countries, which seek to punish Russia economically but lack an alternative to the gas Russia supplies. 

(dpa/NAN)